The Double-Tongued Deacon
[This article is the first in a series of posts working through the qualifications of deacons]
“Deacons likewise must be dignified—not double-tongued,...” 1 Timothy 3:8
In 1 Timothy 3, Paul lists the requirements for deacons. One of those requirements - that a deacon "must be dignified - not double-tongued," is quite interesting, and perhaps a bit enigmatic. The adjective ‘double-tongued’ appears only once in Scripture. This makes a composite meaning difficult to pin down, but the fact that Paul uses it to instruct Timothy in his spiritual discernment and selection of deacons makes it something we must seek to understand for that same process. It turns out that the Holy Spirit's requirement here in 1 Timothy 3:8 is crucial to understanding the heart of diaconal ministry.
Double-Tongued / Double-Minded
It is helpful to set the term ‘double-tongued’ next to a similarly constructed term, translated ‘double-minded,’ (Gr. δίψυχος - two-spirited; double-minded, with the related terms διστάζω and διακρίνω). This term is used to describe a state of wavering opinion and wagering on outcomes. It causes internal and external vacillation.
According to James, double-mindedness is the mark of someone who cannot pray, speak or act in faith.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8)
The double-minded man cannot trust God because he is stuck on personal risk assessment, possibilities, probabilities—or with warring passions (James 4:1-8). As such he cannot receive wisdom from God, nor be made “perfect, complete and lacking nothing,” (James 1:4). Quite the opposite: he is unstable, volatile, erratic, in everything (Gr. ἀκατάστατος; James 1:8). This includes speech—James uses the same word for the tongue: it is an unstable, restless evil few can tame—precisely why James says not many should teach.
“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things,” (James 3:1-5).
Double-mindedness stands in contrast to wholeness, simplicity, and integration (Gr. ἁπλοῦς/ἁπλὀτης). Chiefly, these are qualities which are proper to God himself. However, out of his wholeness, God grants everything needed for human wholeness, completeness and integrated simplicity (James 1:5). The man who has been made whole by God has the virtue of ‘noble simplicity.’ This virtue of integration pours forth as a complete trust in Christ—in life and speech. From that wholeness flows all other virtues of mind and word. There is a selflessness, a trusting self-abandonment in the person who is made whole. The double-minded man remains fixated on calculating and controlling potential risks.
So, a double-tongued person, if the comparison to a double-mindedness holds, uses speech that is calculated to avoid personal risk. This may be duplicity, equivocation or deception. It is the opposite of sincerity, singleness, purity, truth. The man with a double tongue does not speak in a manner that demonstrates faith in God’s good providence or in God’s sovereignty and wisdom. Rather, he speaks in a way that seeks to control outcomes.
The High Standard for Deacons
Being double-tongued is not the same as lying. Paul does not say a deacon must not lie—that is a given. The command for the deacon goes deeper. It is a higher standard. This higher standard is imperative for the deacon:
because he always serves to further another person’s agenda, never his own; and,
because he has direct access to people in need, whose hearts will grow to trust him and whose lips will praise him.
Honor comes to this person. But it is an honor which he must never cash in on—in his heart for vainglory, or in his speech to get his way. The honor is always commensurate with the deacon’s simplicity of purpose and humility of heart. The moment a deacon uses his speech to exalt himself or to change the direction of the church, he has abandoned his post and is no longer worthy of the honor due his office.
The Ministry of the Deacon
A pattern of duplicitous speech directly undercuts God’s redeeming work in his church. This is especially true of deacons whose responsibility is to bring God’s wholeness to others through acts of mercy and, when called to teach, through sound doctrine. Acts of mercy and sound doctrine are never neutral tasks which the deacon may perform apart from his own wholeness. They are never done outside of him, but must flow from him, making visible and real the transformation of heart, mind and speech that comes from God. Patterns of duplicitous speech reveal that a man may not “have a good witness,” that he may not be “full of the Spirit and of wisdom,” at least not to the extent required for diaconal ministry, (Acts 6:3).
In short: the deacon is the embodiment of Christ’s humility, Christ’s loving trust in the Father, Christ’s dependence on the Spirit and Christ’s self-denying existence. All this comes out of a heart made whole, single and true. This heart is best exemplified in his speech.
