A DILEMMA TO CONSIDER

DAY 112

Acts 6:2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.

The background to today’s text is a concern raised among the disciples that a particular group of people were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. The Apostles therefore called an assembly to clarify things. In this gathering, two words underly the proposition they put forward: ‘could and should’.

Some other versions of scripture presents the text as: ‘we should not neglect the ministry of the word to serve tables’. Thus, not that they couldn’t, but that they shouldn’t. ‘Should’ and ‘could’ are words that seem interchangeable, but I often ask this question ‘just because you can do something, does it mean you should do it?’

This is not to suggest an end to continued obedience to God or to cease doing good, even that has to be done with discernment. Whenever we face a dilemma as such, where we ponder on what we should or could do, the real question at play is an understanding of our purpose and assignment, to ascertain the contribution of the said action towards that picture.

On a chess board, there are many possible move orders that are playable, but not all are necessarily good options. ‘It’s therefore not everything you could do, that you should do.

#sly