Acts 6:2

The twelve. Matthias was obviously the twelfth apostle (see on ch. 1:24-26).

Called the multitude. When the apostles heard the complaints, and realized their seriousness, they did not pause, apparently, to vindicate themselves. They acted promptly. They may have remembered the precedent set by Moses (Ex. 18:25), and like him, they resolved to delegate authority. By “the multitude of the disciples” it is not to be supposed that every individual Christian in Jerusalem and its environs had to be gathered to a meeting, but that a special meeting was called, to which all came who could, and at which the apostles presented the problem and their plan. The fund concerning whose distribution complaint had arisen, had been contributed to by many, and therefore the many were rightly consulted. From this procedure in a single central place there naturally arose the representative form of church government (AA 96).

Reason. Gr. areston, “pleasing,” conveying the idea that it was not “proper” that the apostles should spend so much of their time dealing with material and business matters.

Leave. Gr. kataleipo, “to forsake,” “to abandon.” The Greek word is an emphatic one, and suggests that much time of the apostles had been taken up in caring for the needy.

The word. The Twelve recognized their prime responsibility — to minister the word of God through preaching and teaching.

Serve tables. In the Jewish synagogues three men were appointed to care for the poor.