Read with Me
1 Timothy 5:9-16 (HCSB)
No widow should be placed on the official support list unless she is at least 60 years old, has been the wife of one husband, and is well known for good works—that is, if she has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the saints’ feet, helped the afflicted, and devoted herself to every good work. But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when they are drawn away from Christ by desire, they want to marry and will therefore receive condemnation because they have renounced their original pledge. At the same time, they also learn to be idle, going from house to house; they are not only idle, but are also gossips and busybodies, saying things they shouldn’t say. Therefore, I want younger women to marry, have children, manage their households, and give the adversary no opportunity to accuse us. For some have already turned away to follow Satan. If any believing woman has widows in her family, she should help them, and the church should not be burdened, so that it can help those who are genuinely widows.
Listen with Me
Paul continues his instructions to Timothy regarding needy people in the Church, specifically widows. He has already stated that able bodied people were not to be supported by the Church, nor were widows who had family members who could support them. Now he gives further details about who should and should not receive support from the Church’s limited resources.
First, only those widows over sixty years of age were allowed to be supported by the Church. Paul’s experience had shown him that widows younger than that, despite having made an oath to devote the rest of their lives to the Lord’s service, were very likely to break that vow and decide to marry again when the opportunity arose.
This was more complicated than merely changing one’s mind, which anyone is free to do. Instead, they were breaking a vow they had made to the Lord, which is a sin. Rather than allowing a younger widow to commit themselves and their future by permitting them to make such a vow, Paul’s instruction was at the younger widows should remarry and build a new family in which they can work and be provided for.
The older widows, in order to be placed on the list for support from the Church, also had to be known for their good character and for their faithful work in the Church before their need had arisen. This was a necessary instruction, because human nature, being what it is, could easily allow someone who had never had time for God and for the work of His kingdom before, to suddenly make an oath to be faithful and to work for the kingdom purely in order to receive support from the Church.
Paul knew from long experience that those kinds of oaths, made with those motives, were also quickly broken. And this would bring condemnation on the lives of those who made them. Character is not created by commitment, but by what is in the heart. And unless that kind of heart commitment has been demonstrated before the need is experienced, a mere declaration of future commitment won’t make it a reality.
It is important to understand that nothing in Paul’s instructions prevents help being given to such widows by individuals in the Church. Indeed, such ministry to those in need was not only encouraged but commanded by Jesus Himself. (See Matthew 25:31-46 to see the results of both obedience and disobedience in this matter.) These guidelines that Paul gives here were specifically to address those whom the Church fully supported out of its resources.
Pray with Me
Father, this is really practical stuff! Thank you for this clarification. These days the burden of helping those in need has shifted away from the individual to the Church as an organization. People give to the Church and then expect the Church to meet the needs. The average Christian feels no need to personally touch the lives of the needy. “I gave to the Church”, or “I gave to this ministry or that organization”, thus putting a thick layer between them as an individual and the needs around them. But the early Church saw that Jesus taught that compassionate ministry was to be carried out by the individual in the Church, leaving the larger organization to care only for those who had a legitimate ongoing need. Lord, help us as individuals to truly see the needs around us that you are calling us to meet ourselves, so that the Church as a whole can use the limited resources it has to meet those needs that are really within its purview, being wise and discerning so that Your resources go the furthest and accomplish the most. Amen.