The last time we were together in 1st
Timothy, we began looking at 1 Timothy
5:1-16, where Paul instructed Timothy on how the gospel should shape
various relationships within the church.
We learned that the gospel radically shapes our relationships with
others in the church. Specifically in
verses 1-2, Paul explained how the gospel makes us family with those in Christ. Today, in verses 3-16, we’ll see that the
gospel also calls us to be compassionate
and discerning towards those in need. My prayer again today is that God would use
this passage to cause us to ask for grace to relate to one another in ways that
are in accordance with the gospel.
[5:3] Honor widows who are truly widows.
[4] But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to
show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents,
for this is pleasing in the sight of God. [5] She who is truly a widow,
left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and
prayers night and day, [6] but she who is self-indulgent is dead even
while she lives. [7] Command these things as well, so that they may be
without reproach. [8] But if anyone does not provide for his relatives,
and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is
worse than an unbeliever.
[9] Let
a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the
wife of one husband, [10] and having a reputation for good works: if she
has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the
saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good
work. [11] But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions
draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry [12] and so incur
condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. [13] Besides that, they
learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but
also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not. [14] So I would
have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the
adversary no occasion for slander. [15] For some have already strayed
after Satan. [16] If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let
her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for
those who are truly widows. (1
Timothy 5:1-16 ESV)
I.
A Call to Compassion (5:3)
This entire passage seems to be an unpacking of
verse 3, to “Honor widows who are truly
widows,” which is first a call to have compassion
upon those in need. To “honor” someone
means to show them respect, care, and in some cases financial support. As we will see, to “honor” widows means all
of those things in this passage.
The expectation for God’s people to have
compassion on those in need is one of the greater themes in the Bible. God instructs His people in both the Old
Testament and the New Testament to have compassion upon the needy (the widow,
the orphan, the sojourner, and the poor).
James 1:27 is a good summary:
“Religion that is pure and undefiled
before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their
affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” The reason this is such a prominent
expectation for God’s people is because showing compassion to those who are in
need is an essential expression of God’s
character and as God’s people, we are
to put Him on display to the world. Psalm 68:5 says a “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy
habitation.” Psalm 146:5-9 reads, “5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of
Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 who made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; 7 who
executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the
hungry. The
Lord sets the prisoners free; 8 the Lord
opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord
watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.”
The greatest illustration of God’s compassion for
those in need is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We were a needy, undeserving, and even ill deserving people, like the
rest of humanity. But God, in His great
love, had compassion upon us and went to the greatest lengths imaginable to
meet our need for Him. He sent His only
Son to take our place and called us to be His sons and daughters.
“He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace
Emptied Himself of all but love
And bled for Adam’s helpless race
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free
For O my God, it found out me!
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”
It is this love that we are to express to those
who are in need. So, who are the truly
needy in your life? Who are the widows,
the orphans, the sojourners, and the poor?
This is not a minor issue.
According to John 13:34-35,
the proof of our being disciples is our love for one another, especially those
in need within the family. 1 John 3:16-17 basically says that if
we can ignore need in the lives of a brother or sister, then we are not truly
believers: “[16] By this we know love,
that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brothers. But if anyone has the world’s
goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does
God’s love abide in him?” Ask God to
help you identify how you can have compassion upon those in need in your life.
II.
A Call to Discernment (5:3b-16)
There is a remarkable balance in this
passage. It not only call us to compassion upon those in need, it also
call us to be discerning in
expressing that compassion towards those in need. We are to honor widows “who are truly widows.” The
clarification in this command obviously means that there must be a distinction between those who are true
widows and those who are not so that the church will not be unnecessarily
burdened. But what makes a widow “truly” a widow? This passage describes a true widow is two
ways: as someone who is (1) truly needy
and someone who is (2) truly godly.
First, a widow must be truly needy. That is the point
of the family and age requirement. She
has not one to care for her (5: she
is left all alone) and is not able to care for herself (9: she’s over 60). If a
widow does have children or grandchildren, then those family members should be
responsible to give her this honor that Paul speaks of. And part of this honor is financial support,
or what Paul calls “making some return” to
their parents or grandparents. The idea
is that raising their children was an investment that they should then receive
a return upon. They changed your diapers,
now you get to change theirs!
This instruction is important not only for the
church to understand, but also for families.
It is important because it is pleasing
to God and is what Paul calls a display of godliness (4). This is part of what it means to obey God in
honoring your parents (Exodus 20:12). It is also important because it is a measure
of whether you are truly a believer or not (8).
Paul says that if someone does not provide for their relatives that they
have “denied the faith” and are “worse than an unbeliever.” His point is that even most pagans have the
compassion to take care of their own relatives.
A true widow is also someone who must be truly godly. Now, this does not mean that the church
should never help an unbeliever in need.
The issue here seems to be some form of regular support by the church
that widows were enrolled to receive. To
qualify for enrollment, a widow must be “above
reproach” (7). And Paul describes
here what it means for a widow to be above reproach by laying out another
beautiful description of Biblical womanhood in this passage. According to verse 5, a true widow is someone
who has “set her hope on God and
continues in supplications and prayers night and day.” She is a virtuous woman (Proverbs 31:10-31, 1 Peter 3:1-6) and a prayer warrior.
Verses 9-10 add to this description of being above
reproach. She must have “been the wife of one husband.” In the Greek this is the feminine form of “husband of one wife” (3:2,12) and like those passages, it
simply means that she is above reproach in the area of marriage. She must also have “a reputation for good works.”
Those good works are her bringing up faithful children, her showing
hospitality, her washing the feet of the saints, her caring for the afflicted,
and her devoting herself to every good work.
Basically, she is a woman who has been a faithful wife & mother and
a godly servant to the Lord’s people.
She is the kind of woman that all
young ladies should aspire to be.
There is good reason to believe that some of
Paul’s restrictions are due to a specific situation going on at Ephesus at the
time. For example, Paul’s comments in
verses 11-12 do not mean that any younger widow who gets remarried has departed
from Christ because he tells younger widows to remarry two verses later
(14)! The issue here was that some younger
widows in the church were departing from the faith in remarrying and were
possibly taking advantage of the church (15, see also 2 Timothy 3:6-7). This is
why he called these women “self-indulgent”
pleasure seekers who were not only disqualified to be a true widow, but were “dead” (lost) while they lived (6). For these reasons and because younger widows
could legitimately either support themselves or remarry, Paul instructed
Timothy to refuse to enroll them for the regular support of the church. This probably did not rule out some support,
but did rule out enrollment for the type of support Paul is describing here.
Enrolling a younger widow not only opened the
church to the possibility of supporting someone who would then depart from the
faith, but it also cultivated an environment for younger widows to become
ungodly women. Paul says that it could
teach them to be “idlers…gossips and
busybodies” (13). It could encourage
them to become professional time wasters, women who did not mind their own
business but spent their time doing
and saying what they should not. So Paul encourages these widows to remarry,
have children, and to manage their own households well (14). This will “give
the adversary no occasion to slander.” (Titus 2:3-5) Satan is the accuser of the brothers and Paul
wants to muzzle his ability to stir up disrespect among outsiders.
The need to be discerning with the Lord’s
resources is so important. Being naïve
not only allows the church to be taken advantage of, it also hinders the church
from truly supporting those who are in need and can actually hurt those who are
receiving the help by teaching them ungodly behavior. This is why it is sometimes wiser to
encourage some people who are in need to be more faithful to the Lord before
simply giving them more resources.
This
passage is nicely wrapped with an overview statement in verse 3 and a summary
statement in verse 16. The church is
only to be burdened by those who are truly in need and truly above
reproach. As I said, there is a great
deal of balance in this passage. It is unacceptable for the church to ignore need and it is equally
unacceptable for God’s people and God’s resources to be taken advantage of. The
reason this is so important is because the church’s care for those in need within the family is one of the
strongest witnesses of the gospel’s power that there is (John 13:34-35). Such
compassion “can draw inquiring and even
antagonistic outsiders to the Christ who causes that compassion in His
Children.”[1] Join
me in asking God for grace today to reflect His compassion towards the need
that we encounter and to have discernment in stewarding His resources.
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