Paul has covered a lot of ground in chapter five, concerning older widows and the proper care for them from the church. He also discusses younger widows, and instructs Timothy on how to approach both groups.

He wraps up his instructions on widows in this week’s passage, which is found in 1 Timothy 5:16:

Having finished his discussion on younger widows, which were presenting a problem for Timothy as he led the Ephesian church, Paul returns to the main thrust of this passage on widows, that of caring for those who had a genuine need.

The point of this passage is to reinforce the idea that those who have widows in their families should take it upon themselves to care for them, so that the church will not be burdened with that care, and can focus limited resources on those who have no other hope for assistance.

The surprising element here is Paul’s use of the phrase “any believing woman.” Early copyists altered the text, thinking they were correcting it, to read “any believing man or believing woman.” However, that may not have been the intent of Paul’s statement. One commentary suggests that Paul may have been referring to some of the younger widows, who had resources to draw upon, and were refusing to help a widowed mother or grandmother.

We cannot be certain of this, since the text doesn’t specifically state this, but it seems to make the most sense within the context of the passage. There may well have been a problem with women with financial resources failing to provide for widows in their households.

This sounds like a foreign concept to Western Christianity, with our small, nuclear families. But in early biblical times, like the situation in Ephesus, the family unit was much larger, and included many extensions of the family, such as sisters, aunts, mothers-in-law, grandparents, and more. The chances of having a widow in the family was much more likely a possibility.

Regardless, there is always a demand for assistance from the church, and widows are often some of the ones in need. However, most churches have a limited amount of funds, and can only help so much. Paul’s intent here is to encourage those who have the means to help those widows in their own families, thereby freeing the church to help meet the needs of the less fortunate.

Do you have widows in your immediate, or extended, family? What do you do to assist them? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.