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.

Paul has a lot to say about widows to Timothy in chapter five of his letter. His instructions about older widows and the care they need are gracious and giving. But his views concerning younger widows are much more strict.

This week’s passage is found in 1 Timothy 5:13-15:

Paul’s advice to Timothy in the preceding few verses about younger widows wasn’t very positive. He felt that a younger widow caused more problems than not, and would be tempted to stray from Christ and his church.

In this week’s passage, he takes this view a step further. His concern is that the behavior of a younger widow, unable to control her passions, would bring disgrace to Christ. Financially supporting these women could potentially bring about a sense of idleness, giving them the time to go from house to house, gossiping, being busybodies, and meddling in affairs not their own. In short, Paul says, supporting such widows enables them to use the system, and cause significant harm.

Let’s take a brief look at a couple of the words Paul uses here. The word “idle” is translated in other places as lazy, useless, with nothing to do. The word for “gossip” is a much richer word than our English translations convey, carrying the idea of foolish talk and false accusations, along with spreading rumors and chatter.

Paul then gives a series of four instructions concerning younger widows. These younger widows are…

As Paul continues discussing widows in his letter to Timothy, he shifts from older widows to younger ones. His instructions concerning older widows were pretty generous, but that changes for the younger women.

Take a look at this week’s passage in 1 Timothy 5:11-12:

Paul gave several characteristics that an older widow should display in the preceding verses.

In this next section, Paul explains why younger widows should not be included on the list with the older women. Exclusion from this list would not prohibit Timothy and the church in Ephesus from helping them if they were in need. Rather, this exclusion is based upon their youth and higher likelihood of remarriage.

Paul seems to indicate that their desire to remarry could become overwhelming, disturbing their devotion to Christ. That does not mean that a desire to remarry is an abandonment of the faith, as some seem to suggest; but rather, that the duties to a new family would be more immediately pressing than widowhood would allow.

Paul’s instructions here, while allowing remarriage, seem to suggest that he holds a very high view of the office of a widow. However, he does encourage remarriage later, in 5:14.

Paul continues his discourse on the treatment of widows as he instructs Timothy on this matter. This discussion of widows is as lengthy as his passages on leaders earlier in the letter.

Widows frequently need assistance. Paul gives some specification for how and when that is to happen. Take a look at this week’s passage in 1 Timothy 5:9-10:

Paul begins this paragraph by stating that a widow must not be put on the list unless she is over sixty years old. There has been some debate over just what this means. Some have taken it to mean “to count.” In other words, unless she is old enough she isn’t a concern for the church. However, due to the technical nature of the word used in the original Greek, it seems more likely that there was an official list in the Ephesian church of widows who needed some help.

Whether this is just a list of ladies who needed some financial help because of their situation, or if there was actually some sort of organized ministry, where these women would serve with specific spiritual or charitable duties for compensation has also been a topic of discussion. This stems from the fact that there is a list of qualifications given, much like the ones provided for elders and deacons.

Regardless of which description may have been the case, there were widows in need, and Paul gives Timothy some insight on how best to help them. In these verses, he gives three basic requirements that a widow must meet in order to be helped by the church.

In much of chapter five, Paul deals with relationship issues, and the first half of the chapter deals primarily with family responsibilities concerning widows. As he gives these instructions, he lays the responsibility for care upon the family, if family is available.

But he has some harsh statements for those families that refuse to care for their widows. You can see his statements in 1 Timothy 5:7-8:

Our society has trended away from caring for our families in some significant ways. We show little concern for our very young and our very old. We place our children in daycares and school settings where we only have to deal with them for a few hours a day. And we place our elderly in nursing homes or assisted care facilities as well.

I’m not saying there isn’t a need for both of these. But too often we neglect both of these categories of our culture because of our own need for convenience.

There was apparently a similar situation in Paul and Timothy’s culture. Members of the church were not accepting the responsibility to care for widows in their immediate families. Paul tells Timothy that these individuals were worse than unbelievers, because even the pagan and unbelieving would acknowledge the responsibility of children toward their parents.