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.

Last week, as we started looking at 1 Timothy 5, we saw Paul begin some significant instructions concerning family responsibilities, especially concerning widows. Over the next few paragraphs, Paul will give a lot of instruction to Timothy on this subject.

He begins by looking at a widow who is really in need. Take a look at these verses in 1 Timothy 5:5-6:

In Jewish society, when a woman lost her husband, becoming a widow, her family took on the responsibility to help meet her needs. If she had no children, then extended family stepped in. But if there were no other family members to help, she would fall into the category that Paul describes as a “widow in need.”

However, she must display some certain spiritual qualities.

This week’s passage begins a section on family responsibilities. Paul starts off with some instruction concerning widows and their families.

Take a look at these verses in 1 Timothy 5:3-4:

In this passage, and the following verses, we see an issue that Paul and Timothy were faced with in the first century. But we see an issue that we continue to face in the twenty-first century as well.

This is the issue of caring for those in need. In this particular passage, the people in question are widows.

Paul’s initial instruction is to care for widows. But he then immediately qualifies that statement with the phrase “who are really in need.”

Paul’s intent here is not to make less of anyone who has lost their husband (or wife), but to place the responsibility of care in the proper perspective. In particular, Paul is referring to those who have no one to help care for them. This indicates a widow who has been left alone, and has material needs that are not being met.

This is an issue that the church has faced since its earliest days. The question of caring for widows was first raised in Acts 6, and has been a pressing need throughout the intervening centuries, and still is today.

After Paul finished the fourth chapter of his letter to Timothy, he moves from doctrinal and leadership issues to more relational matters. In this chapter he’ll encourage Timothy in the areas of relationships by age, widows, elders, and finally, slaves.

He begins by stating some simple rules for relating with various people. You can see these rules in 1 Timothy 5:1-2:

Paul identifies the church as a family. This is an image that is presented more than once in the Bible, and Paul uses it here to give some instructions to Timothy on how to relate to various aspects of that family.

Older men

Respect for the elderly, especially men, was a very important part of Middle Eastern culture, and still is in many parts of the world. Paul’s instruction to Timothy is to treat such men with the respect due to them. What he is not saying is that Timothy shouldn’t correct an older man when he is in error. Rather, he should do so in a manner that conveys respect and courtesy.

Younger men

While the NIV uses the word “treat” here, the idea is a repetition of Paul’s instruction to exhort. Many ancient cultures expected treatment of people of similar age as siblings. Timothy is to exhort younger men as brothers. It bears mentioning here that the word “exhort” means to strongly encourage.