The Church's Care for Widows

I invite you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 5, starting in verse 3 through 16. There are widows who are truly widows. 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. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.

Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. 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. Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works. If she has brought up children, and has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. But refuse to enroll young widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry, and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith.

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. So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. For some have already strayed after Satan. 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.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you in the name of your Son, who has demonstrated by his earthly ministry a love for widows. Whether it is the widow who gave him a mite or raising the widow's son, we see that there is a love that Christ has for those who are destitute, those who are in poverty, those who are in great need and need support, those that are all alone. He points us as the church to support those widows. So we pray that this evening we might learn and learn well from your Word on how to support those that are in such a need. We pray that we would be like Christ and grow in our love for the widows within our church, that we would support the mothers in our church. Guide us, direct us this evening as we go into the text that we might know how to better support those that are in need. In your Son's name we pray.

Amen. Starting in our series through 1 Timothy, we are pushing forward into what relationships look like within the local church. Remember that Apostle Paul is writing to his Son in the faith Timothy and he's giving him guidance on how to govern the household of God.

We see this in 1 Timothy 3, verses 14 and 15. I am writing these things to you, so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. Paul wants to give Timothy instructions on how he might lead as a pastor in the local church at Ephesus so that the church might best glorify God in their doctrine and practice.

So far we've gone through false teaching in chapter 1, what to look out for. In chapter 2 we talked about the worship service and instructing men to lead well in the church, praying in unity, lifting hands together, spoke on modesty, how men and women ought to dress in the corporate worship service. In chapter 3 we talked about the moral qualifications of elders and deacons in the local church. In chapter 4 Paul warned about asceticism and apostasy that can occur and how we are to be good servants of Christ Jesus. But now in chapter 5 Paul speaks on relationships in the church. If you were with us last time I preached in 1 Timothy, we talked about the different demographics in the church. Older men being fathers, older women being mothers, younger men being brothers and younger women sisters in all purity.

And Paul's message was that these four groups should not be isolated but we should have strong abiding relationships among these different groups. We should have those that we go to for counsel and mentorship and friendship throughout the different groups within the church. So now Paul is speaking on the topic of widows and he wants to instruct us on how we are to help widows. Widows of course being those that have lost their spouse, mothers that have lost their husbands. And these widows can be young and old, they can be with or without children but ultimately it is a woman that has lost her husband.

And so having lost her husband, especially back in ancient times, women were especially at a financial disadvantage. And so Paul is going to give us sort of a template here in this passage on how we can best support those that are in need and also kind of gives us sort of a criteria on which who to help and who not to help. There are many books that have been written on mercy ministries when helping hurts. There's a book that talks about helping those trying to alleviate poverty, trying to do this well so that we can also physically provide but also spiritually provide the gospel. That we are not simply just giving away physical resources but also pointing people to the gospel. Tim Keller having a strong ministry in New York City had hundreds of homeless that would come to his church and ask for physical needs.

So he wrote a book, wrote a couple of books on the diaconate ministry and how to best serve the community that you're in through deacon work and what is the best way, what is the biblical way in which we can serve those that are in need. So tonight as we go into this passage we should look at this as sort of a template or a cheat sheet that we can use to best serve the widows. And that's the demographic. It's not just serving anybody tonight, we're talking about widows tonight.

So that's our focus this evening. Not everyone, not all widows are eligible for the same sort of support. And your immediate thought might be, well why? Why can't we just serve anybody? Why are there even qualifications for support?

Why must we go through some sort of filter or grid for giving someone support? Why can't we just simply give? I think Jesus would just, he wouldn't pull out criteria and say do you fit the criteria. Jesus would just simply give, would he not?

What would Jesus do? I think about a lot of unbelieving critics would probably be critical of us as the church. I think especially unbelieving critics but also political critics that are saying to the church, why aren't you all helping more? Why isn't the church doing its job in helping anyone and everyone that asks for support? I think especially during the political season, a lot of people cite the name of Jesus.

They reduce the Christian faith down to basically being nice to people and approving of every political welfare program even if it puts our country deep into debt. It's good to help and we should help and Jesus would help so let's go help. Let's go spend money and help people. And if you don't do that, if you don't believe in these programs and policies and laws that are being passed, then you're not a real Christian because a real Christian would do that.

Jesus, if he was here, he would do that. But what does the Bible say about helping? Does the Bible say that we're to give to anyone and everyone indiscriminately? Are we to give to everyone whatever amount of food, any amount of clothing, any amount of money that someone might ask the church? And if we deny them what they want, are we being un-Christ-like? Is it wrong to set parameters on benevolence and is there a limit to material resources that we should give?

Yes, there is a limit. There are parameters that we should set. Anyone who says otherwise has not gone into the text, they have not read the Bible, they have not studied the doctrine of benevolence or stewardship, we need to be able to go into the text and see what it says. We need to understand biblical stewardship. People wonder why our country is in 30 trillion dollars of debt. We need to be good stewards of the money that God has given us.

Every single dollar that is in your pocket, that is in your bank account, belongs to the Lord and it has been entrusted in you that you might use it wisely and that we would honor the Lord with our stewardship of this money. Even as the state might criticize us and tell the church what to do, again we're blending these institutions. The state is the state. They are to govern over the land.

They are to enforce civil laws. The church is responsible to preach the Word, to teach the Word, to administer discipline and administer sacraments. The family, the institution of the family is obligated to provide for fellow family members. The Bible speaks very clearly on the doctrine of work. Paul speaks often about his hard work in the New Testament, but this goes back to the Garden of Eden where we are called as Christians and obligated to work and work hard.

Genesis 2.15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. We are called to take care of ourselves and our families through hard work. And if someone in the church cannot take care of themselves, the family takes care of them and if the family needs help, the church is to come in and help as well. But the foundation of Christian living is hard work. So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Proverbs 16.3, commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. Ephesians 4.28, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. The hope is that we're working and we're working and we're working so hard that hopefully there's a surplus. There's extra that those that might be in need that we the church can help one another. That I can share with you.

I have some extra. Are you in need? And we can give out extra to other Christians within the church. Colossians 3, verse 23, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. And so what kind of widow receives assistance in the church?

Let's find out. Let's go to verse 3. Honor widows who are truly widows. There are different categories of widows within the church. One widow that's not even mentioned in this chapter would be widows that are provided for by their departed husbands. The ideal, the hope is that husbands would work and work well and that when they do depart, when they do die and go to be with the Lord, the hope is that they provide, they leave a sum of money for their wife and their children so that these widows would be provided for. That's the goal.

That's the ideal model. But then second, we see this idea of a true widow. Some translations might say a genuine widow or really a widow. I like the King James, a widow indeed. But read verse 5.

We see another verse on this. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. Number one, she is left all alone.

She is by herself. She's without any financial support. She is in poverty. She's destitute.

She's in need. We have widows that do not have children that can support them, that can help them. Remember in James chapter 1 verse 27 where James defines pure and undefiled religion. Besides keeping oneself unstained from the world, it is visiting widows and orphans. Widows having lost a husband and true widows having no children.

Orphans having no parents that can take care of them. Pure and undefiled religion. Pure Christianity is taking care of those that have no one. Second she has her hope set on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. So we know that they have no support, but also they are marked by their prayer life.

They're marked by their piety and their love of God. They are known among the congregation as women of prayer. If she had a family, if she had someone that could take care of her, they would be the primary caregivers. Again, the institution of the family must take care of fellow family members.

That is our obligation. But since she does not, secondary caregivers would be the church. We would step in as a church and see that she is without any help.

She has no one. So we are obligated to help them. Help these mothers in the church. These are spiritual mothers. As we see in the first two verses, older women as mothers, she is our mother in the church. She's our Christian mother. And what we ought to do is care for her, provide for her, and honor her. This is the fifth commandment.

Honor thy father and mother. The third type of widow that we see is in verse 4. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. This widow, like the first widow, is in poverty. But she does have immediate children that can care for her. She has Christian children and grandchildren that are available to aid her. So the family, again, is still their primary caregivers. They're the ones that can come in and care for her. And so if a widow does have real material needs, the first group that cares is that immediate family and the extended family. When they do this, when they do come in and serve her and care for her, they are providing financial relief upon the church because otherwise if they were not there to care for her, the church would have to come in with church funds and support her. And ultimately that would take money away from the true widows who have no one. So when children care for their mother and grandmother, it allows the church to do the real work that they are called to, which is caring for these widows with no one.

These true widows, as they're called in this passage. But if her Christian family were to neglect her, the church, again, would have to step in and be the primary caregiver to this widow due to the neglect of this widow. In doing so, though, these Christians are not helping their own family members. But what does Paul say in verse 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. Paul is putting the Ten Commandments right in front of us. And he's pointing us directly to the Fifth Commandment.

And he's saying, this is not a suggestion from the Lord. This is a commandment. You honor your father and mother. What you are doing when you deny your mother, your aging mother who is a widow, who has no one except you, and then you step out of the way, she is now without anything.

She is destitute. And your behavior is worse, it's lower than the pagans. We are blood-bought disciples of Christ that need to look at these Ten Commandments and look at the cross of Christ and look at the words of Jesus who said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. This law that you broke every day, you're no longer condemned by it. Because of the work of Christ, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We've been made alive in Christ. We have new life in Christ. Now, how shall we live?

We look to this law that guides us on how to live. You are commanded to care for your widowed mother. But this neglect is unrepentant sin, breaking the Fifth Commandment, and even grounds for church discipline because this is lower than the pagans. You're acting like you're not in the faith.

Perhaps they're not. Perhaps they're leaving the faith. Paul's calling into question whether or not they are apostates.

Have they abandoned their faith? Matter of fact, you're not any better than the Pharisees. The Christian who denies their widowed mother is no better than the Pharisees in Mark chapter 7. Look at verse 9. He said to them, you're a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said, honor your father and mother, and whoever reviles father and mother must surely die.

But you say, if a man tells his father and mother, whatever you would have gained from me is Corban that is given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father and mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you handed down and many such things you do. The money that would have gone toward this Pharisees aging parents, the Pharisees saying, oh no, no, I gave it to the church. Therefore that money that would have fed them, clothed them, they don't have it. And so when we see that passage about devouring widows houses, they have to sell their home. They have to get rid of their home to provide for themselves because these Pharisees would give away the money that was designated to take care of their parents. They're saying, oh, I gave the money to God instead of using the money for what it's meant for, which is to take care of them, to feed them, to clothe them, to care for them in their late age.

I think today it might sound more like my money's been tied up in all these investments. I'm trying to save for a new car, a new house, while their widowed mother is without food, without clothing, without shelter. Paul says it again in verse 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. So as a Christian has relatives that are widows, we must personally care for them.

The Christian obligation, even if our widowed mother is not a believer, the obligation on the Christian is to provide care for those in need. Another type of widow is in verse six, we see this woman who is self-indulgent. This is a woman that is not godly, but drawn in by pleasure, seeking self-indulgence. Sort of contrast to the woman in verse five, who's known for her prayer and known for her holiness. We see this is a woman that is drawn in by a self-indulgent lifestyle.

And Paul warns us in verse seven, they command these things as go well so that they may be without reproach. Let this be an example to you to not be in reproach like this woman. Don't be in disapproval like her as she commits herself to a hedonistic lifestyle.

Don't carry the reproach that she does. She is dead in her sins. She is dead even while she lives, verse six. Look at the woman who is in verse three and five, the woman that is committed to the Lord, committed to holiness, committed to prayer. Now in verse nine, we see women being enrolled. Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband.

This enrollment, or in your King James Version, it might say added to the number. These women that are enrolled, they take a pledge or an oath to be a widow in the church, a true widow that is serving the church in Mercy Ministry as a widow, celibate and committed to the Lord. So it's a commitment, sort of a little group of older women that serve in Mercy Ministry, provide care, provide service to those that are in need.

And they have a little prayer ministry there at the local church. This is especially popular back in the ancient church and it was among true widows committing themselves to prayer and service. These older widows had to meet certain qualifications to be added into the number. First they needed to be 60 years old, that is mature in age and mature in faith. Wife of one husband, while they were married, when their husband was alive, they were known for faithfulness to that husband.

But then also having a reputation for good works. She was known for loving the Lord and showing love among the church and acts of service within the church. If she has brought up children, has shown hospitality.

It doesn't mean that she has to have children, but if she had children, hopefully they're walking with the Lord, there's evidence of their faith. But also, did she love the children in the church? Did she express love to covenant children and raise them in the faith? Did she show hospitality? Thinking back to Lydia of Thyatira, she opened her home to Paul and the apostles, she heard the Gospel, she was converted, her entire household was baptized, but furthermore she said, stay here for a bit. She helped lodge them for a time.

She expressed hospitality. Has washed the feet of the saints. Washing feet is a lowly and menial task and considering the time in which most people walked in sandals and how dusty and gross feet would be, it is a gross task, but it's also lowly. It's a humble thing to wash someone's feet. Thinking back to the Lord's Supper, when it was instituted in the upper room, we saw Jesus expressing such humility, getting down and washing the feet of his disciples.

Caring for the afflicted. Thinking back to the Old Testament, we had a widow, Ruth, caring for another widow, Naomi, her mother-in-law. Both enduring much hardship, but still Ruth would go out and she would harvest crops from the gleanings. If you go back to Leviticus 23, there's this concept of the gleaning principle. Farmland would be cut in a square and they would harvest in a circle. So a circle within a square, you have the corners of the square, would not be harvested. So if you had someone that was traveling through town, they might just be passing through and they might ask, do you mind if I get some of your gleanings?

And you could say, sure, yeah, go ahead. And what they would do is sort of a form of welfare for travelers and they would go out and they would harvest food off the corners of the crops and feed themselves, provide for themselves. And so Ruth, a widow herself, stayed with her mother-in-law, Naomi, providing for her, caring for her, enduring with her, caring for her as she's afflicted, and devoted herself to every good work. But these qualifications that Paul is setting out for these widows, they're enrolled as servants in the church. They're serving the local church.

What about the young women? Verse 11, refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. First of all, this is not a condemnation of remarriage.

That can be how the passage reads, but let's lean in a little bit more here. This enrollment that Paul's talking about, it's a commitment to the church and the Lord. If you're added into the number, if you're enrolled as a widow in the church, you're basically saying, I'm 60 years old, most likely I'm not going to be remarried.

I've had a full life being married to my deceased husband, so now what I want to do is commit my remaining years from 60 onward to serving the church. And after a lifetime of marriage and commitment to that husband, growth in sanctification, hopefully that Christian husband has been leading her in the faith and she's grown personally in sanctification, not to mention she's older so this temptation towards these sort of youthful passions would be less likely of a problem, she would be okay with celibacy, serving the Lord and serving the local church. So they're committing themselves to singleness, to service. Younger women had a much greater chance to be remarried. You think of a woman that might be married at 20, her husband goes to war, he's killed in action, and at 25 years old she's going, well, I'm a widow, what do I do now?

What's my next step forward? And she might be tempted to think, well, I'll join the widows of the church and serve the Lord and commit myself to the Lord. But they could, they're 25, they have the rest of their life, they should consider remarriage. Paul is saying you still have the rest of your life, seek out a new husband and you can be supported by a new husband and have children and manage a home, but also due to your youthful passion God has given marriage as an outlet for our natural affections. So signing up as a widow at 25, you would be enrolled as a widow and you're immediately among 60 year old women that are sort of at the end of their life, she's at 25 considering I could be remarried, no I'm going to serve the Lord.

Ah, but the possibilities, I could go out and seek out a husband. Paul is saying, don't get into this number, don't get into the enrollment because you're going to be tempted with youthful passion, you're going to be tempted with second guessing. You can commit yourself to the church by being a faithful wife to a new husband.

Don't feel like because you're a widow you have to join these true widows that have been added into the number. Don't make the pledge at all. Because if you go in, make the pledge and then you break that pledge, that's what verse 12 is referring to about condemnation. You're abandoning the faith in a sense. Don't make this commitment, God I'm going to be a celibate widow.

That's a commitment, that's a binding obligation with the Lord. So he's saying before you do that, consider verse 14, I would have younger widows remarry, bear children, manage their households and give the adversary no occasion for slander. Again, this younger woman might be very discontent if she's enrolled as a widow and it might draw her away from Christ. She might become bitter with her status as a widow and actually make her discouraged in her Christian faith.

Verse 13 says, they learn to be idlers going about from house to house and not only idlers but gossips and busybodies saying what they should not. Younger widows are just less mature. Simply just by their age, they're less mature than the older widows in their 60s. They've had less time in the Christian life. They're just not as sanctified as these younger women.

These older women know what marriage is and have lived that life and now they're 60 and qualifying and ready to be supported in the ministry of the church. Paul says in verse 15, some have actually already strayed after Satan as some of the younger widows. It was the case in Ephesus that there were younger widows that were being drawn away from the faith, drawn into these false teachings that were going around in Ephesus.

We see it in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 6 and 7. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. So these women are being drawn into new teachings, new doctrines, false teachings with these leaders that are sort of seeking the truth but never finding it. There's sort of a humility there that you're seeking the truth. You want to know the truth. You're trying to find the truth. Where is the truth? Paul's coming in and saying, I'm giving you the truth. I'm giving you the truth of the Gospel. Look to Christ. Look to the Bible. Believe in Him. And they're going, no, no, no.

I'm still seeking. I'm trying to find the truth. Actually, Paul's saying, that's arrogance. You've got the truth of the Bible in front of you and yet you won't submit to it.

This is arrogance. You must submit to the Word. Look to Christ. Believe in Him. So in doing this, they're essentially denying the truth.

They're denying the Gospel. Thankfully today, I think most of our widows today are more fortunate. I think we live in a great time where we have disability, social security, life insurance, investment accounts. We can set up our widows financially in a good way and we should use and be thankful for all these sort of financial helps. But we cannot forget to visit our widows, to care for our widows and take responsibility as Paul has instructed here to care for the true widows that are in the church. We are called to work.

It's foundational to everything. Everyone should work and work hard. First Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 11 and 12, and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. Men, I implore you to work and work hard. Work with all your might. Wives and mothers, I already know they work hard.

I live with one and we have a sixteen month old that is a full time job. I would go as far as to say I hope men that you can work and work hard enough that you can allow your wives to work full time, taking care of children. To the widows in the congregation, you might ask, what do I do as a widow? I'm hearing about end of the number and enrollment and while we don't really do that, what does widowhood look like in the church?

What do we do? Obviously, as we see in verse 5 and verse 10, commit yourself to prayer, to service, to caring for the afflicted, seeing what mercy ministries might be available that you can do if not serving just in any sort of practical hands on way in the church. If you are a true widow, the true widows are in need, first who do we go to?

We go to hard work. If a widow is not able to work, they go to their family. And if there is no family, you go to the church that the church might provide for the true widows as you are spiritual mothers in the church. Again, this is not all just physical material support. This is also mental, emotional, spiritual needs of the church. We are the body of Christ.

We are the household of God. We need to support each other. But even as we talk about giving, what do we give? Do we give money? Do we give food? Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6 verses 7 and 8, for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

In closing, I want you to recall your own spiritual state. Before you were in Christ, before you were believing, consider our own state as the Bible tells us that we were poor, we were needy, we were lost and we were destitute. It was Christ that came in and provided this bread of life, this well of living water. So as we go out and do not only ministry to widows but even a broader mercy ministry, let us provide for those that are in need. Considering clothing drives and food drives, any way that we can provide physical means to others and then speak to them about the one who has provided the bread of life. If we can talk to them and serve them physically and spiritually, Paul tells us that this pleases God. It bears witness to the love of God that we have experienced in Christ and it's the offer to others of this Gospel message.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we look to Christ as the one that has provided all for us. He has done so much for us and yet daily we stumble in sin, we repent of our sin and we ask that you would forgive us. As we look to you as a Heavenly Father that we would be sons and daughters that have been adopted into the family of God, we've been blessed with great riches in Christ. Remind us of these blessings every day that we might honor you, that we might continue to serve others with love, that we might be ultimately serving as deacons, that is servants of others, that we would love others. Continue to remind us every day of your Gospel truth. Your sons and me pray. Amen.