FBC Morning Light – August 11, 2022

Well, good Thursday morning to you. How's your week going? I trust the Lord is blessing you in it. Well, today we're going to talk about widows and ministry and the care of widows. We're reading in 1 Timothy chapter 5 today, and Paul gives Timothy some instruction regarding the taking care of widows.

He says in verse 3, honor widows who are really widows. Now, that's an interesting thing to say, isn't it? Either a woman is a widow or she's not, right? What does he mean by that? Honor widows who are really widows.

What he means by that is take care of those widows as a church, as a church function. Take care of those widows who are really destitute, who are really alone and have no other way of being cared for.

He makes this clear as he continues on. In verse 4, he says if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them take care, basically let them take care of their own parents. He says this is good and acceptable in sight of God.

And then in verse 8, by the way, he says if anyone does not provide for his own, especially those of his own household, he's denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Now that verse, of course, has been taken out of context and been applied in a more broad way, and it's interesting how that verse has been laid on the shoulders of fathers, of men in the family, that they need to be sure that they provide for their wives and their children.

I've heard it applied to parents that they need to be sure to provide an inheritance for their children and grandchildren and so forth. But there may be some legitimate application based on other passages of Scripture and so on to some of that, but that's not what this verse is talking about.

It's talking about those of us who have aging parents, and especially alone, their widows or widowers, that we care for them. That's our responsibility primarily. It's inappropriate for us to shirk that responsibility and expect the church, for example, to pick up the slack.

That's what Paul's getting at here. But anyway, as he goes on, he mentions a couple things that even though we would not have the same kind of structure for the care of widows in our day as they would have had to have in that time and in that era, there are some principles that are very helpful to us and challenging to us in our day.

Now let me clarify what I just said. In the first century, the first and second, third and beyond, there was no social security system. There was no retirement program. There were no pension funds and all that kind of thing that were set in place, and there wasn't life insurance.

So there were a lot of things that we have in our society and our culture today to help provide for and ensure the security of a widow if her husband passes away. Those things didn't exist in that time.

So if a woman is left as a widow, her family needed to step in and help care for her. There were occasions, however, when there were no family members to do so, or there were families who refused to do so.

They wouldn't have been part of the church, or they'd have been kicked out of the church, but there were widows who were truly destitute. And so the church took them on and supported them and provided for them and helped them.

Now there's a couple of just interesting points to be made here. One of them is, Paul gives some guidelines, some parameters, as to what widows should be accepted on that role. He says, don't let a widow under 60 years old be taken into the number.

Why? Because she has still the ability to work and provide for herself, and not unless she's been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works. She's brought up children, she's lodged strangers, and so on and so forth.

What I want to get at here is that what we do today and how we live today can have a very positive impact on how we are received in our later years. I know too many family situations where the children, grown adult children, do not want to have anything to do with their adult parents, their aged parents, because of the way their parents behaved and treated them and so forth as children, and growing up, and even as adults.

That's unfortunate. So the challenge here is, whatever age we are living right now, live in such a way that you will be graciously and warmly received in your latter years. The other principle that comes out here, he says in verses 11 and 12, refuse the younger widows for when they've begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, having condemnation, because they've cast off their first faith.

He says, besides, they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies saying things which they ought not. I think what Paul's getting at here is that we don't want to encourage laziness and idleness.

The point is that we need to have our days filled meaningfully and productively, lest, as the old adage goes, idle hands become the devil's workshop. That's why he encourages the younger widows to remarry, and not to be taken into a role where they can just sit around all day and do nothing and go from house to house and pass on gossip and stuff of that nature.

Let's be productive with our days. A couple of ideas here and insights to even help us, no matter what age we are in, to live well in our day. Father, help us to do just that. I pray that we would live in such a way that we would be well received in our latter years of life, and we pray your blessing upon us as we live out this day.

May it be a day of significant or helpful production for your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, have a good rest of your Thursday. May the Lord bless you.