1 Timothy 5:1–16

May 7th, 2024| Topic: 1 Timothy, aBeLOG | 0

God’s people care for the needy both personally within their own households, and also corporately within the divine household, focusing upon those deserving ones who are believers, who have lived godly lives with a reputation for good works, and who are engaging in the community’s worship.

That God’s people shout treat one another as family members, as befitting their joint membership in the divine household, is established at the start (5:1–2).

The discourse on the treatment of widows (5:3–16) is the longest in 1 Timothy dedicated to a specific group of people. Obviously, this was a crucial issue, integral to the church’s care for the needy. There was some sort of a list of eligible women (i.e., those who were “indeed widows,” 5:3, 5, 16) to whom church monies would be disbursed: they included those who had raised a family (5:4, 8, 10), who were prayer warriors hoping in God (5:5), above reproach (5:7), who were of an appropriate age (5:9, 11–15), who had exhibited fidelity while married (5:9), and who had practiced good works (5:10). No official function is noted here, but recipients of church funds, by virtue of the support they received, were representatives of the body of Christ, and had to live up to that calling.

“Honor” was what was due to widows who were “indeed widows” (5:3); it indicated financial support, as also in 5:17–18—i.e., the support that honor deserves. This is particularly true in the context of 5:4, 8, 16, explicitly calling for families to take care of their own. The goal of 5:3–16 is to stabilize the lives of widows, part of caring for the needy.

Family support (5:4, 7–8, 16) was to be the first line of care for deserving widows (5:4, 7–8, 16), for “this is pleasing before God” and integral to the practice of godliness.

Deserving widows are described in 5:5, 9–10, 16. They fix their hope upon God, a facet of godliness. These women’s reputation for good works are lauded in 5:10, again marking off their godliness. Truly, these were deserving widows, indeed!

In contrast to the deserving widows engaging in the prayers of the community ceaselessly, undeserving (younger) widows (5:6, 11–13, 15) were being “self-indulgent,” partaking of a riotous life of wanton pleasure. “To indulge sensual appetites,” in 5:11, uses a unique verb, but another form of the word, “live sensuously,” in Rev 18:7, 9, describes the behavior of the harlot, Babylon, and her consorts. That may carry connotations of promiscuity in our text (1 Tim 5:13). These younger widows’ desire to remarry is deprecated in 5:11–12. Paul’s criticism is not of remarriage per se (which is approved in 5:14), but of the “sensual appetites in opposition to Christ” that are prompting it (5:11). This desire for remarriage, impelled by such unchaste longings, was an abandonment of their “first faith,” equivalent to the denial of the faith by an unsupportive family member (5:8).

But the potential of an unmarried widow with a tendency towards idleness and gossip—all causing a stain on the church—was equally reprehensible (5:13). In the context of their sensual desires, such activities might have had something to do with scandalous and shameful sexual talk, giving the “enemy” opportunity for vilification (5:14–15). Remarriage of the proper kind to the proper person was, therefore, recommended (5:14). In any case, these undeserving widows, in their profligate lifestyles, were Supporting such people and their reproachable conduct was a blot on the church, the truth it was supporting, and the God it followed.

[For more details, see my commentary on 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus.]