Survey
of the Letters of Paul: 1 Timothy 5:09
Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been
the wife of one man,
Let us read verses 9 and 10:
1 Timothy 5:9-10
9 Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old,
having been the wife of one man,
10 Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have
lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the
afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.
AN HONOURED AND A USEFUL OLD AGE
1 Timothy 5:9–10
Let a woman be enrolled as a widow only if she is more than sixty years of age;
if she has been the wife of one husband; if she has earned an attested
reputation for good works; if she has nourished children; if she has been
hospitable to strangers; if she has helped those in trouble; if she has washed
the feet of the saints; if she has devoted herself to every good work.
FROM this passage, it is clear that the Church had an official register of
widows; and it seems that the word widow is being used in a double sense. Women
who were elderly and whose husbands had died and whose lives were lovely and
filled with good works were the responsibility of the Church; but it is also
true that, perhaps as early as this, and certainly later in the early Church,
there was an official order of widows, an order of elderly women who were set
apart for special duties. In the regulations of the Apostolic Constitutions,
which tell us what the life and organization of the Church were like in the
third century, it is laid down: ‘Three widows shall be appointed, two to
persevere in prayer for those who are in temptation, and for the reception of
revelations, when such are necessary, but one to assist women who are visited
with sickness; she must be ready for service, discreet, telling the elders what
is necessary, not avaricious, not given to much love of wine, so that she may be
sober and able to perform the night services, and other loving duties.’
Such widows were not ordained as the elders and the bishops were; they were set
apart by prayer for the work which they had to do. They were not to be set apart
until they were over sixty years of age. That was an age which the ancient world
also considered to be specially suited for concentration on the spiritual life.
Plato, in his plan for the ideal state, held that sixty was the right age for
men and women to become priests and priestesses.
The Pastoral Epistles are always intensely practical; and in this passage we
find seven qualifications which the Church’s widows must satisfy.
They must have been the wife of one husband. In an age when the marriage bond
was taken lightly and almost universally dishonoured, they must be examples of
purity and fidelity.
They must have earned an attested reputation for good works. The office-bearers
of the Church, male or female, have within their keeping not only their personal
reputation but also the good name of the Church. Nothing discredits a church
like unworthy office-bearers; and nothing is so good an advertisement for it as
an office-bearer who has taken his or her Christianity into the activity of
daily living.
They must have nourished children. This may well mean more than one thing. It
may mean that widows must have given proof of their Christian piety by bringing
up their own families in the Christian way. But it can mean more than that. In
an age when the marriage bond was very lax, and men and women changed their
partners with bewildering rapidity, children were regarded as a misfortune. When
a child was born, it was brought and laid before the father’s feet. If the
father stooped and lifted the child, that meant that he acknowledged it and was
prepared to accept responsibility for its upbringing. If the father turned and
walked away, the child was quite literally thrown out, like an unwanted piece of
rubbish. It often happened that such unwanted children were collected by
unscrupulous people and, if they were girls, brought up to stock the public
brothels. If they were boys, they were trained to be slaves or gladiators for
the public games. It would be a Christian duty to rescue such children from
death and worse than death, and to bring them up in a Christian home. So, this
may mean that widows must be women who had been prepared to give a home to
abandoned children.
They must have been hospitable to strangers. Inns in the ancient world were
notoriously dirty, expensive and immoral. Those who opened their homes to
travellers, or to strangers in an unfamiliar place, or to young people whose
work and study took them far from home, were doing a most valuable service to
the community. The open door of the Christian home is always a precious thing.
They must have washed the feet of the saints. That need not be taken literally,
although the literal sense is included.
To wash a person’s feet was the task of a slave, the lowest of all duties. This
means that Christian widows must have been willing to accept the humblest tasks
in the service of Christ and of his people. The Church needs its leaders who
will be prominent in its work, but no less it needs those who are prepared to do
the tasks which receive no prominence and little thanks.
They must have helped those in trouble. In times of persecution, it was no small
thing to help Christians who were suffering for their faith. This was to
identify oneself with them and to accept the risk of coming to a similar
punishment. Christians must stand by those in trouble for their faith, even if,
in so doing, they bring trouble on themselves.
They must have devoted themselves to all good works. We all concentrate on
something; Christians concentrate their lives on obeying Christ and helping
others. When we study these qualifications for those who were to be enrolled as
widows, we see that they are the qualifications of every true Christian.
THE PRIVILEGE AND THE DANGERS OF SERVICE
AS we have already said, the widows became an accepted order in the Christian
Church, if not as early as the time of the Pastoral Epistles then certainly in
later days. Their place and work are dealt with in the first eight chapters of
the third book of the Apostolic Constitutions, and these chapters reveal the use
that such an order could be and the dangers into which it almost inevitably ran.
(1) It is laid down that women who would serve the Church must be women of
discretion. Particularly, they must be discreet in speech: ‘Let every widow be
meek, quiet, gentle, sincere, free from anger, not talkative, not clamorous, not
hasty of speech, not given to evil-speaking, not given to finding fault, not
double-tongued, not a busybody. If she sees or hears anything that is not right,
let her be as one that does not see, and as one that does not hear.’ Such
officers of the church must be very careful when they discuss the faith with
outsiders: ‘For unbelievers when they hear the doctrine concerning Christ, not
explained as it ought to be, but defectively, especially that concerning his
incarnation or his passion, will rather reject it with scorn, and laugh at it as
false, than praise God for it.’
There is nothing more dangerous than an officer of the church who talks about
things which ought to be kept secret; and a church office-bearer must be
equipped to communicate the gospel in a way that will make people think more and
not less of Christian truth.
Note: There is a specific difference between being a light and
spreading the gospel and discussing your faith with outsiders. See 1
Corinthians 2:14.
(2) It is laid down that women who serve the Church must not be gadabouts,
always popping into and out of the houses of neighbours: ‘Let the widow
therefore own herself to be the “altar of God”, and let her sit in her own
house, and not enter into the houses of the unfaithful, under any pretence to
receive anything; for the altar of God never runs about, but is fixed in one
place. Let therefore the virgin and the widow be such as do not run about, or
visit the houses of those who are alien from the faith. For such as these are
gadabouts and impudent.’ The restless gossip is ill-equipped to serve the
Church.
(3) It is laid down that widows who accept the charity of the Church are not to
be greedy. ‘There are some widows who esteem gain their business; and since they
ask without shame, and receive without being satisfied, render other people more
backward in giving . . . Such a woman is thinking in her mind of where she can
go to get, or that a certain woman who is her friend has forgotten her, and she
has something to say to her . . . She murmurs at the deaconess who distributed
the charity, saying, “Do you not see that I am in more distress and need of your
charity? Why therefore have you preferred her before me?”’ It is not an
attractive act to seek to live off the Church rather than for the Church.
(4) It is laid down that such women must do all they can to help themselves:
‘Let her take wool and assist others rather than herself want from them.’ The
charity of the Church does not exist to make people lazy and dependent.
(5) Such women are not to be envious and jealous: ‘We hear that some widows are
jealous, envious slanderers, and envious of the quiet of others . . . It becomes
them when one of their fellow-widows is clothed by anyone, or receives money, or
meat, or drink, or shoes, at the refreshment of their sister, to thank God.’
There we have at one and the same time a picture of the faults of which the
Church is all too full, and of the virtues which should be the marks of the true
Christian life.
~this text from the
Barclay Commentary
Now to the other
commentaries...
I want to look first at the commentaries with the more succinct and concise
explanations before going on to those more involved.
Notice the People's New Testament for both verses 9 and 10:
Let not a widow be taken. Into the order of widows supported by the church and
engaged in its work.
Under threescore. None but the aged.
Having been the wife of one man. Not having had more than one husband living at
the same time, as was very common in those days of easy divorce.
Well reported of. Good character was a requisite.
Good works. The good works are named.
Brought up children. Either her own, or orphans or neglected children.
Lodged strangers. The duty of hospitality is often urged. Often, in that age,
saints were made homeless by persecution.
Washed the saints' feet. A duty of hospitality, not a church ordinance.
Relieved the afflicted. A ministering angel. ~People's New Testament
Verse 9 is in three parts:
1] Let not a widow be taken into the number.
2] Under threescore years old.
3] Having been the wife of one man.
Let us take each one now.
1] Let not a widow be taken into the number.
Taken into the number - Let her not be taken into the list of those for which
the Church must provide. But some think that the apostle means the list of those
who were deaconesses in the Church; and that no widow was to be admitted into
that rank who did not answer to the following character. ~Adam Clarke
Let not a widow be taken into the number - That is, of widows, to be
maintained by the church; though some choose to understand these words of the
number of such who were made deaconesses, and had the care of the poor widows of
the church committed to them; and so the Arabic version renders it, "if a widow
be chosen a deaconess"; but the former sense is best, for it appears from 1
Timothy 5:1 that the apostle is still speaking of widows to be relieved: now
such were not to be taken under the church's care for relief, under threescore
years old: for under this age it might be supposed they would marry, and so not
be desolate, but would have husbands to provide for them; or they might be
capable of labour, and so of taking care of themselves. The age of sixty years
was by the Jews (x) reckoned זקנה, "old age", but not under. ~John Gill
Let not a widow be taken into the number - Margin, “chosen.” The margin
expresses the sense of the Greek more accurately, but the meaning is not
materially different. Paul does not here specify into what “number” the widow is
to be “taken,” or for what purpose she is to be “chosen,” but he speaks of this
as a thing that was well understood. There can be no doubt, however, what he
means. In the Acts of the Apostles 1 Timothy 6:1 we have this account: “And in
those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a
complaining of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were
neglected in the daily ministration.” “It appears that from the first formation
of the Christian church, provision was made out of the public funds of the
society for the indigent widows who belonged to it.” To this, as to a
well-known practice, Paul here evidently refers. The manner in which he refers
to it is such as to show that the custom had an existence. All that was
necessary in the case, was, not to speak of it as if it were a new arrangement,
but to mention those who ought to be regarded as proper subjects of the charity.
It would seem, also, that it was understood that such widows, according to their
ability, should exercise a proper watch over the younger females of the church.
In this way, while they were supported by the church, they might render
themselves useful. ~Barnes Notes
2] Under threescore years old.
Under threescore years - As it might be supposed that, previously to this age,
they might be able to do something towards their own support. ~Adam Clarke
Under threescore years old - For such reasons as those mentioned in 1 Timothy
5:11-14.
1 Timothy 5:11-14
11 But the younger widows refuse: for when they have begun to wax wanton against
Christ, they will marry;
12 Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith.
13 And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and
not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they
ought not.
14 I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the
house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. ~Barnes
Notes
3] Having been the wife of one man.
Having been the wife of one man - Having lived in conjugal fidelity with her
husband; or having had but one husband at a time; or, according to others,
having never been but once married. But the former is the opinion of some of the
most eminent of the Greek fathers, and appears to be that most consistent with
the scope of the place, and with truth. ~Adam Clarke
Having been the wife of one man - that is, at one time; for second marriages are
not hereby condemned, for this would be to condemn what the apostle elsewhere
allows, Romans 7:2. Nor is the sense only, that she should be one who never had
more husbands than one at once; for this was not usual for women to have more
husbands than one, even where polygamy obtained, or where men had more wives
than one: this rather therefore is to be understood of one who had never put
away her husband, and married another, which was sometimes done among the Jews;
see Mark 10:12, and this being a scandalous practice, the apostle was willing to
put a mark of infamy upon it, and exclude such persons who had been guilty of it
from the number of widows relieved by the church. ~John Gill
Quoted verses:
Romans 7:2
For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long
as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her
husband.
Mark 10:12
And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she
committeth adultery.
What concepts and principles do we learn here that ultimately apply to all
firstfruits?
1] Human and spiritual maturity comes in time. That is, we grow wiser with age.
Be ever growing in spiritual maturity.
2] We should be given to good works or the invoking of the Holy Spirit in the
form of Godly principles [fruits of the Spirit].
3] We should be hospitable.
4] Every firstfruit, regardless of age, sex or status has duties and
responsibilities to the church and God.
5] We must always be ready for service, helping and praying for others.
6] We must be discreet. We are not to be talebearers or gossips.
7] We are to be sober and not given to much wine [or strong drink].
8] We must be examples of purity and fidelity. That is, we are firstfruits who
are constantly and diligently striving for purity and fidelity.
9] We should be meek, quiet, gentle, sincere, free from anger, not talkative,
not clamorous, not hasty of speech, not given to evil-speaking, not given to
finding fault, not double-tongued, not a busybody.
10] Understand that firstfruits are not only the temple of the Holy Spirit but
are to be the altar of God. What do you bring physically, mentally, emotionally
and spiritually to this altar?
11] We must never be greedy in any area of our lives.
12] Firstfruits are to do all they can to help themselves and to better their
situation.
13] We must never be envious or jealous.
14] Be circumspect in marriage. Understand all the ramifications of it as a
living metaphor from God.
These are the lessons of 1 Timothy 5 and verse 9
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