Survey
of the Letters of Paul: 1 Timothy 5:12
Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith.
Let us read verses 11-16
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.
15 For some are already turned aside after Satan.
16 If any man or woman that believeth have widows,
let them relieve them, and let not the church be
charged; that it may relieve them that are widows
indeed.
Here is the Barclay commentary...
THE PERILS OF IDLENESS
1 Timothy 5:11–16
Refuse to enroll the younger women as widows, for
when they grow impatient with the restrictions of
Christian widowhood, they wish to marry, and so
deserve condemnation, because they have broken the
pledge of their first faith; and, at the same time,
they learn to be and bear children, and run a house
and home, and give our opponents no chance of abuse.
For, even as things are, some of them have turned
aside from the way to follow Satan. If any believing
person has widowed relations, let such a person help
them, and let not the Church be burdened with the
responsibility, so that it may care for those who
are genuinely in the position of widows.
A PASSAGE like this reflects the situation in
society in which the early Church found itself.
It is not that younger widows are condemned for
marrying again. What is condemned is this. A young
husband dies; and the widow, in the first bitterness
of sorrow and on the impulse of the moment, decides
to remain a widow all her life and to dedicate her
life to the Church, but later she changes her mind
and remarries. That woman is regarded as having
taken Christ as her bridegroom. So, by marrying
again, she is regarded as breaking her marriage vow
to Christ. She would have been better never to have
taken the vow.
What complicated this matter very much was the
social background of the times. It was next to
impossible for a single or a widowed woman to earn
her living honestly. There was practically no trade
or profession open to her. The result was
inevitable; she was almost driven to prostitution in
order to live. The Christian woman, therefore, had
either to marry or to dedicate her life completely
to the service of the Church; there was no half-way
house.
In any event, the perils of idleness remain the same
in any age. There was the danger of becoming
restless: because a woman did not have enough to do,
she might become one of those individuals who drift
from house to house in an empty social round. It was
almost inevitable that such a woman would become a
gossip: because she had nothing important to talk
about, she would tend to talk scandal, repeating
tales idle and to run from house to house. Yes, they
can become more than idle; they can become gossips
and busybodies, saying things which should not be
repeated. It is my wish that the younger widows
should marry, from house to house, each time with a
little more embellishment and a little more malice.
Such a woman ran the risk of becoming a busybody:
because she had nothing of her own to hold her
attention, she would be very apt to be over
interested and over-interfering in the affairs of
others.
It was true then, as it is true now, that, as the
hymn-writer Isaac Watts had it, ‘Satan finds some
mischief still for idle hands to do.’ The full life
is always the safe life, and the empty life is
always the life in peril.
So, the advice is that these younger women should
marry and engage upon the greatest task of all,
rearing a family and making a home. Here we have
another example of one of the main thoughts of the
Pastoral Epistles. They are always concerned with
how Christians appear to the outside world. Do they
give any opportunity to criticize the Church or
reason to admire it? It is always true that ‘the
greatest handicap the Church has is the
unsatisfactory lives of professing Christians’ and
equally true that the greatest argument for
Christianity is a genuinely Christian life.
~The Barclay Commentary
Now to the other commentaries...
This verse has two phrases:
1] Having damnation.
2] Because they have cast off their first faith.
1] Having
damnation.
Having damnation - Or,
rather, having “condemnation;” or incurring guilt.
This does not mean of necessity that they would lose
their souls; see the phrase explained in the notes
on 1 Corinthians 11:29. The meaning is, that they
would contract guilt, if they had been admitted
among this class of persons, and then married again.
The apostle does not say that that would be wrong in
itself, or that they would be absolutely prohibited
from it, but that injury would be done if they were
admitted among those who were “widows indeed” - who
were supported by the church, and who were entrusted
with a certain degree of care over the more youthful
females - and then should leave that situation. It
might give occasion for scandal it might break in
upon the arrangements; it would show that there was
a relaxing of the faith, and of the deadness to the
world, which they were supposed to have; and it was
better that they should be married 1 Timothy 5:14,
without having been thus admitted.
Quoted verses:
1 Corinthians 11:29
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth
and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord's body.
Let us look on the commentary on this verse and
specifically the phrase, "eatheth and drinketh
damnation" to themselves.
Eateth and drinketh damnation
- This is evidently a figurative expression, meaning
that by eating and drinking improperly he incurs
condemnation; which is here expressed by eating and
drinking condemnation itself. The word “damnation”
we now apply, in common language, exclusively to the
future and final punishment of the wicked in hell.
But the word used here does not of necessity refer
to that; and according to our use of the word now,
there is a harshness and severity in our translation
which the Greek does not require, and which probably
was not conveyed by the word “damnation” when the
translation was made.
~Barnes Notes
1 Timothy 5:14
I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear
children, guide the house, give none occasion to the
adversary to speak reproachfully.
~ Barnes Notes
Having damnation - In
the sense in which we use this word I am satisfied
the apostle never intended it. It is likely that he
refers here to some promise or engagement which they
made when taken on the list already mentioned, and
now they have the guilt of having violated that
promise; this is the κριμα, or condemnation, of
which the apostle speaks.
~Adam Clarke
The People's New Testament has for, "having
damnation" "Not because they marry, but
because after entering a class consecrated entirely
to church work, they forsake its duties in order to
marry. ~People's New
Testament
2] Because they
have cast off their first faith.
Because they have cast off
their first faith - This does not mean that
they would lose all their religion, or wholly fall
away, but that this would show that they had not the
strong faith, the deadness to the world, the simple
dependence on God 1 Timothy 5:5, and the desire
which they had to be weaned from worldly cares and
influences, which they once had. When they became
widows, all their earthly hopes seemed to be
blasted. They were then dead to the world, and felt
their sole dependence on God. But if, under the
influence of these strong emotions, they were
admitted to the “class of widows” in the church,
there was no certainty that they would continue in
this state of mind. Time would do much to modify
their grief. There would be a reviving love of the
world, and under the influence of this they would be
disposed to enter again into the marriage relation,
and thus show that they had not the strong and
simple faith which they had when the blow which made
them widows fell heavily upon then.
Quoted verse:
1 Timothy 5:5
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate,
trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and
prayers night and day.
~Barnes Notes
They have cast off their first
faith - By pledging their fidelity to a
husband they have cast off their fidelity to Christ,
as a married life and their previous engagement are
incompatible. Dr. Macknight translates these two
verses thus: But the younger widows reject, for when
they cannot endure Christ’s rein, they will marry;
incurring condemnation, because they have put away
their first fidelity. ~Adam
Clarke
They have cast off their first
faith — namely, pledged to Christ and the
service of the Church. There could be no hardship at
the age of sixty or upwards in not marrying again
(end of 1 Timothy 5:9), for the sake of serving
better the cause of Christ as presbyteresses [prĕz'bĭ-tər-ess:
A female presbyter-an elder of the congregation];
though, to ordinary widows, no barrier existed
against remarriage (1 Corinthians 7:39). This is
altogether distinct from Rome’s unnatural vows of
celibacy in the case of young marriageable women.
The widow- presbyteresses, moreover, engaged to
remain single, not as though single life were holier
than married life, but because the interests of
Christ’s cause made it desirable (see on 1 Timothy
3:2). They had pledged “their first faith” to Christ
as presbyteress widows; they now wish to transfer
their faith to a husband (compare 1 Corinthians
7:32, 1 Corinthians 7:34).
Quoted Verses:
1 Timothy 5:9
Let not a widow be taken into the number under
threescore years old, having been the wife of one
man,
1 Corinthians 7:39
The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband
liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at
liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the
Lord.
1 Timothy 3:2
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one
wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to
hospitality, apt to teach;
1 Corinthians 7:32
But I would have you without carefulness. He that is
unmarried careth for the things that belong to the
Lord, how he may please the Lord:
1 Corinthians 7:34
There is difference also between a wife and a
virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of
the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in
spirit: but she that is married careth for the
things of the world, how she may please her husband. ~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
Robertson's Word Pictures has the meaning for "they
have cast off" to reject or set aside. For
the part of the phrase, "their first faith" he says,
"Their first pledge" (promise,
contract) to Christ. It is like breaking
the marriage contract.
~Robertson's Word Pictures