Widow Welfare

INTRODUCTION:

Interest:

It is not at all unusual for us to have people stop in the church office during the week who are looking for financial assistance. They are generally without jobs and claim to be in need of food, clothing, or gas. Some of them are rather aggressive with their requests. Others are rather subdued. They generally expect, though, that the church will help them. That message has flowed through our society for many years. It is not unusual to hear reflected in political speeches that the most effective welfare programs are those run by faith-based ministries.

Involvement:

The question that we will consider tonight is, what should our response be to these people who come to our church looking for aid?

Context:

As we continue through the last couple of chapters in Paul’s letter to Timothy, we are encountering specific issues that Timothy faced in the church in Ephesus. The false teachers and their teachings had created specific problems. Paul has already given general instructions regarding things like worship and leadership selection. Now, he is dealing with specifics.

Timothy is going to have to deal with these specifics by dealing with particular people and particular problems. Last week we looked at a couple of verses that dealt with the how Timothy was to confront various people: those older and those younger, men and women.

Preview:

This week we are looking at more verses than we considered last week, but if anything, our verses are even more specific. Timothy has to deal problems, as you can see on the screen, regarding widows in the church. Yet from these verses we can learn a valuable point that is as important for our church to understand as it was for the church in Ephesus: The church has a responsibility to care for its own members.

Transition from introduction to body:

The church has a responsibility to care for its own members.

BODY:

There are a couple of specific problems that show up in our verses this evening. Apparently there are widows who really need financial help from the church. Paul wants Timothy to ensure that they are taken care of appropriately. There also seem to be widows who are creating problems within the church. Timothy needs to address the trouble-making tendencies of these women.

We will read all our verses this evening and observe how Paul guides Timothy to address these problems. More significantly, though, we can extract three general principles from Paul’s instructions regarding the specific circumstances in Ephesus that should guide both our church and our personal conduct.

Let’s go ahead and read our verses together…<read 1 Tim 5:3–16>.

Transition:

These verses don’t lend themselves to a nice, neat outline; Paul bounces back and forth between his instructions for caring for the older widows who need help and dealing with the problems being created by some younger widows. That’s ok, we don’t have the exact same circumstances anyway. As I said, though, we can extract general principles from the situation in Ephesus that we can then apply to our church situation.

The first principle that comes out of these verses is that we must…

I. Principle 1: Care for the truly destitute within the church.

In Ephesus there were women within the church who were truly destitute. Paul calls them “widows indeed” in verse 3 and 5, or “truly widows” as the ESV translates it. The idea is that these were women who did not have anyone outside the church to care for them. In the Roman Empire of that day, there wasn’t any welfare program like we have in our day. The state did not take care of people who had no means to provide for themselves. Apparently within the church, there were some widows that fit this category. If the church didn’t help these women, they would not survive. They would have nothing to eat and likely not have a place to stay. Timothy is to make sure that the church cares for these widows.

Transition:

As we think about this principle, there are a couple of points to consider. First, we must

A. Be intentional about needs within the church.

We see this idea in verse 9 when it talks about putting a widow on a list. Over the centuries since Paul wrote these words, there has been a lot of discussion in the church about what Paul means by a list. It likely means that the church is committing to ongoing care for these women. The level of formality underlying that care can be debated, but at the very least there is some sort of clarity for the church that they know who is considered under the church’s care and who is not.

This is important because the church is clearly not responsible for all widows. For example, the woman must be at least 60 years old. That automatically reduces the list of widows down. She was to be “the wife of one man” which probably means faithful to her husband since a similar phrase was used for the pastor in chapter 3 being the husband of one wife. The bottom line is that only some of the widows would meet the requirements.

Furthermore, it is also clear that the women are part of the church. There are requirements for godliness given. We will discuss those requirements further in a little while, but for now I want us to notice that Paul is not placing an obligation on the church to meet the general needs of widows in the city; he is placing and obligation on the church regarding certain of the widows who are within the church.

Illustration

This is important for us to understand. When people come in randomly to the church asking for financial help, I will often ask them if they have a church family. I explain that the church has a duty to help those in the church. If they were part of a church family then that church would be in a position to help them.

Application

The one thing that we should observe from Paul’s instructions are that as a church we need to be intentional about those who have real needs within our church. I would suggest that the principle can be extended beyond widows even. In Paul’s day, older widows were most likely to be in a truly destitute position. Things are different now, but we must still be aware of anyone who is in a destitute position within our church and intentionally meet real needs that arise.

Transition:

We must be intentional about needs within the church. Second, we must…

B. Exceed valid worldly expectations of conduct.

We will talk about this again later but notice in verse 8 Paul states that if someone doesn’t take care of those who have needs in his household, then he “is worse than an unbeliever.” What Paul means is that even unbelievers have an instinctive understanding that they have a duty toward caring for family members. We would attribute this to common grace. They know that they cannot let a family member starve. His point is that the church must do better in these kinds of practical situations than unbelievers or else our testimony toward Christ will be damaged.

Application

We are reminded over and over again that the world is always watching us; they are watching our interactions with each other and they have expectations as to what is right. Now, many of their expectations will be flawed because of sin, but some will be right. Whenever by God’s common grace the unsaved world has a right expectation regarding our social interactions, we certainly better meet or exceed that expectation.

Illustration

It is one thing for us to not meet the world’s expectation where their expectation is unbiblical. For example, our worldly society right now expects that everyone will agree that it is loving to accept that gender is a social construct. It is right to fail in their eyes regarding such an expectation because we can turn to scripture and, under its authority, show that such a few is false.

It is an entirely different matter to live in a society that expects that we will care for one another when we have physical needs and fail to meet that expectation. Our Lord says that we are to be known by our love for one another. To magnify Christ, we must exceed valid worldly expectations of conduct; our testimony requires it.

Transition:

Principle 1: Care for the truly destitute within the church. To do that we must be intentional about needs within the church and exceed valid worldly expectations of conduct.

There is a second principle that we can extract as well, …

II. Principle 2: Require godly living within the church.

I already mentioned that Paul makes it clear that he limited the church’s responsibility based on age. More importantly, though, there are a few limitations in these verses that deal with godly living. You see, godly living is to always be the church’s primary concern. Timothy always needed to keep that front and center for the ministry of the church to stay in focus once it was refocused.

Transition:

Godly living needs to be our central concern as well. In order to keep it central, let’s notice two things. First, we must…

A. Honor the honorable within the church.

We see the kinds of things that made a woman worthy of honor by observing the godly characteristics called out in verse 10 for a woman to have if she was to be put on the list of those who were honored as “widows indeed.” These were things displayed in her life before the church took on the burden of providing for her financial needs. She was to have a reputation of good works. She brought up children. She showed hospitality to strangers. She washed the saints’ feet. In other words, she was known as a lady who kept busy within her home, using her home to serve others for the cause of Christ. Verse 4 says that she is known for having her hope fixed on God. She has a reputation for continuing in prayers night and day. Such as lady is to be acknowledged before the church as one worthy of receiving honor.

Application

We need to ask ourselves whether we are using biblical filters when we select who we honor. There are times when I hear accolades being given within the church to people who really should not receive such. We look at their success in the business world. We look at the number of years of life that God has granted them. We look at tangible things rather and begin to ascribe honor to people because of these tangible things. What we really are to look demonstrations of godliness. These may be more intangible, but they are certainly more important. We need to hold up for honor the prayer warrior rather than the celebrity; the one who serves in the church rather than the one who gives a lot of money to the church.

Transition:

We need to honor the honorable within the church. We also need to…

B. Aggressively encourage righteous behavior.

There is a distinct contrast between the honorable widows of v. 10 and the younger widows of verse 11. Those of verse 10 are known for their home-care focus. Those of verse 11 are known according to verse 13 for spending time outside their home, pursuing things that disrupt rather than build up the church. Timothy was to aggressively encourage these younger widows to change their behavior by not providing them with a financial safety net through the church. This would encourage them to get married and have children because they needed to eat. They wouldn’t have time to continue their busybody activities, they would have a home to take care of.

Illustration

I read a few articles over the past several months that speculated that all of the stay-at-home mandates that were in place in various states and the extreme number of layoffs generated by those orders aided the civil unrest that so many cities experienced. There were places which had riots night after night. The logic in the articles were that it would have been much more difficult to gain crowds of those sizes night after night if many of the rioters had to get up and go to work on in the morning.

Application

Well, within the church we need to be careful that we do not create a situation that facilitates ungodly behavior. Idleness is still the devil’s playground. Unaccounted time and excess freedom from responsibilities and financial burdens will not aid righteous behavior. We need boundaries in our lives. We need to be fenced in.

Illustration

The picture that comes to my mind is the fences that are set up to corral a herd of cattle. They start out as two broadly separated fence lines that angle toward each other. It is easy to drive the cattle into the wide opening. Then as the cattle are driven forward, the sides slowly come together until the cattle are forced through a narrow gate into a corral that they would have avoided if they had initially seen only the corral and its gate.

It is possible that it sounded harsh even in that day for Paul to say that these young widows should be forced into a situation that would drive them toward remarriage. Yet Paul knew that such would be best for their spiritual well-being and the well-being of the church overall. For that reason, he wanted to ensure that the church did not provide a safety net to these widows.

We too need to consider carefully what sort of things we do as a church for those who have needs. We need to ensure that we are encouraging righteous behavior rather than supporting problematic behavior. That may even require that we take unpopular action at times.

Transition:

We need to aggressively encourage righteous behavior. That is as important as making sure we honor the honorable within the church. Both are necessary to support the principle to require godly living within the church, which is principle number 2.

A third principle that we can find in these verses is that we also must…

III. Principle 3: Do everything possible to relieve burdens on the church.

The church will always have limited resources available. The church can also always find more opportunities to put those resources to use, there are always new missionaries to support and more outreach endeavors to undertake. Thus, it is crucial that each of us do everything possible to relieve burdens on the church.

Transition:

In our verses we can see a couple of ways in which we can do this. First, we must…

A. Perform our own personal duties toward others.

It is clear that when it comes to even the “widows indeed,” that is, widows who meet all the criteria—over 60, had been faithful to husband, known for good works, and so forth—even in this case any family members are to bear the burden of caring for them. If a woman had children or grandchildren, then the church was not to support that woman; the family had that responsibility. In fact, their neglecting to do so would do great damage to the testimony of the church. The church could not tolerate such ungodly activity on the part of the family members. Paul doesn’t state it explicitly here, but we can surmise that the church would be expected to confront any family member who was neglectful in such a way. Certainly, the church isn’t to aid in their neglectful behavior by taking over their obligation toward the widow.

Application

There is a principle here that applies to most of us. We have financial obligations—personal duties. We have obligations to care for our immediate family—spouses and children. We must do these things. We also have responsibilities toward our extended family members. We must be willing to sacrifice our own finances, if necessary, to aid our extended family members in a crisis.

Now, allow me to take a brief side-road here and talk about a related matter that some of you might be thinking about—our deacon’s fund. In our church we have the deacon’s fund that we use to help people who have encountered unexpected financial issues through providential circumstances. You might be thinking, based upon all that we have talked about tonight, “Is it right for us to have this fund?” The quick answer that I would give is a qualified “yes.” This passage is discussing permanent support for widows who had no other means of support. There is nothing in this passage that says that the church cannot provide temporary aid as an expression of love to others in the church. And our deacons fund is always temporary support. The reason that I say a qualified “yes,” though, is that wisdom must still be used. It is not proper to use the deacons fund in a way that allows church members to neglect their own personal duties. We would not, say, use the deacons fund to buy clothes for a child who needs clothes if their father were driving a $50,000 car. Rather, we would counsel him on his personal duties to his family. But that is rarely the case that we encounter. Most often, there are temporary issues that providentially arise that the fund can meet, allowing us to show love toward one another.

Transition:

Now, rejoining the main topic…We must perform our own personal duties toward others. The second thing to notice in our verses is that we should…

B. Be generous toward others as the Lord allows.

Now, I am not talking about generosity through the deacons fund toward others, I am talking about personal generosity where we see a need an meet it.

Look at the last verse in our passage, “If any woman who is a believer has dependent widows, she must assist them and the church must not be burdened.” This is a difficult phrase to translate because the exact idea being discussed is a bit fogged by time. Surely Timothy and the Ephesians understood the idea but we have lost a bit of the context. There are a several possibilities, let me give you a couple of the most likely. One, it could be that Paul is referencing the case where a woman is married to an unbeliever but is the child or grandchild of a widow. Paul can’t say that she is directly responsible for the widow as she doesn’t control the money, her husband does. But the wife should nonetheless use her influence with her husband to ensure that the needs of mom or grandma are met. Another possibility is the case of someone like Lydia, a woman of financial means. She could use her finances to care women that she is not directly responsible for, thus freeing the church from the obligation. In either case, the idea is to use ones own resources to meet the needs of others so that the burden does not fall on the church.

Application

We should want to keep the church free from as many financial burdens as we can. But we should also have hearts that seek to generously meet the needs of others. It should be a real joy to be able to come along side someone and help them with funds that the Lord has graciously given to us when we see a need. We may do this anonymously or we may not. But we certainly must do it humbly. It must be an expression of our love for the other person, our love for our church, and our love for our Lord.

Transition from body to conclusion:

We are to be generous toward others as the Lord allows. Principle 3: Do everything possible to relieve burdens on the church. Perform our own personal duties toward others and be generous toward others as the Lord allows.

CONCLUSION

The church has a responsibility to care for its own members. That is the overall idea that we can extract from these verses this evening.

Remember those people who come into the church looking for financial aid. Our policy is that we do not give them money because they are not part of our church. The church has a responsibility to care for its own members. They are not part of our church.

In fact, as we have seen this evening, we can extract three principles that do apply. Principle 1: We must care for the truly destitute within the church. Frankly, we are fortunate that we do not have anyone in a situation where they are so destitute that our church must provide their on-going care. But that does not change the principle. Principle 2: Require godly living within the church. That is central to our ministry. Principle 3: Do everything possible to relieve burdens on the church. That displays a ministry heart.

The church has a responsibility to care for its own members.