1 Timothy 5.6-In Contrast To The Godly Widow, The Widow Who Lives Self-Indulgently Is Spiritually Dead Even While She Lives
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday August 2, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 5:6-In Contrast To The Godly Widow, The Widow Who Lives Self-Indulgently Is Spiritually Dead Even While She Lives
Lesson # 101
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 5:3.
This evening we will study 1 Timothy 5:6, which teaches that in contrast to the godly widow who is qualified to receive financial support from the church, the widow who possesses a self-indulgent lifestyle is spiritually dead even while she is physically alive.
1 Timothy 5:3 Honor widows who are widows indeed; 4 but if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God. 5 Now she who is a widow indeed and who has been left alone, has fixed her hope on God and continues in entreaties and prayers night and day. 6 But she who gives herself to wanton pleasure is dead even while she lives. (NASB95)
This verse is composed of the post-positive conjunction de (δέ) (theh), “but” and then we have the articular nominative feminine singular present active participle form of the verb spatalao (σπαταλάω) (spahtah-lahowe), “she who gives herself to wanton pleasure” and this is followed by the nominative feminine singular present active participle form of the verb zao (ζάω) (zah-owe), “even while she lives” followed by the third person singular perfect active indicative form of the verb thnesko (θνῄσκω) (thehknee-skoe), “is dead.”
The conjunction de introduces a statement that presents a contrast to the previous statement in verse 5, which lists three qualifications that identify not only a godly widow but one who is qualified to receive financial support from the Ephesian Christian community.
In this verse Paul teaches that a widow in the truest sense who is qualified to receive financial support is one who has no children or grandchildren of family members to help her.
The second qualification is that she possesses a confident expectation of blessing because of God the Father’s promises to provide for her and reward her for faithful service to the body of Christ.
The third is that she makes it her habit of persevering by means of specific detailed requests for herself and others as well as reverential prayers to the Father during the night and day.
Now, in verse 6, the conjunction de introduces a statement that identifies a second type of widow who is not qualified to receive financial support from the church.
If you recall, in verse 4, the first type of widow that is not qualified to receive financial aid from the church is the widow who has children and grandchildren who can help her.
Paul taught that the children and grandchildren of a widow must first learn to discipline themselves in making it their habit of receiving instruction in the Word of God in order to exercise godliness with their own family.
Specifically, they are to do this by fulfilling their financial obligations to their parents and grandparents because this is pleasing to the Father since it is according to His will as revealed in Exodus 20:12 and Ephesians 6:2.
In verse 6, we have the second type of widow who is not to receive financial aid, namely, one who possesses a self-indulgent lifestyle as a result of habitually living according to the desires of her sin nature, which results in her habitually experiencing temporal spiritual death, i.e. loss of fellowship with God.
Paul teaches that she might be physically alive but in reality she is experiencing temporal spiritual death and is out of fellowship with God.
Therefore, the contrast in verses 5-6 is between the godly widow and the ungodly widow.
The contrast is between a widow who is exercising faith in God’s promises with the widow who is not.
Or we can view this as a contrast between a widow who is exercising godliness with one who is not.
Or, a contrast between one who is obedient to God and one who is not, one who is in fellowship and one who is not.
In 1 Timothy 5:6, the verb spatalao means “to live self-indulgently” and refers to a hedonistic and sinful lifestyle.
Paul does not go on to identify the details of this type of lifestyle, only that it results in experiencing temporal spiritual death, i.e. loss of fellowship.
There is no mention of sexual sins.
However, fornication would be a temptation for a widow.
The verb however does clearly imply that this type of widow has money.
Otherwise, how could she live self-indulgently?
The term speaks of a widow who is wealthy and lives an extravagant lifestyle with no concern for those in need in the church.
Thus, the fact that she possesses wealth disqualifies her from receiving financial support from the church.
Spatalao is also pointing back to the type of woman mentioned in 1 Timothy 2:9, which the women in the Ephesian Christian community were not to imitate.
1 Timothy 2:9 Similarly I myself always want women to make it a habit of adorning themselves with modest apparel accompanied by reverence as well as self-control, not with extravagant hairstyles as well as gold or pearls or extravagantly expensive clothing. (My translation)
Therefore, in 1 Timothy 5:6, the verb spatalao refers to the wealthy Christian woman who uses her wealth self-indulgently without any concern for those in need and less fortunate.
She uses her money to dress ostentatiously spending her money on extravagant hairstyles and expensive clothing.
This reflects her inward condition as one who is out of fellowship with God and living according to the lusts of her indwelling sin nature.
It also reflects an inward condition of rejecting the Word of God because of unbelief since disobedience to God is the result of unbelief in His promises.
She stands in direct contrast to the widow who possesses a confident expectation of blessing because of God’s promises to provide for her and reward her for faithful service to the body of Christ.
The verb spatalao speaks of a Christian widow who does not serve the body of Christ because of her self-indulgent lifestyle that is the result of living according to the lusts of her sin nature.
This type of Christian widow is described in greater detail in 1 Timothy 5:11-15.
1 Timothy 5:11 But refuse to put younger widows on the list, for when they feel sensual desires in disregard of Christ, they want to get married, 12 thus incurring condemnation, because they have set aside their previous pledge. 13 At the same time they also learn to be idle, as they go around from house to house; and not merely idle, but also gossips and busybodies, talking about things not proper to mention. 14 Therefore, I want younger widows to get married, bear children, keep house, and give the enemy no occasion for reproach; 15 for some have already turned aside to follow Satan. (NASB95)
In 1 Timothy 5:6, the verb thnesko refers to temporal spiritual death or in other words, being out of fellowship with God.
In this verse, the word means “to experience temporal spiritual death” and is used of a Christian widow who is out of fellowship with God as a result of indulging the desires of her sin nature.
This results in her living a self-indulgent lifestyle with no regard for the needs of others less fortunate.
The verb zao means, “to be alive” and is used of the ungodly Christian widow’s existence on planet earth in the temporal human body contaminated by the sin nature.
This existence would involve the believer’s thoughts, words, actions and decisions.
It is a concessive participle, which implies that the state or action of the main verb is true in spite of the state or action of the participle.
The main verb is thnesko.
Therefore, the participle form of the verb zao implies that the ungodly widow is experiencing temporal spiritual death in spite of the fact that she is physically alive.
1 Timothy 5:6 speaks of a Christian widow who possesses a lifestyle of obeying the lusts of her sin nature, which results in her losing fellowship with God, which is called “temporal spiritual death.”
This type of spiritual death is fundamentally different from the state of the unbeliever since a believer can be delivered from it through the confession of sin to be restored to fellowship which is maintained by obedience to God.
The unbeliever is delivered from “real spiritual death” through faith alone in Christ alone or in other words, accepting Jesus Christ as Savior.