A note from our Pastor:

”Honour widows that are widows indeed.”

1 Timothy 5:3

Good Morning Dearly Beloved,

Our study verse this week transitions to a series of verses focused on the role of and care for widows in the church. In our study this week, we will look at some foundational thoughts for these verses and frame up their continued study. The study of this topic requires a deeper understanding of the 1st Century context of the teachings.

As an initial point, the teachings of Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry completely revolutionized how women were viewed in society. Does this mean it resolved all issues? No, there was great work to be done as time passed to reach equal treatment of women, but it must be recognized the role early Christianity played. Leading up to the time Jesus started teaching women led an isolated and degraded life largely because they had no publicly recognized occupation or place outside of the home. However, from the earliest days of Jesus’s ministry, a group of women traveled with him, worked directly with his ministry, and led to the spread of the gospel. This was a novel place for women to occupy.

Going forward from the early teachings of Christ to the early church after his death, women now had a public calling and were highly respected. Their role was to lead the charitable work of the congregation. The type of work the women could do was endless as they met the needs of the congregation and the larger community around them. Furthermore, Jesus had made it clear that such work was blessed and the ones doing it were to be greatly honored. Women had moved from a secluded place in the home to a very public place in the new religion.

Now we come to the term of a “widow indeed” which is a foreign term in our modern culture. A widow indeed in 1st-century terms meant a woman who did not have any family to care for her. Even though women had taken on a prominent role in the church, in the larger culture they still were not in a position in society to be able to care for themselves. If a woman was widowed and did not have children to care for her she was completely dependent on the charity of others.

The instruction to Timothy is for the church to care for these widows. First, they should be given responsibility in the church to likely organize and guide the younger women in their charitable work. Second, they were to be cared for by the alms (charitable giving) of the church so that they were not left to beg on the street and wonder if they would have enough to get by. In this way, the widows indeed were both honored for their wisdom and cared for in love.

The community of believers, as designed by Christ, could care for those in need with empathy and love.

Our Prayers are with you daily,