A note from our Pastor:

”But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.”

1 Timothy 5:6

Good Morning Dearly Beloved,

Our study verse this week continues the thoughts of the Apostle Paul regarding the care of widows by the church. In the prior verses, the Apostle has spoken about widows indeed and their piety. Now, in our study verse this week he addresses a less positive subject with Timothy.

Among the many women in Ephesus who lost their husbands to death, there were two categories of widows from the Apostle’s perspective. The first category was those widows indeed who turned to the Lord to provide for them and embraced service to the less fortunate as their way of life. The other category of widows chose a life of immorality and physical pleasure for others which oppressed them.

In this verse, the Apostle is speaking of this second group of widows. These were women who found other means to provide for themselves and sacrificed both their morals and their independence as a result. The concept of a person being dead while living is a unique idea to the Apostle. He speaks similarly in Romans 8:13 saying, “if ye live after the flesh ye shall die.”

For the Apostle in his writings, there were two forms of death. The corporeal death in which the body dies and the soul is separated from the body and the moral in which the soul is separated from God. The death he speaks of in this verse is a moral death. As the widow chooses a life of immorality she experiences a moral death as her relationship with God suffers.

The instruction for Timothy was to try to steer the widows away from finding means to provide for themselves that were oppressive and ungodly. Instead, the Apostle desired for widows to be cared for by the community of believers, to engage in service to the less fortunate, and to have a sense of independence and importance.

Our Prayers are with you daily,

Brother Jeremiah