If you have a Bible, let me in my turn with me to 1 Timothy 5, 1 Timothy 5, tonight we're in verses 9 to 3, 16. 1 Timothy 5, 2, 19, 16. Last week, we've been working our way through this book, we saw that God cares about the most vulnerable in his family, and that because he cares, so ought we. The church should support the destitute within the body of Christ when there is no other way for them to be supported.
Tonight we'll see that Paul continues this theme and introduces the idea of the perpetual support of widows by the church, along with highlighting the service of widows to Jesus. Let me invite you to consider God's word, 1 Timothy 5, verses 9 through 16. Here now the word of God. Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works.
If she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, has devoted herself to every good work. But refused to enroll younger widows for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and sow in cur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busy bodies, saying what they should not. So I would have younger widows married, bare children and men, which their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander, for some have already strayed after Satan.
If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are really widows. Amen. This is God's Word, and that He write it on our hearts and shape us by it.
Let's pray. Father, we pray because of your great mercy that we would be transformed by the renewing of our minds, not conformed to the pattern of this world. But make us more like you in love and generosity and compassion. Make us wise in how we live, in our day, amidst family and church and difficulty in people's lives.
We pray that you would teach us your word, O Lord, for we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Are you a listener maker? You like to make a to-do list, you know, a task list, a running checklist of things you need to accomplish?
I mentioned to someone yesterday how much I love to cross things off a to-do list. Sometimes I'll accomplish something that I hadn't actually written on the list, and after the fact, I'll write it in and then throw a line through it. Now, you don't scratch it out so darkly, you can't see what you accomplished, but you know it's done. There's just such this great sense of satisfaction for me in that some of you are to-do list kinds of people, checking boxes, that sort of thing.
Some people make different kinds of lists. They make lists of people instead of tasks, lists of relationships. They want to cultivate, people they want to have over, conversations they intend to engage in. The church also keeps lists.
Lists of those who are baptized and those who are not yet baptized. Lists of those who have publicly professed their faith and those who have not yet publicly professed their faith. The church keeps lists of those who may partake of communion, and if they need arises, those who may not partake of communion. Lists of members and non-members, regular attenders, occasional attenders, and ones of the Blue Moon visitors.
Now, the point of such lists is to care for people spiritually in accordance with their spiritual condition in life. Sometimes those lists are on paper. Sure, sometimes they're just in your minister's head. But we keep lists, don't we?
Here Paul mentions a list, a list upon which these widows may be enrolled or not enrolled according to their condition. It's a list of the financial needs of these widows. He speaks of enrolling widows on the list of those who should be supported by the church. Let me say just a few more words about this list, and then I'll give you my outline and where we're headed with this.
It is a list, I would argue, though some see it differently. Some see it simply as a list of women who ought to be allowed to serve in certain kinds of positions in the church. But I take it as a list of those who ought to be perpetually supported by the church. I say perpetually, because after all, there's no need to put someone on a list.
If you're giving them a one-time gift, they'll have an unexpected financial setback out of which you expect them to recover. But you do put them on a list if they're going to get a regular share of the distribution of the resources of the church because they're destitute without it. It's a list of perpetually needy people, people bereft of the help of others. The word does refer to widows but isn't exclusive to a woman whose husband has died.
It has nothing to do with how the woman was bereft or left alone. It simply says that she is a woman who is now alone. And that can happen through death, of course, but also through desertion in that day. So many women would become believers in Jesus, and the husband would say, no way, no how, and I'm not living with you.
And leave them bereft of all health. It can happen through divorce. The term itself does not necessitate the death of the spouse, but she is bereft, left alone, has no family to help her as we looked at last week, and no resources to provide for herself. So under certain conditions, she might be helped regularly by the church.
It's a list, verse 9, of widows who should be enrolled, and verse 11 of widows who should not be enrolled. Now there's much here for all of us. If that hasn't grabbed your attention, you don't know perhaps any widows, or not sure what your responsibility here would be. This is a text that tells us a lot about the shape of Christian godliness and a lot about marriage, and it's blessing and benefits.
And we'll have some things to say about that. But let me do this. We highlight three things and then make two applications. In verses 9 and 10, what we see is Paul's concern for work, those who should be enrolled, and the good reputation of older widows.
And verses 11 and 12, he speaks of those who should not be enrolled, and the dangerous temptations of young widows, and at verses 13 through 16, the domestic preoccupations of younger widows. He speaks of reputation, of temptation, and of preoccupation. So let me walk you through those three things, and then we'll come to our closing applications. First verses 9 and 10, who should be enrolled?
And here, that's especially the importance of the good reputation of the older widow who should be enrolled. Let it be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works. So first he says that there's an age test, not less than 60. Why 60?
Well, he doesn't exactly say. So we don't exactly know for sure. We do know that in that day it was a commonly held view that at the age of 60 she was, and I'm sorry for this, she was considered old. For many, not all, she would have been considered too old to remarry, and too old to find work for herself, work that would have been difficult for many women to find anyway.
But we don't know 100% why. 60, but he says it's 60. Having been the wife, he says, of one husband, or better, having been a one man woman. This is the opposite, but very similar construction he used when he spoke of elders.
Elders should be a one woman man. Here, she should be a one man woman. It doesn't mean that she's only been married to one man only ever but once. And we know that because at verse 14, he's going to say, I want the younger widows to remarry.
And so they're not going to be excluded. Should two husbands die and they're bereft? That's not his point. And there's no sin in the remarrying here.
It means that one time she is faithful to the husband that she has. She has been known to be totally devoted and faithful in that way. That would mean, of course, that her condition of financial need didn't come about because she was divorced by her husband for having committed herself adultery. She wouldn't then be supported by the church because of her sin that brought about this condition.
Sin wouldn't pay, so to speak, in this sense. But notice he spends most of his time speaking not of her age or of her marriage, but of her reputation for good works first hand. He speaks of a whole list of kinds of good works. These are typical kinds of good works.
It's not that a woman who's 80 years old, who's never been married but is destitute, can't be enrolled or a woman who's been married once but never did have children because the Lord didn't give her children, could never be enrolled. When he lists these things, he's talking about the kinds of things by which she's characterized. And let's just pause there before we jump into each one of them. There are four we want to highlight.
But just notice that the gospel has borne fruit in her life. She is known for her good works. These are not good works that saved her, but they show that she is saved. It's Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10 at work in her life by grace, you've been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing it as the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before him that we should walk in them. So good works aren't the root of her salvation, but they are the fruit of salvation in her life. And she's known by them.
And he mentions, let's look at these. He mentions four in particular, specific ones. If she's the kind of person here who has brought up children, there are people of course in whom the Lord has not given children, but assuming that she was married and the Lord gave her children, she loved them and she raised them. And she's the kind of woman as well who has shown hospitality.
She welcomed people into her home. We know that ends in that day could be very expensive. They could also be very unsafe. And they could also have all kinds of illicit and immoral activity going on in them.
And Christians often helped travelers find a safe place to stay. They often opened their homes to people, strangers, as well as fellow believers for a good meal. She's known for being a stranger lover and hospitable. She's washed, he says, the feet of the saints.
People walking in samples on dirty, dusty, muddy, filthy rose had their feet washed when they came to a home and before they sat down for dinner. And she was not above doing that work, but this, as you know, is a euphemism that's picked up to describe just the kind of humble spirit of a person who's willing to do the dirty work, to meet the needs and care for the needs of people. She, like her, Savior Jesus, who washed the feet of his own disciples. She was not above that in serving people.
And she, fourthly, she cared for the afflicted. She, he says, had assisted people in trouble. Didn't say what kind of affliction here could be. She's helping people who are under great mental strain.
People under physical pressure or persecution, emotional pressure, some kind of weight. And she's come alongside them in their trouble to help them. This is the kind of person that she is. She's godly.
She doesn't spend all her time on herself, but she cares for and loves people. This is who she is. She's devoted herself and says that every kind of good work. Her motto has been, as one dear widow, some of you know, this is tuning, her motto has been, I'd rather wear out than rust out.
And so she worked hard to serve people. Now Paul says, this is the kind of person who's evidencing by the fruit of her life that she's a believer in Jesus and she needs the body of Jesus to be the answer, do her prayer, that the Lord would help her. Now Paul turns to those who should not be enrolled, verses 11 and 12. That's the second thing we see.
Those who should not be enrolled, verse 11. And he speaks of why at great length. And in doing so, he tells us of some of the dangerous temptations that young widows are exposed to. Verse 11, but refused to enroll younger widows.
Why not enroll them? OK, because you might expose them to unique temptations, if you do. You might put them in the condition of financial security that gives them both the luxury of time and the luxury of money by which they might be tempted to sins unique to that kind of condition. What do I mean by this?
What he's talking about here? What kinds of temptations might she be she's tempted to? Immorality laziness gossip and meddling. He takes them one at a time.
Temptations to sexual immorality. Refused to enroll younger widows. Why? Verse 11, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry.
And so incurred condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. Admittedly, this is a difficult text to unravel. And commentators are divided about its meaning. He's speaking here of younger women who have undoubtedly professed faith.
They might have gone on the widow's list because they're around the church. But now because of their sexual desires, he's talking about that when he speaks of their passions here, they're tempted to a lifestyle of sin. No, he's not saying that their desire for physical intimacy, or sexual intimacy is wrong in itself. In fact, for instance, when the seven tells us that it's a good reason to get married.
It's better to marry than to burn with passion. Paul's not saying it's wrong that she has a desire to be with a man in a committed, intimate relationship. I mean, he's going to say in just a couple verses, they should go ahead and remarry. So he's not saying this is wrong that she would desire such a thing.
But he is saying not that the problem is marriage, but that the problem is the same temptation young Christians face as they wait for God to provide them a spouse, that they've never yet had. It's the problem of the passion that leads them away from Christ and into sinful relationships. They abandon faith in Jesus for the sake of the arms of lovers. Maybe they're tempted to marry non-Christians.
Maybe they're tempted to sleep around, whatever it is. I think that's what he's saying here. She's tempted to walk away from Jesus for the sake of the arms of a lover. But she's also tempted.
And if you give her money that's weekly and monthly, so she doesn't have to do anything else, and she's young, she's tempted to be. He says an idler. Paul's just being realistic here. She might go about from house to house and dadily.
He knew people like this. It might make her, he says, lazy and unproductive and more likely to flit about, has the house, one party to another. And Paul doesn't want to facilitate that kind of laziness. He wants her not to be idle, but to be hardworking.
He also doesn't want her to be exposed to the temptation to gossip. As she goes about from house to house, she's going to see things and hear things house to house. That she might be tempted to shout from the rooftops of the next house. She's at, and Paul doesn't want her to be a gossip.
And he doesn't want her to be a busybody, he says. The temptation to meddling in the affairs of others. He says, get involved in telling everybody else what their business ought to be while not taking care of their own business. And since she had so little of her own wife to take up her attention, she's not married.
She doesn't have children, but she doesn't have to work. She found it easy, Paul said, to be over interested and over interfering in the lives of others. Idle hands are the devil's playground, as they say. It's so true.
Paul is just being, this is basically brutally honest, but he's being brutally realistic. An older Christian woman, versus 9 and 10, with a reputation for godliness, has learned to fight these urges. She's learned to sing notice in and yes to righteousness. Notice self and yes to Jesus.
Note to her selfishness and yes to serving others. But like the daughter of a rich man left to her own devices to go her own way with money to burn and time on her hands, this young widow living off the support of God's people might be tempted to all these things. And he says, don't expose her to that. It would be irresponsible and unloving to do that.
But to facilitate that in her, don't put her spiritual well-being at risk, Paul is saying, love her more than that. So don't fund her perpetually. Paul is not saying, you can't help somebody out in a pinch. But this is that enrollment on the ongoing provision of the resources of the church.
So if she's not to be enrolled, and what should she do? Paul's answer very politically interacts for our day, versus 14 and 16 is, I would have young widows Mary. And he goes on to say some other things about that. He speaks of the domestic preoccupations of young widows.
He would like to see them devoted to. So he says, verse 14, I would have younger widows Mary. Now here, he's not talking about her marrying some sugar day. He isn't wanting to see her become some kept woman, weak, helpless, barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.
And I know people could read it that way, thinking that's what Paul really wants for this woman. What he is, though, is acknowledging that marriage by God's design is the best earthly help, too, man and woman. He's acknowledging the reality that God gave marriage for the mutual help of husband and wife. And if she's able to remarry, not encouraging snap decisions, not encouraging her to marry foolishly and fools, if she's able to remarry, Paul says remarry.
I can't think of a better way to speak of the glories and benefits of marriage according to God's design, than to quote the wisdom of the time honored Christian marriage ceremony. Words I think I've spoken at every wedding I've ever officiated. And they go like this, dearly beloved. We are assembled here in the presence of God to join this man and this woman in the holiest state of marriage, which is instituted of God, regulated by his commandments, blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ, and to be held in honor among all people.
The sacredness of the relation is revealed by the fact that the Holy Spirit has chosen it as an emblem of the union that exists between our Lord and His bride, the church. Let us therefore reverently remember, goes to the ceremony, that God has established and set apart marriage for the welfare and happiness of mankind. And our Savior has declared that a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave, or bind himself, to glue himself an industrial strength cement to his wife. And by his apostles, he has instructed those.
That was an ad-lib, by the way. He has by his apostles instructed those to enter into this relation, to cherish a mutual esteem and love, to bear with each other's infirmities and weaknesses, to comfort each other in sickness, trouble, and sorrow, in honesty and industry, to provide for each other and for their household in temporal things, to pray for and encourage one another, and the things which pertain to God, to live together as the heirs of the grace of life. Now that's a mouthful friends, but it is an expression of an articulation of the beauty of God, to sign marriage. And so he says to her, get married and help each other out.
That's what you do. And he says, I'd see her then, having gotten married. I'd see her bear children. He says, this is an honorable task.
And he commends it to her. There may be seasons and circumstances when it is not advisable to have children, just as there are circumstances when it is advisable and better, not to marry. You remember Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 said, those who are unmarried. Can them devote themselves more exclusively to the Lord?
And in a culture where persecution and distress, for believe and comes, it may be Paul says in Corinthians, it may be better to remain single than to shoulder the responsibility of marriage. Paul certainly thought it was better for himself to remain single because he had that gift and because of the work he was called to do. Well, I would say as regarding marriage, so too regarding children, there's no command from the Lord that you must have as many children as you possibly can. And you just heard that from the guys about to have a seventh child.
It is wise to consider your resources, your energy, your health, your circumstances, and account the cost of the great blessing it is to have children from the Lord. Paul is saying, it's good to bear children. She should do so if the Lord gives her, be fruitful and multiply is still one of the great privileges and responsibilities of being and bearing the image of God. People will say to you, well, the world is overpopulated.
There are too many crowds, there's too much traffic on the street, there are too many people, and I would say to you, do you realize that in America, the most densely populated state in the nation is New Jersey and 67% of it is wilderness. We feel the great population because we live amidst it, but there are wide open spaces and there is plenty of room for a lot more people and children are a blessing. And so he says, if she's able to get married, she's able to have children, he says then, and I would have the young widows who marry manage their households. That's his third thing, she's to rule her household.
She's to be in charge of her household, just as one qualification for an elder is that he manages his household well. That's chapter three. So here likewise, she has to do so. And he doesn't give direction here about how they do that together.
It's a bit of a dance to figure that out. You have to evaluate one another's strengths and weakness and how you can be a mutual help. Nobody is sufficient for these things. But in marrying and marrying children and managing her household, God is honored and she is growing and God be living, God be priority, God be domestic preoccupation.
And in this, he says she is less likely to give the adversary an occasion for slander. She's less likely to be accused of immorality and gossip and all these other things if she doesn't have time for it. So to speak. And she is less likely to follow the path of some who have already strayed after Satan, he says.
So he says, verse 16, let her who has a home wanted to care for those who don't. Any believing woman who has relatives who are widows let her care for them, let the church not be burdens so that it may care for those who truly widows. So we see something about the reputation of Godly widows who should be enrolled. Something about the temptation of young widows, the spiritual temptations, and also something about the godly preoccupations that he would like to see them have.
But let me close with a story and then a list of points about marriage. The story is told by Ian McLaren. He was a Scottish preacher, told a story about a woman in his congregation. He went to visit her in her little cottage.
And as they were talking, she began to weep. And she began to wipe tears from her eyes with the corner of her apron. And he said, what's so disturbing you? And she said, oh, sometimes I feel I have done so little.
And when I think of it, it makes my heart heavy because I've really done so little for Jesus. When I was a wee girl, the Lord spoke to my heart. And I surrendered my life to him. And I wanted to live for him also much.
She said, but I feel my life is gone. And I haven't really done anything. And Ian McLaren said, what have you done with your life? Oh, nothing.
She said, really nothing. I've washed dishes. I've cooked three meals a day. I've taken care of my children.
I've mopped the floor. I've mended the clothes. Everything a mother does, that's all I've done. McLaren sat back in his chair and said, where are your boys?
Oh, she said, you know. You know I named them all for the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You know them all. And you know where Mark is.
You ordained him. He went to China. He's learning the language. He's able to minister the people in the name of the Lord.
Where's Loki said? Well, you know, well enough where is because you set him out. And I had a letter from him the other day. He's an Africa.
And he says a revival has broken out on the mission station. And Matthew, he said, well, he's with his brother in China. And they're working together. And then she volunteered, John.
Well, he's only 19. But he came to me last night to say, God has laid Africa on his heart. And he said, mother, I'm going to Africa. But don't worry or cry about it.
Because the Lord has shown me that I have to stay with you until you go home to glory. And then I'll go to Africa. But until then, I want to take care of you. And he and McLaren looked at the elderly saying, and he said, your life has been wasted, you say.
And through tears, she said, yeah, I fear it's been wasted. He said, you've been cooking and mopping and washing. But he said, I sure would like to see the reward you receive when you get called home to glory. She was a widow indeed.
Now finally, by way of conclusion, notice what Paul states about marriage in here. Set in explicit or assumed things. And I give it to you by way of a list, because I started with the idea of a list. One, marriage is not the only answer to a widow's need.
Some may have no opportunity. Some may have no interest. So let the church put its money where its mouth is and help the truly need. Two, God made marriage to be between a man and a woman, a wife and her husband.
There's going to be a lot of pressure on Christians to go along with the cultural redefinitions. But since we didn't define it in the first place, we can't redefine it, and we have no right to do so. God defines marriage. Thirdly, marriage is about money.
In America, statistically, poverty is more often to be found among a husbandless mother raising small children on her own than anywhere else. Marriage is meant to help share the loan. Marriage is also about sex. It's for the righteous enjoyment of God's good gift and is an aid to helping avoid a morality.
Fifth, marriage is about children. Having a loving father and a loving mother is ideal for kids. These things are all assumed in this text. Notice those last three money, sex and children, the three things people fight most strenuously about and divorce over.
But this is what marriage is about. And marriage is for love number six. But not the way I think that we think about it. It's not love that so much sustains marriage.
As it is marriage that sustains love. Marriage tells you who you are to support, help, provide for, and give your affection to you. It tells you every morning who you are to wake up and love and serve. And so marriage sustains that commitment, as opposed to the other way around.
Our culture wants to say, you know, if you love somebody, you ought to be able to have the right to marry them, because that's the essence of marriage anyway, isn't it? And we want to say no. That's not what marriage is fundamentally about. We love all kinds of people we don't marry.
Number seven, marriage is about spiritual priorities. It's about sex. It's about finances. It's about children.
It's about love. It's about all these things. It's about spiritual priorities. Notice this young widow marries because she wants to honor Jesus and not go astray from Jesus.
She loves Jesus. And so she chooses to marry, Paul says. And that reminds us about the spiritual priority of marriage. If you are not married, marry somebody who loves Jesus.
Someone who thinks being married to you will help them love and serve Jesus. And be an expression of their love and service to Jesus. Because if they love Jesus more than you, they'll love you well too. But if they love you more than Jesus, you'll always be a disappointment to them.
That's right. Father in Heaven, I pray that you would make us large-hearted people, give us wisdom in these issues, provide for those who cry out and look to you for provision, for help, for a partner in life, and show yourself to be our greatest lover. In Jesus, they might pray. Amen.