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Widows: Protecting The Most Vulnerable - Introduction (1 Timothy 5:3a)
Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.
In Paul's first letter to Timothy, chapter 5, beginning at verse 3, he takes the next 13 verses to talk about the relationship between widows - those women whose husbands had died - and their families, and the church. There are cultural differences between the days of the early church, just as there are between cultures in the world today. So as we crawl our way through these verses, we need to be looking for principles that we ought to be applying in our own families and churches.
Sometimes, life just isn't fair. No, let me restate that - often, life isn't fair.
Think about it this way: Every marriage will come to an end, no matter how good it is. It could end in a few different ways, but they will all end. In Canada today, about 40% of marriages end in divorce. I'm sure many more are ending in permanent separation, and I know that many of those who have divorces and separations experience more than one, but we're still left with the fact that the other 50% or so will also end - with the death of the husband, or the wife. Each time a marriage ends, it's a tragedy - one that is the result of sin in the world.
Way back in the Old Testament, God laid out a plan for how to deal with life when it handed you lemons. It was a very different culture than ours - to put it simply, men ruled, and women gained their lives through their relationships with men. But even then, it appears that the life expectancy of men was less than that or women. As a result, there were far more widows than widowers. If a man became a widower because his wife died, he could continue to support himself through his job, whatever it was, but typically a widow who had lost her husband would have no personal assets or employment. Some would have their own little business (see Proverbs 31), but many, and perhaps most, could become destitute.
So, God laid out a plan. Once a woman was welcomed into the family of her husband, if her husband died, she would remain the responsibility of his family. Even more specifically, it was the obligation of one of the unmarried men in the family to marry her, and thus provide her support in every way.
But it didn't always work out that way. Sometimes, for a variety of circumstances, the widow was left destitute. And that's what this passage of scripture is all about.
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By Phil RoutlyGive proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.
In Paul's first letter to Timothy, chapter 5, beginning at verse 3, he takes the next 13 verses to talk about the relationship between widows - those women whose husbands had died - and their families, and the church. There are cultural differences between the days of the early church, just as there are between cultures in the world today. So as we crawl our way through these verses, we need to be looking for principles that we ought to be applying in our own families and churches.
Sometimes, life just isn't fair. No, let me restate that - often, life isn't fair.
Think about it this way: Every marriage will come to an end, no matter how good it is. It could end in a few different ways, but they will all end. In Canada today, about 40% of marriages end in divorce. I'm sure many more are ending in permanent separation, and I know that many of those who have divorces and separations experience more than one, but we're still left with the fact that the other 50% or so will also end - with the death of the husband, or the wife. Each time a marriage ends, it's a tragedy - one that is the result of sin in the world.
Way back in the Old Testament, God laid out a plan for how to deal with life when it handed you lemons. It was a very different culture than ours - to put it simply, men ruled, and women gained their lives through their relationships with men. But even then, it appears that the life expectancy of men was less than that or women. As a result, there were far more widows than widowers. If a man became a widower because his wife died, he could continue to support himself through his job, whatever it was, but typically a widow who had lost her husband would have no personal assets or employment. Some would have their own little business (see Proverbs 31), but many, and perhaps most, could become destitute.
So, God laid out a plan. Once a woman was welcomed into the family of her husband, if her husband died, she would remain the responsibility of his family. Even more specifically, it was the obligation of one of the unmarried men in the family to marry her, and thus provide her support in every way.
But it didn't always work out that way. Sometimes, for a variety of circumstances, the widow was left destitute. And that's what this passage of scripture is all about.