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5 The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. 6 But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. 7 Give the people these instructions, so that no one may be open to blame. 8 Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. ~ 1 Timothy 5:5-8
Today, we come back to the Apostle Paul's instructions to Timothy regarding widows. Whereas in our last blog, he addresses children and grandchildren taking care of their widowed mother or grandmother, today we turn our attention to those who are widowed and have no-one to help them, not even children or grandchildren.
In v.5 we read, "The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help."
The Apostle uses the Greek word elpizō here which is the verb meaning, “hope in God.” This verb is written in the perfect tense, meaning, she not only is in a continual condition of being without but she is in a continual condition of presenting herself to God as her only hope. She has the attitude of cemented hope in God. She has no one to care for her and she has fixed her hope on God. God is saying here to us that we are answerable to Him to help her as she looks to God to supply her needs.
This lady's hope is in God who has specifically promised in His word to meet her every need. She understands that God will use all kind of means to supply her need. She knows that God may even use the Church to do so, but her trust is in no man, she trusts the Lord completely. And, she knows that when things get "iffy," this is just another opportunity for God to show Himself strong in her life.
Rather than being focused on her needs being met, she is being trained by God to look for Him and see Him with her heart. The result is knowing God first-hand and as He meets her needs in very creative ways, she discovers He is the One who meets her needs and, as a result, she gets to know Him more intimately.
She is most blessed, even though she is most needy, because her trials force her to seek and rely upon God. She prays or talks to God regularly and she is learning to give her heart to Him more readily because He is trustworthy and He is truly the One who meets her needs.
In v.6 we read, "But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives." This verse literally reads, "the living for pleasure one living is dead."
In other words, the one who gets newfound freedoms and she lives for her own ease and satisfaction and indulgence, she may be living physically but she is dead spiritually. Learning to trust God is the ultimate for her. Those who do not learn to trust in the Lord do not trust Him for His guidance. They don’t depend on God. They have no heart of devotion to Him, no love for Him, no dependence on Him, no desire to obey Him, but rather they live for pleasure.
Now the Greek term used for pleasure here in v.6 is a very rare verb which means to plunge into wastefulness. It means to lead a life much like that of the Prodigal in Luke 15. The word includes the idea that she disregards what is right. To lead this type of life of pleasure describes one who is self-indulgent. She is not living as if she were a believer. The church is under obligation according to the Word of God to be of help to this kind of widow.
In v.7 we read, "Give the people these instructions, so that no one may be open to blame."
The church should be a model of virtue in this area, leaving no legitimate fault to be exploited by the critics. The reputation of the church is at stake in this issue. And, the church is to be blameless in caring for widows who are widows without support and who walk with the Lord.
In v.8 we read, "Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
The Apostle Paul states in v.8 negatively what he said in v.4 positively. In v.4 he said, "children take care of your parents." Here in v.8, he adds to v.4 by saying, "if you don’t take care of your parents and your family, you’re worse than an unbeliever."
The fact that he said it in v.4 in a positive way and now says it in v.8 in a negative way leads me to believe that there were a lot of violations of this in Ephesus, and the level of Paul’s exasperation was rising and rising because so many people were violating the biblical ethic toward women in need. We should not be so engaged in ministry to others that our own family is neglected.
Now, the Apostle doesn’t mean we personally lose our salvation. How can we lose that which we never earned? What he means is we deny the biblical principle of compassionate love that is at the very heart of the Christian faith when we neglect our elderly parents and our family.
Finally, let me return to the "fixed hope of the widow." Without trials we do not get to this point. We are actually most blessed when we are going through a trial of some sort, especially if it is the means by which we are pursuing God more aggressively. C.S. Lewis said it well when he wrote, "The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation."
