1 Timothy 5:3 Commentary and Bible Study

Notice the beautiful language that the apostle uses: ‘Honour widows that are widows indeed.’ The inspired language of the Scripture is beautiful and sensitive at the same time. He doesn't say first of all, ‘Relieve widows that are widows indeed.’ He uses one of the beautiful terms of the New Testament, ‘Honour widows’, not relieve, not support. He does say that elsewhere, but he begins the passage with this beautiful word ‘honour’. Honour is one of the most elastic words of the New Testament. We are told to honour God, which means worship and reverence him. We are told to honour widows, which means support them financially. There is something to be learned from it because we are not handing out charity. No, we are doing God's bidding. It is God who brings about the different situations we find ourselves in, and it is God who commands us to minister to one another. We remember that anybody to whom we must give support or help to, of any kind, is a child of God, one who is in the service of God, one who has probably accomplished much for the Lord. We honour widows that are widows indeed and we find this is a wonderful term. ‘Widows indeed’ has two meanings and the apostle means both of them as the context proves. First of all it means those who are entirely destitute. A widow who has a family, grandchildren, children, is not in Paul's estimation a widow indeed, because she's not entirely alone, so it is only a widow who is entirely alone who is a widow indeed. But there's more to say. A widow indeed is not only somebody whose husband has died, but somebody for whom the world has died too as far as she is concerned. She alone is a widow indeed. He goes on to say it is possible for your husband to have died, but for the world to be very much alive to you, and you are still married to the world. You are no longer married to your husband; your husband has died, but you are still married to the world, you are not a widow indeed. Particularly is she to be honoured, valued, who – as was very frequently the case in those days – is destitute and has lost her breadwinner, has perhaps no family to hand. The task of the church is not to support everybody in need. The task of the church is primarily to help members of the family of God, the household of faith who are in need. A widow indeed he defines as one whose husband has died and who is entirely devoted to God and cast upon him. The spiritual definition and the physical definition joining hand in hand in the way in which Paul speaks here.