1 Timothy 5:9 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Let not a widow be taken into the number under three score years old, having been the wife of one man.’ Now we agree with those commentators who feel that we are moving into a slightly different area here now. The Apostle Paul is not giving qualifications for relief. He is not seriously saying, we have a number of widows in this church who are destitute and they need our help and they need our relief, but here is the qualifications. If they don't match up to these qualifications, sorry they go hungry. He is not saying that. These are not qualifications for help and for relief. There is no doubt that what is spoken of in this verse is a very special kind of role. ‘Let not a widow be taken into the number’, the enrolled number, under sixty years of age. What is this role for which there's going to be a formidable list of qualifications? We would agree with those who historically have said this is a role, not merely of widows and other people who are supported by the church, but this is a role of those widows who are also appointed to do something special for the church. This particular group of widows are not only supported, but they labour and they work in some way for the church. In ancient times they were very blessed, we believe, with the services of some of the older widows who were widows indeed, who loved the Lord, who did not have their own families to care for anymore or to support them, and many of them were qualified to do a great deal for the church. In those days there were very heavy duties for all people. The men worked long hours, and the women worked long hours in caring for their homes. The women lived in comparatively primitive circumstances. They didn't have any push button appliances, they didn't have any gadgets at all. There were their own small holdings that they had to look after and all the food had to be prepared from raw, whatever it was; it was a tremendous amount to do in running a household in ancient times. Everything had to be done the hard way, and so they didn't have people who were available over much to shoot hither and thither and to carry out mutual visitation, and to care for people who were sick or in need. And so they were very grateful for the older women who were qualified and fit and able to carry out quite a number of special services. They had another problem which we have less of today. In the culture of ancient times there were great divisions between men and women that had to be observed most scrupulously, and so to get over this problem they had this noble army of widows or grannies who could do a great deal in visitation, and relieving the sick, and helping throughout the church.There was no doubt about that and then of course in ancient times also many Christian people were outcasts from their own families and their own society. If a Jew professed Christ, that person was thrown out. It still happens today in many parts of the world, and in an emotional sense almost everywhere. But if a Jew was converted that person was a family outcast, and in ancient times thrown out of their home, deprived of any monies or rights that were theirs within the family. Very often you had young wives bringing up children and cut off from all the usual help, and they needed the help and the ministry of these widows. So in ancient times the widows, we believe, that were on the roll, were specially approved, not only for support but as workers in the church. They exercised a great deal of good.