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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends;
I have a question for you today: how many widows do you know?
Have you noticed that frequently in the Bible God calls His people to pay attention to the plight of widows? Why do you suppose?
In the days the Bible was written there was no such thing as ‘social security’ or Medicare or any other services provided by the government to help the women whose husbands had died.
Dawn, my wife and I, now live in Florida, and we have the privilege of knowing and loving many widows. I say privilege because we have the joy of extending the love of Jesus to them, and it is amazing to us how Jesus sustains them by His love, His miraculous provision and His watching over them, and how Jesus involves us, His people, in carrying for the widows He loves so much. Do you see these dear, precious women where you live, and do you love them, my friends?
Let’s open our Bibles and continue together looking at Paul’s first letter to Timothy, whom he commissioned to give leadership to the Christians in the great city of Ephesus. We’re in chapter 5 and you’ll notice much of this chapter is instruction from Paul regarding how the church of Jesus Christ should care for widows.
Timothy was a younger man, as we saw in chapter 4:12. In 5:1,2 Paul gives young Timothy some good wisdom for how he should love, serve and lead the older Christians in Ephesus with respect, and how he should treat the Christians his age or even younger, carefully. I wonder what this looks like in the community where you live, or even your church?
I’m sure you’ve noticed, at least in America, rarely do younger people treat older people with much respect. Yet daily we are loosing a generation that remembers the Great Depression, WWII, war time rationing, and the Korean War. Several people have called them ‘the greatest generation’ for many reasons. They accomplished so much in their lifetimes, and have so much wisdom to share with us, and yet so many go to their graves feeling they were forgotten and had little value to society during their last years.
Listen to Psalm 71:17,18 “Since my youth, O God, You have taught me, and to this day I declare Your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me O God, till I declare Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.” So who are they, these dear people whom God has blessed with long life, and how are they part of your life, how are they teaching you what they have learned in life, and how are you blessing them as you listen, learn from and love them?
You’ll notice in 1 Timothy 5, Paul’s clear instructions to Timothy that older widows are to be cared for first by their families. There were no such things as Assisted Living or Senior Care or Memory Care or even nursing homes in Paul’s day. When married men died, their wives were left by society to fend for themselves. It was a desperate, destitute existence for them.
The Holy Spirit made it clear through Paul that the children and grandchildren of a widow had the privilege and God given responsibility to care for their mother/grandmother so she was not in need or vulnerable to those who might take advantage of her.
But what about the widow who doesn’t have children? In God’s design it was then the privilege of other family members… siblings or nieces and nephews who should lovingly care for her, their family widow. Paul writes in vs. 8 “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he had denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
And what about the widow who had no family at all? Listen to verse 5 “The widow who really is in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to ask God for help.” Do you remember Anna, the old widow who lived in the Temple area and greeted Mary, Joseph and infant Jesus when they came to dedicate Him (Luke 2:36-38)?
Or the widow of Zarephath to whom God sent the prophet Elijah and for whom God provided with a jar of flour and little oil in a jug which never ran out during a long famine (1 Kings 17)?
Or the widow in the town of Nain (Luke 7:11-17) who was in a funeral procession, on the way to bury her only son, when Jesus came to town. He walked into the funeral procession and raised the widow’s son back to life so he could care for his mother?
Does God know every need of every widow in the world… every day? Oh yes my friends! Does God care? Absolutely. Does God often provide for their needs miraculously? Without question! But there’s more my friends… there’s us, you and me, God’s people.
God calls us, His people, to watch for, and actively love and care for widows who have no family or are not being cared for by their family. It’s our God given privilege my friends! As we do so, we are the practical hands, feet, smile, and loving heart of Jesus for these dear widows. This is how we “Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.” (5:3)
Now, very specifically, Paul instructed Timothy that the Christians should make a list of widows without family or those not being cared for by family, “…so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.” (5:16) That making of a list was not for the purpose of passing the responsibility of widow care to the church exclusively, oh no, rather it was to assure that no widow was overlooked.
You may remember this need was what led the original Apostles to call for Deacons to be identified and commissioned to serve the widows in Jerusalem, in Acts 6. We presume this continued in all the churches Paul planted, and probably in your church today. But please, my friends, don’t miss out on the privilege God gives you and me of loving these widows, by leaving it up to whomever is compiling and watching a list of widow names! Let God move you into the privilege of loving widows on His behalf!
But I have another question for you? As you read through this 5th chapter, what other qualifications do you see for identifying the widows who should be cared for by God’s people? Do you see anything about membership in the local church? Do you even see Paul saying the widow should be a baptized, certified, born again Christian, before they should be given help by God’s people?
My friends I call us to consider that God’s love for widows is NOT pre-qualified by anything other than their husband is deceased, and God calls us, His people, to be His practical love reach to these dear widows, in Jesus’ name! Yes verse 9 & 10 have some specific qualifications, but that was evidently for being placed on a list of those who were fully cared for by the church.
May I also ask another question of us? Sadly, we live in a time that the family in many places is so dysfunctional, we have what I would term “widows” whose husbands are still alive and well. Yes, sadly we have married women who are widows by abandonment of their husbands. Sometimes leaving them with young children to care for!
As you consider them, do you see God would call their families to care for them also, and if they don’t God would call us, His people to step in and help them? Look around your community, do you see any women in this situation? Who is helping them?
May I point out one other thing in Paul’s instruction to Timothy? Look at verses 11-15. Please don’t see this as Paul suggesting God’s people should not give any care to young widows. Rather, Paul is urging young widows to allow God to lead them to possible re-marriage with a widower or other man who will love and care for them for the rest of their lives, and with whom she can build a family. Widowhood is not seen by God as the loss of any future privilege of re-marriage.
Please don’t let vs 12 confuse you…“Thus they bring judgement on themselves because they have broken their first pledge.” This ‘first pledge’ is not referring to their first marriage, but rather a pledge of commitment to serve in or on behalf of the local church in return for the financial/practical help the church was providing the widow.
So my friends, in closing today, let’s lean in closely to Jesus, like John did in the upper room when he leaned back on Jesus and asked Him “who is it Lord”? (John 13:25) In that moment, Jesus had just announced to His closest friends that one of them would betray Him. As the disciples all looked at each other, Peter had urged John, who was right next to Jesus, to ask Him who He meant. So John leaned in close and asked that simple but profound question…the same question I urge us to ask. “Lord Jesus, who are the widows you want ME to see, and love, and help?
And then now, right now, in your mind, walk around your neighborhood, around your church, around your social group of friends or co-workers… who are they, the women without husbands, who Jesus would like to touch through you? Ask Jesus to give you HIS heart for widows, and starting today, let’s be alert and aware to the Holy Spirit guiding us to them as Ambassadors of Jesus. I promise you friends, you will discover a privilege and sense of fulfillment you had not imagined!
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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