1 Timothy 5:11

5:9-16 Every one brought into any office in the church, should be free from just censure; and many are proper objects of charity, yet ought not to be employed in public services. Those who would find mercy when they are in distress, must show mercy when they are in prosperity; and those who show most readiness for every good work, are most likely to be faithful in whatever is trusted to them. Those who are idle, very seldom are only idle, they make mischief among neighbours, and sow discord among brethren. All believers are required to relieve those belonging to their families who are destitute, that the church may not be prevented from relieving such as are entirely destitute and friendless.

{10} But the younger widows {d} refuse: for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry; (10) The first reason why younger widows are not to be admitted to this ministry, that is, because of the unsteadiness of their age they will at length shake off the burden that Christ has laid upon them, and think rather upon marrying again: and so will forsake the ministry to which they had bound themselves. (d) Take them not into the assembly of widows.

1 Timothy 5:11-13 . But the younger widows refuse — Do not choose; for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ — To whose more immediate service they had devoted themselves; they will marry — And, perhaps, to husbands who are strangers to Christianity, or at least not with a single eye to the glory of God, and so withdraw themselves from that service of Christ in the church which they were before engaged in. On the word καταστρηνιασωσι , rendered to wax wanton, Erasmus remarks, that it comes from στερειν , to pull away, and ηνια , reins, and that the metaphor is taken from high-fed brute animals, which, having pulled away the reins, run about at their pleasure. Le Clerc and some others translate the clause, who do not obey the rein. The apostle plainly means, that the younger widows, who had undertaken the office of teaching the young of their own sex, not being willing to continue under that restraint from marriage which they had laid on themselves by devoting themselves to the service of Christ, and which the nature of their office required, would marry, and desert his service.

Having damnation — Condemnation rather, both from God and men; because they have cast off their first faith — Have deserted their trust in God, and have acted contrary to their first conviction, namely, that wholly to devote themselves to his service was the most excellent way; for their first faith here means that faithfulness to Christ which they had virtually plighted, when they took on them the office of teaching the younger women; for by marrying they put it out of their power to perform that office with the attention and assiduity which it required. And withal they learn to be idle — Slothful and negligent in the office they have undertaken, and instead of attending to the proper duty of their charge, wandering about, &c.; tattlers also — Greek, φλυαροι , triflers, foolish talkers, or talebearers; a vice to which women, who go about from house to house, are commonly much addicted; busy-bodies — Concerning themselves unnecessarily and impertinently in the affairs of others; speaking things which they ought not — Things very unbecoming.

But the younger widows refuse: by the younger widows the apostle seems (by the last words of this verse) not to mean those that were under threescore, but the younger sort of widows, not past child-bearing; he would not have those (that is, being under no extraordinary circumstances of sickness, or lameness, or the want of their senses) be maintained at the charge of the church, because they were able to labour; nor yet to be taken into any employment relating to the church. For when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ; katastrhniaswsi tou cristou. How the Vulgar Latin comes to translate this, wax wanton in Christ, I neither understand whether with respect to grammar or sense. Erasmus translates the verb, when they have committed whoredom; but Revelation 18:9 confuteth this sense, where we translate it, lived deliciously, (being without the preposition kata), which certainly better expresseth the sense, as also doth our translation, wax wanton; it properly signifies either the lustiness, or the headstrong temper, of beasts, that wax fat. Against Christ, is against the rule of the gospel, and their profession of Christ; or they disdain the office of serving the saints, as too mean, and laborious, and sin against Christ, in whose name, and for whose glory, and to whose members, the service was to be performed. And then they will marry, and so put themselves into an incapacity to serve the church in the place of widows.

Younger (νεωτέρας) Almost in a positive sense, young. Not, under sixty years of age. Have begun to wax wanton (καταστρηνιάσωσιν) Not, have begun, but rather, whenever they shall come to wax wanton. Comp. 2 Thessalonians 1:10. The compound verb, signifying to feel the sexual impulse, only here, and not in lxx or Class. The simple verb, στρηνιᾶν to run riot, Revelation 18:7, Revelation 18:9 and the kindred στρῆνος luxury, Revelation 18:3. See note. Against Christ (τοῦ Χριστοῦ) Their unruly desire withdraws them from serving Christ in his church, and is, therefore, against him. This is the only instance in the Pastorals in which the Christ is used without Jesus either before or after. In Paul this is common, both with and without the article. They will marry (γαμεῖν θέλουσιν) Better, they are bent on marrying, or determined to marry. The strong expression wax wanton makes it probable that θέλειν expresses more than a desire, as Rev. See on Matthew 1:19. Γαμεῖν to marry, in the active voice, of the wife, as everywhere in N.T. except 1 Corinthians 7:39.

1 Timothy 5:11 . Παραιτοῦ , refuse ) Do not take up their case. The same word occurs, Titus 3:10 ( reject , παραιτοῦ ).— ὅταν γὰρ καταστρηνιάσωσι τοῦ Χριστοῦ ) when they have begun to wax wanton ( to indulge in luxury ) against Christ , viz. with regard to ecclesiastical benefits. The genitive is governed by κατὰ ; what στρῆνος is, see Revelation 18:3 (“The abundance,” or “power,” of her delicacies , στρήνους ). Extravagance (wantonness) and Christ are by no means compatible.— τοῦ Χριστοῦ , Christ ) to whom they had entirely devoted themselves.— θέλουσιν , they will ) the matter being no longer undecided.

Verse 11. - Younger for the younger , A.V.; waxed for began to wax , A.V.; desire to for will , A.V. Refuse . Note the wisdom of Paul, who will not have the young widows admitted into the roll of Church widows, lest, after the first grief for the loss of their husbands has subsided, they should change their minds, and wish to return to the world and its pleasures, and so incur the guilt of drawing back their hands from the plough. Would that the Church had always imitated this wisdom and this consideration for the young, whether young priests or young monks and nuns! Waxed wanton against ( καταστρηνιάσωσι ). This word only occurs here, but the simple στρηνιάω is found in Revelation 18:7, 9 , and is used by the Greek poets of the new comedy in the sense of τρυφᾶν , to be luxurious (Schleusner, 'Lex.'). Trench ('Synonyms of New Testament'), comparing this word with τρυφᾶν and σπαταλᾶν , ascribes to it the sense of "petulance" from fullness, like the state of Jeshurun, who waxed fat and kicked ( Deuteronomy 32:15 ); and so Liddell and Scott give the sense of "to be over-strong." The sense, therefore, is that these young widows, in the wantonness and unsubdued worldliness of their hearts, reject the yoke of Christ, and kick against the widow's life of prayer and supplication day and night. And so they return to the world and its pleasures, which they had renounced. 1 Timothy 5:11

11 . But the younger widows refuse ] There is no article, ‘younger’ than 60 years; but also more generally, ‘comparatively young.’ ‘Refuse,’ i.e. decline to put on the roll of maintenance. when they have begun to wax wanton ] Rather, when they have come to wax wanton . The aorist subjunctive which has the support of א should be retained, though Alford follows A in reading future indicative. The verb takes up the ‘prodigal living’ of 1 Timothy 5:6 , seeming to be connected with strenuus , ‘strong,’ and so like ‘lusty’ and ‘lustful’ having the idea of wanton licence. The simple verb is used in Revelation 18:7 ; Revelation 18:9 of Babylon, ‘She glorified herself and waxed wanton,’ ‘the kings of the earth committed fornication and lived wantonly with her.’ With the compound form used here may be compared similar compounds, to laugh against, Matthew 9:24 , ‘and they laughed Him to scorn;’ to witness against, Mark 14:60 , ‘what is it which these witness against thee?’ against Christ ] The only place in the Pastoral Epistles where ‘Christ’ is used alone, ‘Christ Jesus’ being the most common title employed. they will marry ] Rather, they choose marrying . Their mind is set on husband hunting, with no limitation now of ‘only in the Lord.’

1 Timothy 5:11 . There are two main factors in the interpretation of this verse: (1) a general Church regulation—not laid down by St. Paul but found in existence by him—that a widow in receipt of relief should be ἑνὸς ἀνδρὸς γυνή ; and (2) his determination to make provision that no scandal should arise from broken vows. The notion was that there was a marriage tie between Christ and the Church widow. This would be her first faith, her earliest and still valid plighted troth. Cf. Revelation 2:4 , τὴν ἀγάπην σου τὴν πρώτην ἀφῆκες (of the Church at Ephesus). νεωτέρας may be rendered positively, young . παραιτοῦ : reject . This verb is used of “profane and old wives’ fables” ( 1 Timothy 4:7 ), of “foolish and ignorant questionings” ( 2 Timothy 2:23 ), of “a man that is heretical” ( Titus 3:10 ); so that, at first sight, it seems a harsh term to use in reference to “young widows”. But the harshness is explained when we remember that St. Paul is speaking, not of the widows in themselves, but as applicants for admission to the roll of specially privileged Church widows. In a Church still immature as to its organisation and morale the authorities would be only courting disaster were they to assume the control of young widows, a class whose condition gave them independence in the heathen society around them. καταστρηνιάσωσιν : Cum enim luxuriatae fuerint [ in deliciis egerint , [280]110] in Christo (Vulg.). [280] Speculum The word denotes the particular character of their restiveness

. It was understood with this sexual reference in Pseud. Ignat. ad Antioch . 11, αἱ χῆραι μὴ σπαταλάτωσαν , ἵνα μὴ καταστρηνιάσωσι τοῦ λόγου . στρῆνος (over-strength), wantonness or luxury occurs Revelation 18:3 ; στρηνιάω , Revelation 18:7 ; Revelation 18:9 , to wax wanton, live wantonly , or luxuriously . The preposition κατά , with the genitive, has the sense against, of opposition, as in καταβραβεύω , καταγελάω , καταδικάζω , κατακαυχάομαι , κατακρίνω , etc. For ὅταν with the subjunctive or indicative, see Winer-Moulton, Grammar , p. 388. The subjunctive, as in the text, is the normally correct way of expressing a contemplated contingency. τοῦ Χριστοῦ : Here only in the Pastorals. γαμεῖν θέλουσι : θέλειν has here an emphatic sense, as in John 7:17 ; and its association here supports the view that it “designates the will which pro-deeds from inclination,” as contrasted with βούλομαι , “the will which follows deliberation” (Thayer’s Grimm, s.v .). γαμεῖν is used of the woman also, 1 Timothy 5:14 , Mark 10:12 ; 1 Corinthians 7:28 ; 1 Corinthians 7:34 .