1 Timothy 5:3

5:3-8 Honour widows that are widows indeed, relieve them, and maintain them. It is the duty of children, if their parents are in need, and they are able to relieve them, to do it to the utmost of their power. Widowhood is a desolate state; but let widows trust in the Lord, and continue in prayer. All who live in pleasure, are dead while they live, spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sins. Alas, what numbers there are of this description among nominal Christians, even to the latest period of life! If any men or women do not maintain their poor relations, they in effect deny the faith. If they spend upon their lusts and pleasures, what should maintain their families, they have denied the faith, and are worse than infidels. If professors of the gospel give way to any corrupt principle or conduct, they are worse than those who do not profess to believe the doctrines of grace.

1 Timothy 5:3-4 . Honour — And endeavour honourably to support from the public stock; widows — Whose destitute circumstances recommend them as the certain objects of charity. According to the Greek commentators, the widows of whom the apostle speaks in this passage were aged women appointed by the church to instruct the young of their own sex in the principles of the Christian faith, and who, for that service, were maintained out of the funds of the church. This opinion is rendered probable by the apostle’s order to Timothy, ( 1 Timothy 5:9 ,) to admit none into the number of widows without inquiring into their age, circumstances, character, and qualifications, even as in ordaining bishops and deacons; who are widows indeed — Really such; that is, who are desolate, and neither able to maintain themselves, nor have any near relations to provide for them, and who are wholly devoted to God. But if any widow have children — Able to provide for her; or nephews — Rather grand-children, as εκγονα signifies; let them learn — Their children or descendants; first to show piety at home — Before the church be burdened with them; and to requite their parents — For all their former care, trouble, and expense; for that is good — Καλον , decent, fair, and amiable, in the eyes of men; and acceptable before God — Who requires us, out of regard to his honour and favour, to attend carefully to the duties of those relations in which we stand to each other.

Honour widows; give a respect to such as have lost their husbands, with a regard to that honourable estate of marriage in which they have been formerly, and do not only pay them a due respect, but afford them a maintenance, Acts 6:1 . That are widows indeed: who are widows indeed he openeth further, 1 Timothy 5:5 ; such as are not only pious, but desolate, as the Greek word for a widow implies, according to its derivation.

1 Timothy 5:3 . Χήρας , widows ) Chrysostom speaks at great length of widows, de Sacerd., p. 166, et seqq.— τίμα , honour ) by acts of kindness, 1 Timothy 5:17-18 .— ὄντως χήρας , widows indeed ) Ploce;[39] the word indeed excludes those who have children or live luxuriously ( 1 Timothy 5:6 ). [39] A word put twice, first in the simple sense, afterwards to express an attribute of the simple word. Widows , in the second instance here, means one who realizes the description given in ver. 5.—ED.

Honor (τίμα) Not only by respectful treatment but by financial support. Comp. τιμήσει, Matthew 15:5, and πολλαῖς τιμαῖς ἐτίμησαν, Acts 28:10; and διπλῆς τιμῆς 1 Timothy 5:17. Comp. Sir. 38:1. 'The verb only once in Paul (Ephesians 6:2, citation), and only here in Pastorals. Widows (χήρας) Paul alludes to widows in 1 Corinthians 7:8 only, where he advises them against remarrying. They are mentioned as a class in Acts 6:1, in connection with the appointment of the seven. Also Acts 9:39, Acts 9:41. In the Pastorals they receive special notice, indicating their advance from the position of mere beneficiaries to a quasi-official position in the church. from the very first, the church recognised its obligation to care for their support. A widow, in the East, was peculiarly desolate and helpless. In return for their maintenance certain duties were required of them, such as the care of orphans, sick and prisoners, and they were enrolled in an order, which, however, did not include all of their number who received alms of the church. In Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians, they are styled "the altar of God." To such an order the references in the Pastorals point. The Fathers, from the end of the second century to the fourth, recognised a class known as πρεσβύτιδες aged women (Titus 2:3), who had oversight of the female church-members and a separate seat in the congregation.

The council of Laodicaea abolished this institution, or so modified it that widows no longer held an official relation to the church. Who are widows indeed (τὰς ὄντως χήρας) Comp. 1 Timothy 5:5, 1 Timothy 5:16. Ὄντως verily, truly, twice in Paul, 1 Corinthians 14:25; Galatians 3:21. See on 2 Peter 2:18. Wherever ὄντως is used by Paul or by any other N.T. writer, it is used purely as an adverb (see Luke 23:47; Luke 24:34): but in all the four instances in the Pastorals, it is preceded by the article and converted into an adjective. The meaning is, who are absolutely bereaved, without children or relations (comp. 1 Timothy 5:4), and have been but once married. There is probably also an implied contrast with those described in 1 Timothy 5:6, 1 Timothy 5:11-13.

3. Honour—by setting on the church roll, as fit objects of charitable sustenance (1Ti 5:9, 17, 18; Ac 6:1). So "honor" is used for support with necessaries (Mt 15:4, 6; Ac 28:10). widows indeed—(1Ti 5:16). Those really desolate; not like those (1Ti 5:4) having children or relations answerable for their support, nor like those (in 1Ti 5:6) "who live in pleasure"; but such as, from their earthly desolation as to friends, are most likely to trust wholly in God, persevere in continual prayers, and carry out the religious duties assigned to Church widows (1Ti 5:5). Care for widows was transferred from the Jewish economy to the Christian (De 14:29; 16:11; 24:17, 19).

Verse 3. - Honor ( τίμα ). The use of the verb τιμάω in the comment on the fourth commandment in Matthew 15:4-6 , where the withholding of the honor due consists in saying, "It is corban, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me," and so withholding the honor due, shows clearly that in the notion of honoring is included that material support which their condition as widows required. So again in ver. 17 of this chapter, the " double honor" due to elders who labor in the Word and doctrine is clearly shown by ver. 18 to include payment for their maintenance. This is also borne out by the frequent use of τιμή in the sense of "price" ( Matthew 27:6, 9 ; Acts 4:34 ; Acts 7:16 ; Acts 19:19 ; 1 Corinthians 6:20 , etc.). The passage might, therefore, be paraphrased, "Pay due regard to the wants of those widows who are widows indeed." The "honor" here prescribed would be exactly the opposite to the "neglect" ( παρεθεωροῦντο ) complained of by the Grecian Jews ( Acts 6:1 ). The same idea is in the Latin honorarium , for a fee . Widows indeed ; i.e. really, as in vers. 5 and 16, desolate and alone. We learn from this passage that the care of widows by the whole Church, which began at Jerusalem in the very infancy of the Church, was continued in the Churches planted by St. Paul. We find the same institution though somewhat different in character, in subsequent ages of the Church.

Widowhood, as well as virginity, became a religious profession, and widows were admitted with certain ceremonies, including the placing on their heads a veil consecrated by the bishop. Deaconesses were very frequently chosen from the ranks of the widows (Bingham, 'Antiq.,' bk. 7. 1 Timothy 4 .). 1 Timothy 5:3

3 . Honour widows ] The honour implied is further referred to in 1 Timothy 5:9 ; as the honour of 1 Timothy 5:17 is defined by 1 Timothy 5:18 . So in Acts 28:10 the Melitans ‘honoured us with many honours, and when we sailed they put on board such things as we needed.’ Cf. Lewin’s note there. ‘The honours probably included pecuniary aid. Honor was often used for money; whence honorarium a fee.’ that are widows indeed ] So 1 Timothy 5:16 ; and in the true text 1 Timothy 6:19 , ‘the life which is life indeed:’ a usage of the article with this adverb peculiar to this Epistle. 3–16 . Timothy’s duties in regard to widows Counsel on alms and charities for widows.

The natural and obvious view of this passage studied in itself is to present the Church charities of this period as having reached an intermediate stage between the common purse or daily ministration of Acts 2:45 ; Acts 6:1 , and the order of widows publicly appointed and maintained with specified duties of education, superintendence and the like, which seems to have arisen later, perhaps from a strained interpretation of this passage itself, and which was abolished by the 11th Canon of the Council of Laodicea. ‘The women who are called by the Greeks “presbyters,” and by us “senior widows,” “once-wives,” and “churchmothers” ought not to have a position as an ordained body in the Church.’ Such a view is exactly parallel with that of the Church polity in these Epistles as ‘intermediate between the presbyterian episcopacy of the earlier apostolic period and the post-apostolic episcopacy.’ If this is correct, we shall not distinguish, with Bp Ellicott, ‘the desolate and destitute widow’ of 1 Timothy 5:3-8 from ‘the ecclesiastical or presbyteral widow’ of 1 Timothy 5:9-16 . More distinct and definite direction is given in 1 Timothy 5:10 for the selection of the widows who are described in general terms in 1 Timothy 5:5 . A generation of Christian life has passed now since the loving undiscriminating ‘ministration’ of the first days.