Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy 5, if you have a Bible with you this morning. I had a great day yesterday. I had a leadership retreat with about 20 elders and deacons from the church here, and always an encouragement to be able to band together. It's an encouragement to me, and it should be an encouragement to you. I have 20 of these individuals who are advocating on your behalf, who are seeking to serve well, to understand the needs, to pray for you. And so a great opportunity. And there was a lot of things to celebrate. We opened our time just with a season of giving thanks for what God's done in the last year. And that went on for a while. We had a lot to thank God for. But I was also struck with the fact that we have issues. We have problems. We have problems as leaders, we have propensities and selfish tendencies, and we have problems as a church. We've got certain things that keep cropping up, right? Different issues, different... things that we say, how can we better address these things? How can we better help people to follow Christ in these particular areas? And you see certain things probably impacted by our culture in different ways that we have to address as a church. And I found morbid encouragement in just being reminded this week that the early church had problems too. Right? Here we are, Ephesus, first century, and Paul is going to identify a couple of problem areas. Particularly in this chapter, particularly in 1 Timothy 5. He's given more general instructions for men, for women, for elders, for deacons, But now into chapter 5, he's kind of becoming a little more issue-oriented. And there were two main areas that he addresses here. One is the issue of widows, that whole arena that seemed to be causing some problems. And then the whole arena of elders. Seemingly, this is the arena even where they were having problems with false teachers, people of influence. Paul's already talked about this in the letter. Influential teachers who were leading people away from the gospel. And advocating salvation by human effort. And Paul's having to say, no, you need to bring the church back to the Gospel. And there at the end of chapter 3, he outlines this great Christology, you know, the work of Christ. And he outlines it in a six-line song. This is the heart of our faith. and it needs to remain at the center. So anyways, those two issues, the whole realm of widows and their care, and then the realm of elders, and he spends time on these two issues. Of course, today we're going to look at the first part of that. We're going to look at widows. Actually, over the next two weeks we'll be considering this. It's a lengthy section. So we'll begin into it here today and pick up here next week. But we see here and understand that widows in the ancient world in particular were very much in a vulnerable place. That's true today as well. We don't have to think about that very long to realize why that's the case. We have a couple of very pointed accounts in the New Testament in the ministry of Jesus. One of those is Mark chapter 12. Remember Jesus and his disciples are standing there and Jesus draws attention to a poor widow woman who was putting in a few pennies into the collection box. And Jesus says, take note of this because this woman is giving more than anyone else because she's giving all that she has. And so we see that little episode right there. And then there's another account in Luke chapter 7. It's a funeral scene. The woman's son has died and she's grieving. Everyone's grieving, right? And the text goes on to specify that this woman not only had lost her son, but she was a widow. She had lost her husband. And so that adds to the gravity of the text that this woman is now left without anyone to care for her in her old age. So you get this picture over and over again in Scripture of a person who's in a very vulnerable situation. And God has great concern for them and has very specific instructions related to their care. And even in a modern setting, we live in an age where women are able to pursue education in ways that maybe just wasn't as readily available, certainly in the first century. Many women choose to work outside the home. But even today we would recognize that many women have made certain sacrifices in terms of their career, in terms of educational goals and things, in care of their family. And so when the husband is gone, either through death or through divorce, that woman is left in a very vulnerable place. That's why I think one of the reasons why divorce is in Malachi there in the prophets is referenced as an act of such violence. Because an act of violence is being perpetrated against that woman. So the plight, the plight of widows. We need to sort of enter into it a little bit and think about the seriousness of this scenario and what Paul is having to talk about here. So that leads us here to 1 Timothy 5. That's Paul's topic, is the widows. 1 Timothy 5, beginning in verse 3. Hear the word of the Lord. honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents. For this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who is self-indulgent is dead, even while she lives. Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for the members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." May God add His blessing to the reading of His Word. So Paul has three groups of people in mind. Three specific instructions for three different groups of people. The first instruction is for the church. It's for all of us. No one's excluded. And that instruction is this, that churches should honor true widows. Churches should honor true widows. They should value widows and treat them with dignity. Particularly in this context here as we go into verse 9, you will see there's a reference actually to a list that widows were enrolled onto a certain roster. There was some formal means of making sure that they were cared for. And so we know from other texts too that the church in Jerusalem, for example, provided meals on a regular basis for the widows. And so part of this would have certainly had to do with financial support or other forms of practical support, whether it be food or those kinds of things. But we must recognize that it would certainly go beyond that. There's this element not just of providing for, but honoring, assigning value to them, giving attention to them. There's a great scenario, a great story there of the Apostle Paul. It's recorded in Acts 28. And this is, of course, just about at the end of Paul's ministry. He's on his way to Rome. He appealed to Caesar. And so in God's providence, Paul's going to the heart of the Roman Empire with the Gospel. He's going in chains, but he's going exactly where he wants to go. And along the way, Paul and his traveling companions and his guards, right? He's under arrest at this point. They are shipwrecked, and they land on an island, the island of Malta. And there is a man on this island, Publius, who was the chief official of the island. And Publius had a sick father. And Paul, at a certain point in their visit, was able to come alongside of Publius' father and lay hands on him, and this man was healed from very serious illness. And others from the island came, and many were cured. And the text says that Paul and his companions were greatly honored. by the people of that island. And when it came time to set sail and continue their journey to Rome, those people provided for everything they needed. So they recognized that what Paul had done was something remarkable, it was something so valuable, and they wanted to respond appropriately. That's the idea here with the care of widows and this idea of honor Paul qualifies the instructions to say that the church should reserve their support for the most vulnerable who have no one to care for them. So it's interesting terminology here, isn't it? 1 Timothy 5, honor widows who are truly widows. We say that doesn't make any sense. Either your husband has passed away or your husband is still living, right? There's not a lot of ambiguity there, but Paul's interacting with the very essence of what the word widow means. It means to be bereft, to be left alone. And Paul says there are some who more fully meet that description. who have been left all alone. They not only have lost their husband, but they have no children. There's no other family members to care for them. And these ones who have truly and fully been left alone, you must give particular care to. So that's the instructions to the churches. So we need to answer that question. We need to answer it corporately. What are we doing to help care for widows in the context of this local church, right? But I think we all have to answer it individually too. What am I doing to help show honor, to help provide for the needs of widows within this local church? So the churches have responsibility. And perhaps this was a part of the problem. Again, Paul's dealing with an issue here, right? He's raising a specific issue. And it could be that the church had in some sense abdicated its responsibilities. We live in a very pragmatic culture, right? People think in business terms. They think cost-benefits analysis, right? What's the payoff for a certain action? And there's this push for church growth, right? We need to kind of stay current, you know? And who often gets lost in the shuffle? Widows. Potentially, right? So it could be that in some senses the church had just lost sight of this aspect of their mission and their calling. And Paul is calling them back to this. There's another group of people though that Paul has instructions for. That is individual believers within their own families. And the instruction is this, that believers should care for their own parents and grandparents. Believers should care for their own parents and grandparents. So verse 4, notice the transition. Honor widows who are truly widows. That's the church. It's their responsibility. But he qualifies it, verse 4, "...but if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household." So children and grandchildren are in the alpha position, in the first chair. The word here is a word of priority. Let them first be the ones to take care for their parents and their grandparents. Care of widows is not primarily the work of the church. It is not primarily the work of the government. It is primarily our responsibility as family members to care for our parents and grandparents, all right? We are the first line of defense. And Paul couches this in some very specific ways that I think should shape our thinking. That they should see it as a practical expression of their faith. They should put their faith into practice. Notice what Paul says. Let them first learn to show godliness. Or to show piety. In other words, this is how you show your faith. This is how your faith finds expression. This is how you demonstrate godliness, is by caring for your parents and grandparents. It's a practical way to live out the gospel. We deceive ourselves if we think we are obedient Christians, if we don't live out our faith with the ones closest to us. And this is a tendency. How many times do we say things to those we love most that we would never say to a complete stranger? Now, we can be so cruel with one another, and sometimes because the defenses are down, right? In the context of a family. Sometimes we're much kinder to people that we don't even know than we are to people love the most. And I think that's one of Satan's strategies even, to cause us to act in a certain way towards other people, but ignore things within our own families, within our closest relationships, within our relationships with our parents, our relationships with our kids, relationships with a spouse. We see that this is the expression of true godliness. It's how we treat those within our own family. We need to view it as a practical expression of our faith. Maybe the true test of our faith, of our godliness. They should see it as a repayment of debt. They should see it as a repayment of debt. So notice again verse 4, "...let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents." We have financial terminology here, some repayment to their parents. The Jesus book, verse 4 reads this way in the Hawaiian Pidgin English, But if one widow get kids or grandkids, the kids supposed to know for sure respect for their own widow guys in front of God. Now, the kids supposed to take care their mother guys and grandmother guys too, just like how the mother and grandmother guys went take care of them small kid time. That's how God like. So we ought to show the same type of love and concern and provision for our parents and our grandparents that they show to us. Now, how much do you owe? You want to do the math? Time magazine reads an article, 1.1 million from birth through the college years. I find that to be a bit on the high side. I did a little bit of math. That doesn't equate with my net income for those 20-odd years. But it is a bit interesting to think about, isn't it? It's a nuanced discussion. What is involved in providing food and shelter for a 22-year span? What is the cost in taxes in tuition for schooling. Then you talk about college education and any help that parents might provide in that regard. Talk about a, I'm going to call it lost income from a mom who maybe isn't able to work or stays home to provide for the kids when she could have been working, or just the cost of child care if she is working. It's a pretty hefty price tag, more than most of you can afford to pay, right? And you owe it. It's appropriate for you to care and respond for your parents, your grandparents in the ways that they have provided for you. One way we ought to think about it. They should also recognize it as a matter of great importance to God. God is not neutral on this issue. He's actually quite clear in his commitment to Widows. We can go to Exodus 20 to see again what He says about honoring father and mother. We could go to passages like Psalm 68. Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation. This is part of the heart of God, the very identity of God is as a protector of those who are unable to care for themselves. So we ought to recognize the importance that this must have for us. Now we can look at a couple of different case studies to see how this works itself out. We need look no further than Jesus to see His own pattern as He is there on the cross suffering in ways we can't even imagine. A cruel death. He looks down and makes provision for His mother. There's John, His disciple, and there's His mother Mary. And Jesus says to John, behold, your mother. I now pass the baton of My mother's care on to you. I was a sophomore, junior in high school. Grandfather had some pretty significant dementia issues, and my family, my mom and her siblings, began to be concerned about my grandma's well-being. Because Grandpa was up at all times of the day and night. He was restless. He was sometimes a little bit obstinate. And so the family began to sort of put in motion a plan to help safeguard my grandma and provide care for my grandpa. And happened to have a situation where four of my mom's five siblings were living in town. And so they just came up with a schedule where they would take shifts every night with my grandpa. And guess who got a shift? I got a shit. I was one of the oldest grandkids and so I got a shift as a sophomore in high school I'm in this 10 by 10 bedroom grandpa's on the little single bed off in the corner, and I have another single bed that I have Kind of brought across to where it's grandpa can't get out Without waking me up And so three or four times a night, he's up. I realize he's trying to get over the bed. And I'm helping him into the bathroom. And let's just say it's an education for a high schooler, right? A lot of growing up happened there. But thankful for my parents. I wouldn't have been inclined to do that. I wouldn't have even keyed in on what was going on. But thankful that my parents had a sensitivity to their parents and grateful for what was being modeled there. But that's our responsibility. And in some ways, it's gotten harder because of geography, right? I'm not in the same hometown as my parents. I'm an only child and I live two plus hours away from my mom and my dad. I think about this a lot. I'm a little funny that way. And that's pretty close. Some of you live a lot further away from parents or grandparents. And what does that look like? We better think pretty carefully about it, right? About how we can undertake that type of care for our own parents and grandparents. So the church. That might have been part of the issue. The church abdicating its responsibility to be a safety net for those with no one else to care for them. But primarily, believers needed to be exercising care for their parents and grandparents as the first line of provision. And presumably, maybe that wasn't happening. Paul feels the need to address it here. He stresses it. But then there's a third category that Paul addresses, and that is the widows themselves. The widows themselves. And he says essentially this, that widows who expect the church's support should live a godly life. Widows who expect the church's support should live a godly life. He says here in verse 5, she who is truly a widow left all alone has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. So he says that the widows ought to have an orientation toward God. They ought to be given to prayer, to bringing their petitions to God, to being focused on Him, claiming His promises, living by faith, And they also ought to be oriented towards others. He talks here about widows who are self-indulgent, concerned only with themselves, rather self-absorbed, self-focused. And he urges them again to embrace a different sort of orientation. If I'm going to read between the lines here and give just a little bit of commentary on this, I would say that Paul's concerned about widows who have too much time on their hands. And in other places he'll talk about this. Between this first letter and second letter, he talks about those who are inclined to be busybodies. gossiping, going from house to house, maybe don't have formal, rigid tasks like maybe they did when they were younger, were caring for a family, and just have too much time on their hands and not all of it being used in healthy ways. So Paul is challenging them. We have some great examples in scripture of widows and godly women who lived well. There's a powerful scene in Acts chapter 9 with a woman named Tabitha or Dorcas. She dies and around her body gather all the widows of the community. who come out and bring all of the things that Tabitha had made for them in her life. All of the special stockings and the knit caps. Here was a woman who was devoted to serving other people. And when she died, all of those people that she had served came out of the woodwork to acknowledge her life and to speak a word of blessing. over her. We don't have to look just to Bible times. We have examples in our own church family of widows who have lived well. I'm going to embarrass Winnie Garner this morning. She's here today. Winnie lost her husband in the last couple of years. Has relocated out to an area that's very new to her. She doesn't know anybody. Doesn't have a context of all lifelong friendships. could really pretty easily have a deer-in-the-headlights sort of experience, right? I mean, just where do I go with this? And Winnie's taken to writing cards. And I've been the recipient of many of Winnie's encouraging cards. And she takes the opportunity to pray for people as she writes those cards. And what a great blessing to have that kind of an orientation. I've appreciated Winnie when she could be pretty easily Have a pity party. She maybe has a pity party every once in a while. I don't know. But she could pretty easily have a pity party, and yet she's chosen to use her gifts and abilities not just on herself, but to keep looking outward, keep serving the Lord. That's a great encouragement. We've got some ladies that have started a ministry, this Lift ministry, Ladies in Fellowship Together, Shirley and Anne Henriksen and some others. That's one of their goals is to say, hey, we've got some ladies that have time they could use to serve. And they've really started a service organization. How can these ladies help serve, in some cases, other seniors or other people in the church? What a great initiative to say, I want to make good use of my time. And a great, great reminder. Well, Paul closes this section, verses 7 and 8, with sort of considering the stakes. What are the consequences here if we don't get this right? Again, he's addressed the church and their responsibilities. He's addressed individual believers within their families and what their responsibilities are. And then he's addressing the widows themselves. And he closes here with sort of a word of warning. The first thing we see here is that is that widows who live for themselves will incur blame. Now there's an interpretive issue here in this text in terms of how exactly you render this word. They are to remain above reproach. Some of the translations would read blameless. It's the same type of terminology that's used of elders or overseers in the church. They are to be above reproach. But I'm just struck with the fact that these widows were going to answer for the use of their retirement years. We have this cultural notion that retirement is my time, right? I punched the clock, I worked hard, maybe for somebody else, for all those years, and then I retire and it's my time. It's not your time. You're gonna answer for it. the use of that time. And so are widows. And so he wants these widows to be above reproach, to not in any way incur blame because of their misallocation of time. So he directs comment to the widows, and then he directs a very pointed comment to the believers, to those who are charged with caring for the widows. And he says, if anyone does not provide, this is verse 8, if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. He's denied the faith. In other words, by his actions he has undermined the gospel. The Gospel of God's grace and God's concern for helpless people. And when I don't do that, I undermine, I undercut the very heart of the Gospel. And I deny it. Not maybe by my words, but by my actions. And then he goes on to say that this person is worse than an unbeliever. Even pagans. Total unbelievers understand the importance of caring for parents and grandparents. In fact, Aristotle wrote about this. Not your preeminent theologian, right? Unbelievers, that it would be thought in the matter of food we should help our parents before all others. since we owe our nourishment to them. And it is more honorable to help in this respect the authors of our being even before ourselves." So these are the people who nourished us, who gave us life. And we ought to give them food before we ever think of eating ourselves. That's just appropriate. In Greek culture, there's actually laws. Secular Greek culture, there were laws that governed and required people to care for their parents and for their grandparents. As a matter of fact, the particular terms that were used to describe those laws, it was the stork law, after the bird. Historics were notorious for caring for their parents, even to the point of carrying them along until they died. So even Greek culture did this. And so for a believer to not do it was a double shame. It brought great reproach on the name of Christ and the testimony of the church. Paul sort of puts an exclamation point on this whole conversation to motivate them towards obedience in this domain. I can't help but think just in very practical terms, beyond our testimony, we better give some thought to how we want to be treated. Right? Getting older and apart from Christ's return. We will all face death We will many of us likely be in a position to require someone else's help and care I Wrote this on the connection card What kind of role did your parents have in the care of your grandparents? What kind of patterns are being established in your family? What does that mean for you? This person writes, my parents cared for my dad's parents as we lived in the farmhouse they owned. I saw the good and the bad as my mother wasn't always kind to them. I enjoyed my grandmother greatly. Here's somebody that has a legacy in their family of honoring parents, of caring for widows within their family. certainly we ought to be challenged to obey in this domain as well. I'm going to ask that you stand with me as I read a benediction this morning out of Ephesians 3. And this particular text leaves us to consider the love of Christ in all of its dimensions and magnitude with the ultimate goal that we would be filled with the fullness of God, that we would be characterized as Christ is characterized, that our love would be as Christ's love. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. God's people said, Amen. Amen. Go in peace.