1 Timothy 5
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CHAPTER 5
Advice About Widows, Elders and Slaves (5:1-25)
1-2 In this chapter, Paul gives Timothy many instructions on how to deal with various groups within the church.
It is the responsibility of overseers (elders) and pastors to reprove sin in the church and to discipline church members. However, it is never suitable to harshly rebuke an older person. Rather, the pastor should treat older people with the respect he would show to his own parents.
Timothy should advise and admonish younger members of the church as he would his own brothers and sisters. However, with the young women he must act with absolute purity. It is best for a pastor to give most of the responsibility for teaching and counseling young women to the older women in the church; in this way the pastor can avoid temptation (Titus 2:3-5).
3 Caring for widows is a very important Christian duty (James 1:27). Many widows have no way to support themselves. If a widow has no family members who can take care of her, then the church must take responsibility for her welfare. When Paul says here to give widows proper recognition, he means that the church should care for widows and meet all their legitimate needs. But the church only needs to care for those widows who are really in need.9
4 If a widow has children or grandchildren, then they are the ones who should care for her, not the church. It is the duty of children to honor and care for their aging parents and grandparents (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:2). We cannot say we honor our parents if we do not care for their needs.
5 For a widow to receive help from the church, she must first be really in need,10 and second, she must herself be worthy to receive help. She must be one who puts her hope in God and prays continually.
6 Some widows, however, lead immoral lives. Some may even become prostitutes in order to earn their living. Such widows are not worthy to receive help from the church. Even though their bodies are alive, their spirits are dead.
7 Timothy is to give these instructions both to widows and to their families, so that everyone may act properly and remain blameless.
8 Any Christian who does not provide for his parents and grandparents and other close relatives is worse than an unbeliever. Even unbelievers take care of their own families.
9-10 In Paul’s time, widows who were worthy to receive help from the church were put on a list. In order to be put on the list, a widow had to have the following qualifications: she had to be over sixty years old, she had to have been faithful to her husband, and she had to be known for her good works. Widows who had these qualifications were given special duties to perform in the church. Perhaps the work they were given to do in the church was the same kind of work that they had already become known for—such as caring for children, providing hospitality, helping those in need, or teaching other women.11
11-12 Those widows who were on the list were expected to remain totally devoted to Christ’s service. It appears that they made some kind of vow or promise not to get married again. Therefore, it was better not to put younger widows on the list, because they usually desired to remarry. If, having been put on the list, they then broke their vow and remarried, they would bring judgment on themselves.12 Therefore, Paul advises Timothy not to put younger widows on the list to begin with.
13-14 Furthermore, Paul says, younger widows often become lazy and spend their time gossiping and talking unsuitably. Rather, let these young widows remarry and get busy taking care of their homes; in this way, they will avoid falling into sin, and Satan will not have opportunity to accuse them (see 1 Corinthians 7:39-40).
15 Apparently some young widows had already been put on the list, and had subsequently turned away to follow Satan—that is, they had fallen into sin. This is why Paul urges Timothy not to put young widows on the list: he doesn’t want any others to be tempted to break their vow to God and fall into sin.
16 Just as children must care for their widowed mothers and grandmothers, so must the women of a family take care of any other widows in their family, such as widowed sisters, sisters-in-law, daughters, daughters-in-law, etc. Paul says that such widows who have another woman in the household who can care for them should not be put on the church list of widows. The church should only be responsible for those widows who are really in need.13
17 Timothy is also responsible for supervising and paying the elders of the church. Together with the pastor, the elders are the main leaders of the local church14 (see Acts 20:17,28; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Peter 5:1-3 and comments). Those elders who do their work well are worthy to receive double honor—that is, they are worthy both to be honored for their work and to receive payment for it.
18 Workers in the church deserve to be paid for their work. To affirm this principle, Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 25:4 (see 1 Corinthians 9:7-9 and comment). If it is right to feed the ox which treads grain that perishes, it is certainly right to pay the pastor or elder who feeds us the true bread of life that never perishes.
Paul also quotes here from Luke 10:7 (see 1 Corinthians 9:14). True, elders should not work for the love of money (1 Peter5:2); but the church has a responsibility to pay them fairly.
19 From time to time accusations may be brought against an elder. Such an accusation should not even be entertained—that is, not even listened to—unless it is confirmed by two or three eyewitnesses (see Deuteronomy 19:15; Matthew 18:16; 2 Corinthians 13:1)
20 If a charge against an elder is proven, that elder must be rebuked publicly.15 This will provide a warning to others not to sin.
21-22 Timothy must not show any partiality or favoritism in dealing with others. Before laying on hands—that is, before appointing anyone to an office in the church—Timothy must carefully examine that person to see that he is worthy (see Acts 6:6 and comment). If later on he proves to be a sinner, then Timothy will have to take responsibility for his sin, since he was the one who appointed him. Because of that person’s sin, Timothy’s own service will be dishonored. And certainly, Timothy himself must take no part in someone else’s sin; he must keep himself pure.
23 From this verse we learn that Timothy was not a strong and healthy man physically. He had many illnesses. In New Testament times, a little wine was considered good for one’s stomach.16
24-25 These verses are connected with verse 22. In appointing men to office in the church, it is easy to be deceived. Some men’s sins can be readily seen. The sins of such men come immediately to the attention of the court.
Other men, however, seem good on the outside, but inwardly they are sinful. The sins of these men come to light only later on. Many such men have been appointed to leadership in the church, and the church has suffered great harm as a result.
In the same way, some good deeds are immediately seen, while other good deeds come to light only later on. Thus many men who are worthy to be leaders are not chosen, because their good deeds are not at first apparent. Only later does it become clear that they are indeed worthy to be leaders.
Finally, there are many people whose worthiness will only be fully manifest in heaven. How many Christians there must be who quietly do good, who sacrifice, who pray—but no one hears about them! Surely these saints will one day receive their full reward.