11 As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. 12 Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. 13 Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to. 14 So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.

1 Timothy 5:11-14 (NIV)

Few things discredit the gospel more than when the world appears to be holier than the Church. The world, ever hungry to discredit the gospel, constantly searches for examples of God’s people falling short. Unbelievers might seize upon the permissive attitude toward divorce in some parts of the Church, or the fact that, unlike the secular courts, gossiping Christians assume a person is guilty until proven innocent. In such cases, Christian credibility is decisively undermined.

Timothy, the pastor of the church at Ephesus, faced a number of practical theological dilemmas. One of them involved care for widows—a clear commitment of the early Christians (James 1:27; 1 Tim. 5:3-9). The local church community offered social protection and financial assistance to those who lost their means for provision through the death of a husband. As a response to the church’s kindness, many of these widows pledged their lives to the service of the Church (v. 12). The program, however, began to experience difficulty.

Two specific problems emerged. First, having “dedicated” their lives to Christian service during their bereavement, some of the younger widows reneged on their promise when their hearts returned to interest in marriage. Others variously turned into idle persons and busybodies (v. 13). Able-bodied and subsidized, these women stirred up enough trouble gossiping from “house to house” to convince Paul that the minimum age-requirement for congregation-supported widows should be sixty years.

Why was the topic of such great import? Simply this: idle women who were unattached to either families or husbands deviated from the Roman ideal of quietness and modesty. Such wives ordered the home and thus preserved an important aspect of the national identity. As such, when widowed, women were routinely encouraged to remarry. By creating an entirely new social class of unwed widows, the Church was thus undermining one of the few culturally redeeming Roman institutions: stable homes. By advocating remarriage for younger widows, the Church showed that she too cared about well-managed homes, thus giving “the enemy no opportunity for slander” (v. 14).

article adapted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church of Perryville is located across from the Principio Health Center on Rt. 40, one and a half miles east of Rt. 222.