Featured Widows

Well, as far as I know. We are small enough that everyone knows everyone -- and church and family are very much overlapping categories. We are also small enough that we currently have no widows that fit the qualifications of 1 Timothy 5. That doesn't mean that we can't or don't help when there is a specific need for someone, anyone, in the church, including a widow that wouldn't qualify to be taken under support of the church. We had a widow who would have qualified (for financial help) who recently passed, but her children were taking care of her so that there was no financial need.

 

No. I am literally interpreting the Bible.

 

Yes, not all widows qualify for this benevolence according to I Timothy 5.

"Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age,
having been the wife of one husband,
shown hospitality,
has washed the feet of the saints,
has cared for the afflicted,
and has devoted herself to every good work.
But refuse to enroll younger widows"

Yesterday John Piper pontificated on this very issue in the Ann Landers style feature on his website:

Ask Pastor John

"Are there verses in the Bible that encourage widows to remarry? And the answer is: Yes, there are, like I Timothy 5:11-16 where Paul wants younger widows to remarry instead of being on the special widow care ministry that existed, evidently, so that they wouldn’t be a burden on the church"

 

And ... ?

Just curious. Do you have any comments concerning this Jerome?

Thanks
HankD

 

The family not doing their part does not shift the burden to the church. If the children are too stingy with their time and money to help, maybe their parents should have reared them better. Distance is no excuse in this monetary society.

 

I have given you the passage. I have kids. They will look after their mother. Given age difference, health differences, the fact that almost all males on my father's side of the family dies of heart attacks before 65, she will out live me by a long stretch. She will collect enough life insurance to not have to worry. Either way, the boys will look after her.

 

I did not say abandon widows. I said follow the instruction of the passage. The Church can do supplemental things, but the primary responsibility, in normal cases, rests with the family.

 

But that of course doesn't keep us as a church family to assure their (widows) well-being if there is any question at all including family neglect (its possible).

HankD

 

could you describe the term,"Orphan"

 

If the Widow is part of the church body, Is she not part of the church family?

 

I ask because I was 12 YO when my father died, leaving my mom a widow with a Cerebral Palsy older sister & a 8 YO younger brother.....there was no visible means of support. Yes we had some family support & yes we had Christmas food baskets occasionally from the church, but no real outpouring from the community (we live in NJ...the ground zero of snooty self absorbed neighbors. We survived mostly by ourselves. I am just curious what other parts of the country think & if they are charitable.

 

Really, the church should reach out to the whole community.

The church family first of course, widows, orphans (kids who have been bounced around different homes by CPS).

In my 20 years at the local church we attend , we have had "drives" - diapers for single moms, cookies for cops, socks and other items for inmates and church pot lucks (only members bring food) open to the public, once we had a 4th of July hamburger/hot dog BBQ open to the public, etc...

HankD

 

Read the scripture I posted. Its not complicated.