THE YOUNGER WIDOWS – GOSSIPING FALSE TEACHING?
(I Tim. 5:11-14)
Overview of I Tim. 4:1-5:16
4:1-2 How False Teaching Enters the Church
4:3-5 Common Grace
4:6 Word of God in Life of the Believer
4:7a Godliness – Divine / Human Role
4:7b Train Yourself to be Godly
4:7c Spiritual Disciplines (The Word of God)
4:7d Spiritual Disciplines (Devotions, Worship)
4.7e Spiritual Disciplines (Church Attendance, Journaling, Practicing Presence of God)
4:8-9 Why Godliness Has Great Value
4:10 Putting Our Hope in the Living God
4:12 Setting an Example for Believers
4:13 What a Christian Worship Service Looked Like in the First Century
4:14 Neglecting the Spiritual Gift God has Given Us
4:15-16 Getting Home Before Dark
5:1-2 So, How Should We Describe the Church?
5:3-16 God’s Tilt Towards the Disenfranchised
5:3-16 Sorting Out those Worthy of Relief – A Biblical Approach to Social Welfare
5:3-16 The Biblical Rationale for Providing for Relatives
5:5-16 The Tale of Two Widows – A Biblical Approach to Pleasure
5:9-10 The Good Works of a New Testament Woman
5:11-14 The Younger Widows – Breaking Celibacy Vows
5:11-14 The Younger Widows – Gossiping False Teaching
3Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. 4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. 5The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. 6But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. 7Give the people these instructions, too, so that no one may be open to blame. 8If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
9No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, 10and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.
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. 12Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. 13Besides, 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. 14So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. 15Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.
16If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.
INTRODUCTION:
A. Topics for Discussion in I Tim. 5:3-16
1. God Tilts Towards the Disenfranchised
2. Sorting Out Those Worthy of Relief – A Biblical Approach to Social Welfare
3. The Biblical Rationale for Providing for Our Relatives
4. Tale of Two Widows – A Biblical Approach to Pleasure
5. The Good Works of a New Testament Woman
6. The Younger Widows – Breaking Celibacy Vows
7. The Younger Widows – Gossiping False Teaching 8. Satan – What’s He Up To?
B. The Breakdown of the Passage
1. Different classes of widows in I Tim. 5:3-16
The widow who is really in need (3, 5, 16)
The widow who has children, grandchildren, relatives (4,7-8)
The widow who lives for pleasure (6)
The widow who qualifies for official service (9-10)
The widow who should remarry (11-15)
2. Two main sections are:
a. Widows served by the church – Destitute (3-8, 16)
b. Widows who serve the church – Deserving (9-15)
C. Definition of the word “widow”
“The English word widow describes a woman whose husband is dead. The Greek word chera includes that meaning, but is not limited to it. It is an adjective used as a noun, and means “bereft,” “robbed,” “having suffered loss,” or “left alone.” The word does not speak of how a woman was left alone, it merely describes the situation. The Greek meaning of the word “widow” is broad enough to encompass those who lost their husbands through death, desertion, divorce, or imprisonment. It could even encompass those cases where a polygamist came to Christ and sent away his extra wives (William Barclay, The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975], 105.
In our society the single mother or any single woman deserted by her husband or divorced or left alone because her husband is imprisoned would be in the same category as a widow.
D. How Paul solves the social problem as it relates to widows in Ephesus:
Suppose there are 30 widows: What ones have relatives (10); What ones are over 60 and truly serving the church (7); What ones are just living for pleasure (4); What ones are young enough to remarry and have families (3) The remainder (6) are the truly destitute and need to be helped by the church.
E. Specific problems relating to young widows (I Tim. 5:11-14)
1. How to keep younger widows from breaking celibacy vows and thus causing the church to be slandered.
2. How to keep the younger women from gossiping false teaching from house church to house church.
3. How to provide a welfare net for the younger widows in the church.
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.
I. THE PROBLEM OF IDLENESS
QUESTION: What was the second problem related to the younger widows?
The Greek word for “idle” is argos and in Titus 1:12 is combined with the word for stomach and translated: slow-bellies, lazy gluttons, idle gluttons, lazy bellies and hating work.
Idleness and laziness don’t receive any good press in the Bible: Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry (Prov. 19:15).
William Barclay writes, “It was true then, as it is true now, that “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” The full life is always the safe life, and the empty life is always the life in peril.” (Pg. 114)
Some one has said that the devil tempts some people and idle people tempt the devil.
QUESTION: What are the worthy widows busy doing as compared to the activity of these younger widows?
Comparison of widows: WORTHY WIDOWS: Good works, hospitality, active prayer life, helping the afflicted, hope set in God; UNWORTHY WIDOWS: idle, going from house to house, active gossips, busybodies, saying hurtful things, hope set on own desires.
II. GOSSIP – DEFINITION
Possible etymology: Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what was considered important to the people. Since there were no telephones, TV’s or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs and bars who were told to “go sip some ale” and listen to people’s conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times. “You go sip here” and “You go sip there.” The two words “go sip” were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and thus, we have the term “gossip.”
Gossip isn’t much appreciated by the general public: A gossip is a person with a strong sense of rumor; A gossip is one who can give you all the details without knowing any of the facts; Gossip research is conducted in a BLABORATORY; gossip is nothing but mouth-to-mouth recitation; gossip is sometimes referred to as halitosis of the mind; gossip is what might be called “ear pollution”; Gossip is like mud thrown at a lean wall. It may not stick but it always leaves a dirty mark.
English synonyms and related words: tittle-tattle, scuttlebutt, gossipmonger, scandalmonger, tale bearing.
Greek Definition: Greek is phluaros – tattlers, gossips, getting into other people’s business; From phluo = to bubble, “to boil up,” “to throw up bubble,” of water and since bubbles are hollow and useless things, “to indulge in empty and foolish talk.”
III. GOSSIP IS TREATED SERIOUSLY IN THE WORD
The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell (James 3:6).
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips (Rom. 1:29).
For I am afraid that when I come …. There may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder [among you] (II Cor. 12:20).
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matter (I Pet 4:15)
IV. GOSSIP WAS A SERIOUS PROBLEM OF THE YOUNGER WIDOWS IN EPHESUS.
Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house church to house church. And not only do they become idlers, but also involved in gossiping false teaching and the occult, saying things they ought not to.
The Greek word for ‘busybody’ here is the identical Greek word used for ‘sorcery’ in Acts 19:19 where those who practiced ‘sorcery’ burned their books. It appears that they younger widows were meddling with the occult.
They [the false teachers] are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women [younger widows?] who are loaded down with sins [such as breaking celibacy vows] and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires [immorality], …. (II Tim. 3:6).
One reason gossip was such a problem was because elders such as Alexander (I Tim. 1:20), Philetus, and Hymenaeus (II Tim. 2:17) were using these younger, weak-willed widows to gossip their false teaching and occultic ideas from house-church to house church in Ephesus.
“It is probably as the “idle” purveyors of the false teachings that they are busybodies, and thus this becomes one of the reasons they are to be in all submissiveness and not to teach” (I Tim. 2:11-12). (Fee, 122)
Why did these younger widows have time on their hands? Were they put on the list of widows as church workers and being reimbursed by the church?
We have great promises to help us overcome the evil, the sin of gossiping:
I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Phil. 4:13).
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you (John 15:7).
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God (I Cor. 3:5).
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (I Cor. 12:10).
Paul’s solution for gossip was the same as his solution for the breaking of celibacy vows – Get married.
14So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.
IV. DAMAGE CAUSED BY GOSSIP
QUESTION: Besides being a means of communicating false teaching what other damage does gossip do in a church?
A. Gossip separates close friends
A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends (Prov. 16:28).
He who covers an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends (Prov. 17:9).
B. Gossip causes dissension.
Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth (Prov. 26:20).
C. Gossip betrays a confidence
A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret (Prov. 11:13).
A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much (Prov. 20:19).
V. DIFFERENT TYPES OF GOSSIP
QUESTION: Are there different types of gossip? If so, what are they?
A. Malicious gossip
“So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us …” (3 John 1)
B. Frivolous gossip
The purpose is not malicious but still it hurts and injures. Seinfeld on TV is a good example.
An “idle word” might be a word that produces no good effect, and is not calculated to produce any. Yet “Discourse tending to innocent mirth, to exhilarate the spirits, is not idle discourse; as the time spent in necessary recreation is not idle time.” (Dr. Dodderidge)
C. Gossiping rumors
Maybe not malicious and possibly not frivolous but can be very destructive. One of our synonyms for a gossip is a talebearer.
VI. A SUGGSTION FOR TACKLING GOSSIP
We always teach our children, “Think before you speak.” An Acronym: “Think” first to avoid gossiping:
T= Is it true?
H= Is it helpful?
I= Is it inspiring?
N= Is it necessary?
K= Is it kind?
CONCLUSION:
The Rumor Mill
Let me tell you a story about a local enterprise,
There’s one in every town no matter what its size.
It doesn’t turn a profit or bring in any revenue,
It’s good for one thing and that’s the damage it can do.
It’s called the Rumor Mill, the Rumor Mill.
If it can be twisted you can be sure that it will,
‘Cause there ain’t nothing sacred, at the Rumor Mill.
The people that work there are all volunteers,
The only qualification is a mouth and two big ears.
If the story’s not clear enough, that’s okay,
They’ll just doctor it up and send it on its way.
It doesn’t matter who’s involved or who it’s going to hurt,
As long as folks are listening, they’ll keep shoveling dirt
At the Rumor Mill
If it can be twisted you can be sure that it will,
‘Cause there ain’t nothing sacred at the Rumor Mill.
Manufacturing lies, where the truth is disguised,
Where reputations are crushed, where nothing is hushed.
If it can be twisted, you can be sure that it will,
‘Cause there ain’t nothing sacred at the Rumor Mill.
Now listen my children to this warning I make,
You got a lot to lose, there’s a lot her at stake,
The Bible plainly states you’re going to reap what you sow
And you’ll be shown mercy by the mercy you show.
So shut your mouth & ask your friends to kindly do the same,
Or you’ll wind up a victim with no one else to blame,
At the Rumor Mill.
If it can be twisted, you can be sure that it will
‘Cause there ain’t nothing sacred at the Rumor Mill.