THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH & THE DISENFRANCHISED
(I Tim. 5:3-16)
Overview of I Tim. 4:1-5-2
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 The Christian Church and the Disenfranchised
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. The Christian Church and the Disenfranchised
2. Ministry to Widows in the Early Church
3. Sorting Out the Needy / Biblical Approach to Social Welfare
4. The Underlying Motivation for Christian Caring
5. The Christian’s Responsibility for His Family
6. The “Good Works” of a New Testament Woman
7. Gossips, Busybodies and False Teachers
8. What about “Younger Widows”?
I. THE BREAKDOWN OF THE PASSAGE.
A. QUESTION: How many different classifications of widows are listed in I Tim. 5:3-16?
The widow who is really in need
The widow who has children and grandchildren
The widow who lives for pleasure
The widow who qualifies for official service
The widow who should remarry
B. The two main sections are:
1. Widows served by the church – Destitute (3-8,16)
2. 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. It 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.
QUESTION: Who in our society, then, might be classed as a widow?
The single mother or any single woman deserted by her husband or left alone because her husband is imprisoned.
II. ISRAEL’S CARE OF WIDOWS
Exodus 22
22 “Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. 23 If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. 24 My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword …..
Deuteronomy 10
17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome … . 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.
Deuteronomy 14
28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, 29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deuteronomy 24
17 Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. … 19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. 22
Proverbs 15
25 The LORD tears down the proud man’s house but he keeps the widow’s boundaries intact.
Isaiah 1
17 Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
Jeremiah 7
6 if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow ….. (vs. 6)
Zechariah 7
9 “This is what the LORD Almighty says: … 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor….”
Malachi 3
5 “So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against … who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.
III. JESUS’ MINISTRY TO THE DISENFRANCHISED.
A. Who did Jesus help?
Lepers, widows, adulteress, beggars, blind, poor, prisoners, hungry, sick, strangers (alien), naked, dumb, blind, Samaritans, deaf, demon-possessed, paralytic, children, Syrophoenician woman,
16He went to Nazareth, … into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18″The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16-21).
2When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples 3to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” 4Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor (Matthew 11:2-5).
“Underdog. I wince even as I write the word, especially in connections with Jesus. It’s a crude word, probably derived from dogfighting and applied over time to predictable losers and victims of injustice. Yet as I read the birth stories about Jesus I cannot help but conclude that thought the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful,God is tilted toward the underdog. “He brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich empty away,” said Mary in her Magnificat hymn. (Phily Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, pg. 39)
B. The Strong Never Cared for the Weak before Jesus Came
1. Throughout history the world always had a callous disregard for the weak and defenseless.
2. “When a child was born, he was brought and laid before his father’s feet. If the father stooped and lifted him, that meant that he acknowledged him and was prepared to accept responsibility for his upbringing. If the father turned and walked away, the child was quite literally thrown out, like an unwanted piece of rubbish. It often happened that such unwanted children were collected by unscrupulous people and, if girls, brought up to stock the public brothels, and, if boys, trained to be slaves or gladiators for the public games (Barclay, 110).
3. The Sioux Indian, when a man died his widow was put out of the tent, even in the midst of the winter and was left to die. The book was about a Sioux chief and his wife and when he died she was put out, slept by the horses and a day or so later was frozen to death.
4. Jesus and the widow Nain.
11Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out–the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13When the Lord saw her, His Heart Went Out To Her and he said, “Don’t cry.” 14Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 15The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother (Lk. 7:11-15).
IV. WHY CHRISTIANS CARE FOR THE DISENFRANCHISED
* We have Scriptures like I Tim. 5:3-8 that reminds us to care for those who are left all alone.
A. We follow the example of Jesus.
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (I Peter 2:21).
Jesus only spoke to two individuals from the cross, a thief and his widowed mother.
B. We minister to Jesus
“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine (hungry, naked, thirsty, prisoner) you did for me” (Mt. 25:40).
C. The moral nature of our God affects our actions and attitudes towards the disenfranchised and marginalized of the world.
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD , the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. (Ex. 34:6-7) The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion (Ps. 116:5).
“…monotheism may well have been the single most significant innovation in history” (For the Glory of God, Rodney Stark).
“Moreover, to promote virtue among humans, Gods must be virtuous – they must favor good over evil. … The effects of religiousness on individual morality are contingent on images of Gods as conscious, morally concerned beings … images of Gods as conscious, powerful, morally concerned beings function to sustain the moral order” (Stark, 375-376).
SO WHAT???
1. Our Christian concern should be for widows “who are really in need and left all alone” and also for all the disenfranchised and marginalized people of the world.
2. We need to thank God that He loves and cares for the disenfranchised and the underdogs of this world. He is really the God of the poor.
3. We need to remember that Christianity has always set the standard and has been the role model in caring for the disenfranchised and this is what we must continue doing.
4. Our understanding of who God is in His character and nature will affect the way we live and the way we treat others.