16”If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows.” (1 Timothy 5:16 (ESV)
The following excerpt is by Dr. and Pastor J. Ligon Duncan. It is entitled Caring for the Church. He preached this message September 29, 2004.
First of all, a “widow indeed” for Paul is a woman
who truly, having been widowed, has no one else to help her in life. She has
no children who are there, part of that congregation who will care for her in
her time of need. She has no brothers or sisters in that congregation who will
care for her. She has predeceased her parents. Her parents are not there in
that congregation to help her. That is, she has no family relations to come and
be her safety net in a time of particular vulnerability, and so she is a person
who is truly alone. She’s not a person who has several children who are there
and are perfectly capable of caring for her. She is a person who is truly alone.
And notice also, she is a person who has truly
manifested her commitment to Jesus Christ in the life of this congregation.
This is not someone who is living a profligate life; this is not someone who
professes to be a believer, but who in their deeds reveals that she is not a
believer: this is someone who has lived the Christian life. You see his
description of her in verses five and six.
Now this is important, because Paul is perfectly
aware of the phenomenon of children who refuse to take responsibility for caring
for their parents. You remember the old Dutch proverb: “It seems easier for
one poor father to rear ten children than for ten rich children to care for one
poor father.” Paul knew this reality even two thousand years ago, before the
days of Medicare and Medicaid and modern healthcare and nursing homes, and all
the problems that have come with extended life expectancy. Paul knew that
problem of families refusing to take responsibility for the care of their own
family members, and Paul has some very strong words for those who refuse to do
so.
Notice verse eight: “If anyone does not provide for
his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith,
and is worse than an infidel.” Worse than an unbeliever, worse than one who is
not a disciple of Jesus Christ. Paul takes very seriously the family
responsibility in the care of elderly parents and of those who are in the
situation of being widowed.
It’s very interesting. You may have noticed in
today’s newspaper an article about homelessness, on the very first page. When
Glen Knecht arrived in Columbia, South Carolina, as pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church of Columbia, the church was involved in a downtown soup
kitchen that ministered to homeless people. Glen had a heart for ministering to
the needy, but he was also a person who wanted to be very practical and wise
about the ministry to the needy, and so in the first few weeks that he was at
the church he made it his business to go down to the soup kitchen and to
interview all the homeless people who were making regular use of the soup
kitchen. He asked them questions about their lives, and about their families,
and about what they did, and about what they thought. And one of the things
that he found out in the case of almost every person who was taking part in the
soup kitchen’s ministry to the homeless was this: the reason that they were on
the street stretched back to a break that they had had with family members.
Almost all of them had family members who could have taken them in, but because
of either their sin against the family or the family’s sin against them, there
had been a break in family relations, and therefore they had fallen through the
safety net.
Glen then went to those who were managing the soup
kitchen, and he said, “Do you realize by continuing to provide uniformly this
ministry to these people, you are in fact in many cases keeping them from doing
the very thing they need to do in order to get back on their feet?”
Now it’s interesting to me that Paul is saying here,
don’t pre-empt the family responsibility in ministering to those in need in the
church. How wise is that! That’s not unloving. It’s the most loving thing that
you can do, because ultimately the family first bears the responsibility for
those in need. As we enlarge our hearts–and we should enlarge our hearts in our
congregation–to care for those in need, we must take care that our heart is
enlarged wisely, and that we show care to those who need it most without
pre-empting the mechanisms that God has implanted in the very fabric of society
to provide for those who are in need. Paul is calling the church to love
tangibly those who are in need, but not pre-empt family responsibilities.
May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here. Have a blessed day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
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