1 Timothy 5:9–16

5:9–10 The previous passage (vv. 3–8) deals with the church’s general obligation to care for widows who have no one else to care for them. This passage speaks of a narrower group of widows whose names are placed on a list (i.e., “enrolled”). Not every woman who is “truly” a widow goes on this list, but only those who meet a certain set of qualifications. Paul lists three:

(1) “Not less than sixty years of age.” An enrolled woman must be mature in the faith and must have taken a vow not to remarry but to remain unmarried (cf. vv. 11–12).

(2) “The wife of one husband.” Paul is not specifying this as a contrast to polyandry (having multiple husbands), because that practice was not known in Paul’s time. Nor is he disqualifying women who remarried after their husbands died, since he exhorts younger widows to do that very thing in the following verses. The best way to understand this phrase is the same way in which we understood the corresponding phrase applied to elders in 3:2, “the husband of one wife.” Just like the elder has to be a “one-woman man,” the widows on this list have to have been a “one-man woman.” The phrase expresses the woman’s exclusive, faithful devotion to her husband over the course of their marriage.

(3) “A reputation for good works.” The rest of verse 10 list four specific items that constitute “good works,” and then the list ends with a bookend indicating that the widow has a track record of following “every good work.” Such good works include:

1. (a) Bringing up children. Raising children is the primary job of a mother. This can include raising orphans, but for most of these women this will involve raising children they bore themselves.
2. (b) Showing hospitality. In addition to raising her own children, the widow must have practiced hospitality. Her home was not to have been a fortress against outsiders but a place of blessing and provision for others.
3. (c) Washing “the feet of the saints.” This woman has to have been a servant. In the ancient world, footwashing was one of the most menial of tasks. When people came into a home after a journey, their sandaled feet were often sweaty and caked with dirt, and someone had the lowly job of washing those feet. This recalls the example that Jesus provided when he washed his disciples’ feet. This woman is a servant like Jesus; she does not think of herself as being above menial work.
4. (d) Caring “for the afflicted.” This could be a reference to persecuted Christians. More likely, however, Paul refers to those who are “afflicted” in the sense of James 1:27. This woman has cared for needy people.

All four of these good works are focused on serving others, not oneself. Further, all four of these activities are based in the woman’s home. They grow not from a home in disarray but rather from one that is well-ordered.

The only type of woman who can be enrolled is one with a proven track record of these kinds of good works, because these women are to have a part in the church’s ministry. The good works at which these women excelled, the church now calls on them to do on the church’s behalf.¹

This does not mean that the church refuses to help other widows. On the contrary, the church still has an obligation to support those who are “truly widows” (cf. vv. 3–8). Nor does this mean that Paul mandates all churches to have such a list of ministry widows. It does mean, however, that there is a scriptural basis for women in ministry who are in the employ of the church.

5:11–12 There is another kind of widow who should not be placed on the list: “younger widows.” Those widows who have the opportunity to remarry should pursue marriage. A younger woman is more likely to feel the desire to be married again. Paul says of them that “their passions” may “draw them away from Christ.” Then, when they marry, they “incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith.” This does not mean that widows are consigned to hell, as if marriage were tantamount to apostasy. The word for “faith” can also be translated “pledge” (cf. NASB). The women on the list apparently make a vow to God never to remarry, a vow that is abandoned if they decide later to marry. The word translated “condemnation” is applied to believers elsewhere and thus does not always refer to eternal punishment (e.g., 1 Cor. 11:29, 34; James 3:1). In this context it has the nuance of “censure.” When widows remarry after pledging not to do so, they have their own home to care for and can no longer fulfill the ministry to which they have committed themselves. Thus it is better for such younger women not to be placed on the list in the first place.

5:13 In addition to potentially breaking a pledge, a younger unmarried widow may be at greater risk of becoming an “idler.” If she does not have proven character, she may not fulfill the ministry of the enrolled widows. If a church enrolls morally weak women on the list, they might be tempted to use their time not ministering to others but rather going around to the homes of friends and church members engaging in idle gossip and “saying what they should not.” Rather than taking care of God’s business, or even her own business, such a woman would be getting into everyone else’s business. Such a woman cannot be placed on a list intended only for wise, faithful women who are walking with Christ and helping others to do the same.

5:14–15 Just as “childbearing” probably stands for all of a wife’s duties in the home in 2:15, so to “bear children” and “manage their households” probably stand for the same here in verse 14 (cf. comment on 2:15). In this way, younger widows should pursue marriage and all of the duties it entails. This is not unlike Paul’s fuller expression of wifely duties in Titus 2:4–5: “Train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” In fulfilling these duties, a younger woman removes herself from the temptations of the idler and the busybody and thereby gives no legitimate grounds for anyone to speak ill of her (either an “adversary” or perhaps by the “adversary,” the Devil).

5:16 Paul concludes with a summary of the foregoing. A family should care for its own widowed mothers and grandmothers. This is to relieve the church of the burden of providing support in cases in which alternate means of support are available. The church has limited funds, and what it has should be reserved for those who are “truly widows” (i.e., those who have no other recourse but the church).