1 Timothy 5:1-10 (adding vss. 11-16), especially vs. 3: "Honor widows who are really widows." St. Nikolai of Zica notes that although "before Christ men were able with their own spirit and effort to create great civilizations...it was not possible to arrive at a proper concept of God...as love." Thus, not surprisingly, he asks, "How would men know about charity had God not first acted with His?" For it is with Christ that a world-wide community of care, love, and charity came into being and continues to exist to this day, caring for all its members in all their diversity.
How natural it seems to us that the Church of God, filled with His Spirit, should be a caring and loving community. Yet as St. Nikolai of Zica notes: "As there are plants that grow only in one region, so this rare plant, this rare love, grows and flourishes only in Christ's Church. If anyone would be convinced...he must read the lives of Christ's apostles, the fathers and confessors of the Christian faith...." It is the work of God that love is the norm of the Church.
This week we will read four lessons to conclude the First Epistle to Timothy. Each of the readings is concerned with the status and needs of a particular group or class of persons within the Church: widows, presbyters, slaves, teachers, and the wealthy. Since all of them are members of the Body of Christ, all are of special concern to the Church as a loving community.
We begin with St. Paul's remarks concerning care for widows in the first century Church. However, from his admonitions concerning widows, let us think how to apply his teaching to our contemporary circumstances, to love and care for single women and widows amongst us.
Today's reading discloses that a monastic-like order of widows was established in the early days, to avoid having the Church's goodwill abused. The general criteria for admission: "being sixty years old...and...the wife of one man, well reported for good works" (vss. 9,10). Younger widows were refused admission, "for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith" (vss. 11,12). "Younger widows should marry, bear children, manage the house" (vs. 14), so, as Tertullian noted later, to travel "the whole course of probation whereby a female can be tested."
The Apostle counsels Timothy that care be given to those widows who truly require the help of the Church, those "who are really widows" (vs. 3). Notice, however, that he divides widows who have "children or grandchildren" (vs. 4) from any widow "who is...left alone" (vs. 5). These latter are of special concern because they have no natural family to "repay their parents" (vs. 4). Where families are capable of assisting, they should bear the burden of care for their dependent relatives: "for this is good and acceptable before God" (vs. 4). When one who calls himself a Christian, "...does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" (vs. 
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On the other hand, women who have no recourse except to make "supplications and prayers night and day" to God for help (vs. 5), genuinely are the responsibility of the Church, because the community bears Christ's name. In the second century, St. Ignatius of Antioch similarly counseled a fellow Bishop: "Do not let the widows be neglected; after the Lord, you must be their guardian." However, such an obligation should not be thrust on the Church in any or every case. If a woman "lives in pleasure (or indulgence)," though "technically" she may be a widow, simply because her husband is deceased, she is in fact, "dead while she lives" (vs. 6). Christian churches are to shelter their dependent members but expect others to live diligently.
Heavenly Father, guide Thy Church to administer justice for the fatherless and widows.