Special Concern for Widows
In
the Apostles and disciples we see a special concern for widows in society just
as we did with Jesus. Widows whose husbands had passed on left behind wives or
women who were not “economically viable” in Roman society. In other words, they
were poor and had little chance of finding meaningful employ or means to make
money. For a widow with no husband and no family that could take her in, she
was essentially relegated to a death sentence or at least a life of deprivation
and poverty. They could also become victims to those that wished to exploit
their unfortunate situation (Matthew 23:14, Mark 12:40, destroyers of widow’s
houses). Although the Church had an immediate concern for widows and appointed
men to remedy the problem, the problem of providing for them did not desist.
The fact is that the Church actively pursued fixing the issue. We see the same
type of concern even in places like Corinth when the church at Corinth asks
Paul what course of action would be most fitting regarding both widows and
others (1 Corinthians 7) (Batey 38-39).
It
isn’t until 1 Timothy 5 that we see extensive efforts to reduce the number of
widows supported by the church. The problem of the Church providing for widows
had escalated so severely between the writing of 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy
that Paul seems to have changed his strategy quite a bit to address it. By the
writing of 1 Timothy we see that the requirements for the Church to support
widows had become more demanding and more stringent. Paul is clear to delineate
the difference between widows and “widows in need” in 1 Timothy 5:3 (Fee 115; Hendriksen,
“1 Timothy” 167):
“Give proper recognition to those widows who are
really in need. But 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.”
Here
I suggest that we see Paul attempting to draw out the Kingdom mentality of
so-called believers that were children or grandchildren of the widow. By saying
families should help their widowed mother or grandmother, he is essentially
saying they should be helping the poor, which just happened to be related to
them. Paul goes on to rebuke the compassionless behavior of the widow’s
relatives by bitingly remarking in 1 Timothy 5:8 that… (Fee 117-118; Hendriksen,
“1 Timothy” 170):
“Anyone who does not provide for their relatives,
and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than
an unbeliever.”
In
the same manner Paul also puts demands on the widow themselves in:
1 Timothy 5:9-10, “No
widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been
faithful to her husband, and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing
up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people,
helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.”
By
time of the writing of 1 Timothy we see a softening of Paul’s original stance
of young widows remaining unmarried (1 Corinthians 7:8). In 1 Timothy 5:14 we
specifically see Paul encourage young widows to remarry under the guise of
avoiding sin through sensual desire and by so doing they avoid slander and
defamation of the name of Christ. It should be noted that Paul hasn’t
contradicted himself, he still believes in staying single (5:12) still aids in
the service to God but if necessary, young widows should remarry (Fee 123; Hendriksen,
“1 Timothy” 175-176):
1 Corinthians 5:14 ~
“So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes
and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.”
It
can be seen today that this problem still persists in the world but it has been
the mission of the church since the Apostolic Church to care for widows (and
orphans for similar reasons) even when it became an overbearing problem. The
basis for the Apostolic church and therefore our stance today can be easily
gleaned throughout the writings of the Old Testament also. The Church and God’s
people have always been called to step forward to help the widows and the
orphans (Batey 40).
Paul’s Collection
The
last thing I would like to mention before moving on to a synopsis is the
accounts and the issue of Paul’s collection for Jerusalem. It is clear from
Paul’s writing and His actions that he took the Gospel and evangelism with extreme
earnest. So much so that we get a grocery list of abuses he endured to fulfill
his duty of the Great Commission in 2 Corinthians 11. What is interesting
though is that he also took the collection for the poor with similar
earnestness. Although his collection for the poor back in Jerusalem is usually
not often referred to in the main body of His letters, it can be gleaned from
their outer edges in the outro or exiting salutations to fellow Christians
(Romans 15, 16; 1 Corinthians 16). Paul seems to make it a point to itemize his
itinerary in the end portions of his letters and epistles and they often
contain reference to taking up a collection. The exception to this seems to be
2 Corinthians 8 but this might be because 2 Corinthians is a combination of
letters from Paul and Chapter 8 of 2 Corinthians may have actually been the end
of a letter before being combined with the remainder of 2 Corinthians, chapters
9-13 (Batey 55-56). Regardless, Paul instructed the Corinthians to follow a
similar methodology that that he had directed the Galatian churches to use in
taking up the collection (1 Corinthians 16:1) (Martin 144-145).
1 Corinthians 16:1-3 ~
“Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian
churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set
aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come
no collections will have to be made. Then, when I arrive, I will give letters
of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to
Jerusalem.”
He
tells them that on the first day of every week, each Christian was to set aside
monies at home comparable to how they had prospered (Batey 55). That way, when
Paul finally arrived the funds would be ready and nothing would need to be done
in haste or in a shoddy manner (Kistemaker, “1 Corinthians” 594-595).
Paul’s faced many of these same challenges
we face today with raising money. He spent nearly ten years asking for funds
for what is commonly referred to as the Jerusalem
Collection. This collection was taken up among the Gentile churches to help
Judean believers who were suffering from extremely hard economic times as a
result of a mid-40’s famine during the reign of Claudius (41-54 A.D.) (Kruse
148). The collection was ended in 57 A.D. and the funds were delivered by Paul
and a group of Gentile delegates. Romans 15:26 specifically states that (Hendriksen,
“Romans” 493; Kruse 150):
Romans 15:26,
“…Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among
the Lord’s people in Jerusalem.
The importance of the collection is not
only as a symbol of Christian unity and generosity but it is also an act worship
and koinonia/κοινωνία
that would actually create unity. Paul
then literally spells out the theological ground for Christian giving. He wants
the giving to be a outworking of their hearts and what dwells within them: The
Holy Spirit and therefore salvation and the Kingdom of God.
2 Corinthians 8:8-9 ~
I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by
comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so
that you through his poverty might become rich.
Theologically, Paul saw Christ, his
ministry and the Gospel (death on a Cross and Resurrection) as the piercing central
feature of divine grace. It was an example of perfect Christian love, and
ethical conduct. Paul is not referring to Jesus economic condition above
(although it could be construed that way); he is saying that Jesus humbled
Himself by allowing Himself to be killed for the salvation of humanity that
would believe in Him. Although Jesus was God and was worthy of all praise, He
allowed Himself to be despised among men (Isaiah 53 or a la Philippians 2:5-11)
(Batey 57; Kistemaker, “2 Corinthians”
280-281; Kruse 155). Paul thereby compares this to the generosity and
compassionate giving of the believer in the context of 2 Corinthians 8. To fail
to give of one’s self fully is to not fully emulate that extent to which Jesus
went to love and therefore save His brothers. We see the ultimate version of this
when Jesus says the following: John 15:13 ~ “Greater love has no one than this, that he
lay down his life for his friends.”
This is because when a person to gives their life, they have given everything
they have in love and generosity for another person (Hendriksen, “John” 305). Furthermore, this is
exactly what we see in the Crucifixion.
I suppose what we truly see in the
Jerusalem collection that is taken up all over the known Roman Empire and
headed by Paul is the universal or catholic nature of the Church being an
outworking of the Kingdom of God. This is not a point to be overlooked or taken
lightly. By Paul and therefore the Church as a whole taking up this collection
and acting as a harmonized holistic unit we see the commonality of purpose and
unity in the mind of Christ. This collection is a visible expression of the
interdependence of believers worldwide and how they are all connect through
Christ into a Kingdom of believers. This visible manifestation is a signpost or
indictor of the Kingdom to come. It has been inaugurated but has not reached
consummation. All of life is included in the shared concerns of those in
Christ. Certain believer’s surplus supplied the needs of other believers in
their time of need. Those in need are then sustained to live another day and
help their benefactors in their time of need also. Just as any loving and
compassionate family member would do for another family member in need. It is
an amazing statement about equality
or equalization in the Body of Christ
(therefore the Kingdom of God) from Paul below:
2 Corinthians 8:13-14:
“Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed,
but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply
what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need.”
What
we see is one piece of a symbiotic body working to preserve another portion of
the body when it is dire need of help. It is an act of not only
self-preservation but an outcropping of an abundance of life that is in
reality, the Kingdom of God through Christ Jesus via the Holy Spirit breaking
through into our worldly realm. Within these two verses we see the divine plan
to abolish poverty. This is all in accordance with the plans of our Sovereign
God as outlined in Scripture. A plan that revolves firmly around God’s
redemptive designs, compassion and love for humanity (Christian 174). Therefore
it revolves around the Gospel of Jesus Christ who is directly in the center of
it all (Kistemaker, “2 Corinthians”
287-288).
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