KEY SCRIPTURE:1Ti 5:9 KJV “Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man,”

​

Apostle Paul clarifies the instruction about widows. Widowhood is a very sensitive condition that needs the right care, yet the complexity of our world demands that the right people who are real widows receive that attention. If that is not done, people who are leading a very unscriptural life or  are unqualified would attract that attention. The scripture gives the cut-off age  for one to be acknowledged as a widow . She must be  sixty years old or above. Anyone less than sixty years old does not qualify to be a widow who should attract the church’s  support.

​

The scripture added that she should be the only wife of his husband. This means she can not be accepted as a widow in the church if she were a second wife. What about the woman who was the first wife, yet the husband married a second woman in addition. I think she should be considered if her age is sixty. I said so because she had no hand in her husband marrying a second wife.

​

The scripture stated the following  as further criterion to qualify one as a widow who would need the church’s support.1Ti 5:10 KJV Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.

​

This verse adds that she must be reported for good works by the brethren. This testimony about her reveals that she is a child of God and lives to please God. Secondly, she must have brought up children. This means she has raised children. The children may not necessarily be her biological children, yet she raised them. Again, one other quality that she must have had is that if she received strangers, it was a normal practice among the first-century church to be hospitable. The persecution of Christians made them homeless, and therefore, they must seek habitation among other brethren. It was expected that such an elderly Christian lady would have welcomed such brethren into her home. The next act of good deed that an acceptable widow might have done is if she had washed the feet of the Christians who visited her home, either for habitation or just a visit. Once again, in the early church ,there were no tarred roads as we have these days. The roads were very dusty . Their feet were very dusty, which had to be washed anytime they visited any home. Remember, the jars of water that the Lord turned into wine were for that purpose.

​

Some of these requirements may not be applicable in our time, but  the general principle for one to be accepted as a widow who needs the support of the church is that she must  be sixty years old and should have lived as a true Christian.

​

THOUGHT: THE FOCUS OF THE CHURCH IS NOT JUST RELIEF BUT THE ETERNAL SALVATION OF PEOPLE

​

FURTHER STUDIES

​

Jer 49:11 KJV” Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.”

​

Act 6:1 KJV And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.