1 Timothy chapter 5

vs 1

Even though Timothy is not to allow others to despise him for his age, he is not supposed to lord himself over them. Instead, within the church he is to maintain respectful relationships akin to a family. Note that even if Timothy is treating an older man as a father, he is allowed to exhort him! So even parents are not untouchable by children. Respect does not mean prostrate unthinking obedience.

vs 2

Everyone in the church is treated as part of the family. My reading of the greek actually carries the command to exhort to all of these relationships as well. So everyone ought be encouraged by you, in whatever relationship is proper.

vs 3-4

It's a different community and a different culture that we come across in these verses. There were no retirement villages and there were no pensions. There was hereditary religion. The principle of blood looking after blood first is sort of still around in our society, but notice Paul's caveat - that they should practice their religion. So if a widow's children have abandoned her because she is Christian, then the church is the only family she's got. We can't expect someone's non-Christian family to look after them.

This doesn't mean that as Christians today we are immune from having to look after our blood families. In fact, blood families will always be a powerful thing in any culture, and so looking after them even in a society where that isn't highly valued will be a good witness to Christ.

vs 5

Really helpless people, whether they are widows or whatever, will look somewhere for help. And if the church is seen as a place where help can be found, then people will look there. Is your church a place where people think help can be found?

vs 6

I think what Paul is saying is that rich widows won't have a reason to come to church - they will be happy spending their cash and living it up.

vs 7

I think this verse points to the verse coming after it. That's counter intuitive to an english reading, but I think it makes more sense.

vs 8

There is a lot of cultural baggage in this statement, but to the extent that family is well regarded in any culture, it is necessary. But that's not the only reason. Christianity is a family-based religion. The unit of measure in Christianity is not the individual (like in our society). It is the family. Whether that is your immediate family, or whether it is your larger church family, these are the units in which Paul and Jesus and God want us to think in. That is why this whole passage cannot be ignored by our individualistic culture.

vs 9-10

It's surprising that Paul puts these limitations on who the church will help. It won't help adulterers, bad mothers, and selfish and self-absorbed women (or young women). Now the question really needs to be asked here - does this help only represent help the church gives to families within the church, or does this help (and these limitations) extend beyond the church's walls to those unchurched people the church is trying to reach for Christ? We so desparately want it to be the former. But the latter fits in surprisingly well with Paul's idea of church culture at the time. I don't know what the answer is to that. The idea of a "list of widows" sounds like an internal church thing, like that expressed in early Acts.

vs 11

So the reason young women are not put on is not because they are bad people, but just for a practical reason. They've been married once, and they may well want to marry again.

vs 12

The idea here is that in their lust they put aside matters of the faith (like the widow who is in need in verse 5) and as such they will be judged on their lustful feelings instead of their devotion to Christ. Not necessarily an eternal judgement - it may very well be just your regular kind of judgement that people make when they look at other people.

vs 13

There's also a practical reason for it - because they become used to living on support (and for young people, isn't it what we've always wanted?) instead of getting some work done, whether it be for themselves or for a husband. The necessity for a husband is very much a cultural one, but the principle is still there.