Widows and the Local Church

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Follow-up and clarification

There is extra-Biblical evidence that there was a group of women who had an organized ministry in the early church.
Some examples of this ministry could have been:
-assisting in the baptism of women
-visiting the sick
-teaching and disciplining younger women
-hospitality
-possibly placing orphans into Christian homes
The list was not a list of support, but of service to the church.
The church may have also supported widows who did not have support, but this is not the reference to the list.
This is paralleled in Titus 2.
Titus 2:3–5 (ESV)
3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Do not enroll.

Paul is using a word that is expressing adamancy, used elsewhere to reject false teaching.
This strong wording makes sense if the list is talking about a work of ministry in the church.
This is not a prohibition of support, just on-going support.
Paul is telling Timothy how to minister to widows, young and old.
This does not mean that the church cannot aid younger widows; it means that they must not be enrolled into a formal, ongoing financial relationship with the church.

Passions

The church should encourage a younger widow to remarry.
This encouragement should also come with paitence, wisdom and time.
It should also come with spiritual support from the church. The church will be filling in for the departed husband in spiritual leadership.

Abandon the faith and worse

The unfilled passions of the younger widow will lead to destruction.
For themselves
For the church
2 Timothy 3:1–9 (ESV)
1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

What younger widows should do

There are four actions that younger widows should do:
-Be open to marriage
-Have children, if God grants
-Manage their homes
-Give the enemy no opportunity to slander

Let her care for them

Paul is reminding Timothy of the proper support from the church.
The church is not designed to support all, but those who do not have support.
Family support must occur before the church.
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