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1 Timothy 5:3
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3 Honour [timao] widows [chera] that are widows [chera] indeed. [ontos] KJV-Interlinear
3 Honor widows who are widows indeed; NASB
A widow is one who has lost her husband, and is now alone and without any means of support in this world.
Honor, ‘timao,’ means to respect, to care for, to support, to treat graciously, and is used in Matt. 15:1-6 to incorporate financial support for widows, which the Scribes and Pharisees attempted to force donations to the church as more holy than financial support to widows. Jesus equates financial support to widows as in fact giving to the church, and He reprimanded the Pharisees for their heartless attitude toward widows. Ex. 20 expands on this concept.
The word for indeed, ‘ontos,’ expresses the idea of true widows, or women who have lost all means of support. This does not include widows who have some adequate means of support, as many women receive insurance or an inheritance or have family or other means with which to survive comfortably in life, once their husband has gone away or died. Typically family has the first obligation to help widows or women in distress.
Likewise, death is not the only means of causing a woman to become a widow. The broad definition of widow, ‘chera,’ is an adjective used as a noun, and means ‘bereft,’ ‘robbed,’ ‘having suffered loss,’ ‘left alone.’ This does not describe how the wife has been left, but includes all manner of loss which causes her to be helpless in life.
The loss could be through the death of her husband, imprisonment of her husband, abandoned by her husband, and so forth. In any case the wife is now without any means of support, and one of the strongest Christian principles is the support of those who have no means. This is a far cry from the likes of Islam which attempts to force extreme hardships on divorced or widowed women, forbidding them virtually all opportunities in life to have a life, except begging and starving on the streets. Islam is probably the most brutal religions when it comes to the treatment of women, and especially widows.
God designed women to be special recipients of care. Whether you agree with it or not, women in history and in this world are under the umbrella of male protection, provision, authority and direction. And as such, men and families are obligated to take extra special care in protecting women, of all ages, and their rights.
The Bible gives us a picture of just how fragile life can be when a person is alone and helpless. This is a picture of the believer in this world, with Christ absent for the moment, but still making provision for each one of us (men and women), while He is absent from this world. We are helpless and He provides. The world is heartless, but God cares deeply. The world attempts to destroy Christians and people in general, but God controls history and has a better plan for everyone.
Several verses give details of the plight and care of widows, Ex 22:22-24, Psa 68:5, Deut 27:19, Isa 1:17, Ps 146:9, Gen 38:11, Ruth 1:16, 3:12; 4:1-10, Deut 25:5-10, Mark 12:41-44, Luke 7:11-17, 18:1, 20:47.
Just as God helps each one of us individually and collectively as helpless Christians in this world, so too, we have an obligation to help those who have lost all of their means of self support, and certainly to never take or seek advantage over them for our own selfish interests.
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