First Timothy Lesson 25 quest. 5
1 Timothy · Miles Driedger · Jul 13, 2025
1 Timothy, No. 74
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926194053465

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right. Well, we are in Lesson 25, covering Chapter 5 of 1 Timothy, verses 3 through 5. And we got through questions 1 through 4 last time, so we'll see if we can finish up this week. A quick recap. If we just remember you can flip back to first Timothy chapter 3 verse 15 That's where Paul says but in case I am delayed I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in a household of God which is the church of the living God the pillar and support of the truth and so Paul is laying out principles for the orderly management, I guess, of the local body, how things ought to be taken care of.

And so that's what we're dealing with now. And we said last time, you know, we get to sections like this and we have to remember this isn't legal. Everything in the church is under grace and all of these things Even these specific detailed lists of instructions are to be carried out by grace and to be an expression of the life of Christ in and through the body of Christ. So that's what's going on here. We talked about a few things. I'll just list a few.

We talked about the fact that there's a difference between a widow and a widow in deed. which we may not have realized if we didn't have 1 Timothy 5. A widow indeed, we said, is someone who has no one to provide for them. You might be a widow, but you're well provided for through family. Or you may be a widow who has nobody to provide for you. And Paul wants to make very clear that's what we're talking about here. And then we talked about the word honor. What does it mean to honor widows in deed? And we say that it's more than just respect because obviously respect is due to every person.

And in context, this is clearly material provision of some sort. It doesn't have to be money necessarily. It could be food and clothing and those kinds of provisions. often can take monetary form. So then we talked a little bit about some of the principles that we can learn from these instructions because not only do we have specifics here but there's principles that underlie these things and just a couple of the main ones I think is that the church needs to be discerning about who gets help. It's not our job to feed the whole world. We are to manage the material resources that God has given us wisely and help those who are truly in need and specifically those who are of the body of Christ. And the other principle is that we do have a responsibility. to care for our fellow brothers and sisters. That sometimes is forgotten as well. So there's a balance here between making sure that we actually are helping those believers who are in need and on the other side not going to the extreme extent of trying to help everyone under the sun.

So that's kind of a brief recap of last week. Any thoughts or comments as you've thought about those things over the last week? Ready to move on into question five? All right. So let's just read the verses here so that we refresh our memory and then we'll ask the question. So I'll just read three through five.

Honor widows who are widows indeed. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family, and to make some return to their parents. For this is acceptable in the sight of God. Now she who is a widow indeed, and who has been left alone, has fixed her hope on God and continues in entreaties and prayers night and day. So that's out of the NASB. So that gives us the context for question five.

What does the term first let them learn refer to? Or as in the NASB, they must first learn. So what does that mean? It's understanding God's order of how to treat people. And by knowing that, you'll be able to take care of your grandparents or family needs.

So who's them? Yeah, that's a good question. Who is them? Someone want to? It's either it's one of three people. It's either the children, It's either the parents or it's the widow. Right. Which one is it? I'm waiting for someone in the class to push. I think it's the widows. This is a section on widows. So it's, you know, honor widows who are widows indeed. But if any widow has children, blah, blah, they must. So I'm sure if you diagram this, the subject is widows. Like it's children or the grandchildren.

Okay, so we've got, we've got, is that, is that, are you taking opposite sides of the fence there? I think so. Michael, yeah, Michael will counsel you guys later. Yeah, I don't know. I think different translations, it can look a little bit different as to who is that talking to.

So first, they must learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents. I did, sorry, Courtney, I did side with Ingrid on that one. I lean towards the children. The children or grandchildren must learn to practice piety towards their parents. Now, it's kind of where the parents is in the plural there. But there's multiple families, I guess.

So it's not because if you only have one parent left, it'd be your widowed mother. But I think in context, that's kind of what Paul's talking about here. He's saying a widow, indeed, has no one to care for her. But a widow who has children or grandchildren, those children have a responsibility to learn, to take care of their own, you know, their own widowed mother.

It's kind of the way I understand that. Any other? Yeah, I mean, if you look at the reference in mine for that, it goes to Ephesians 6, 2, which is honor your father and mother. So I can see the point. I mean, I guess this is in reference to deciding who are widows and if they qualify. Qualification, I guess, in this one, I can see that.

If they're children or grandchildren, they should be the first ones taken care of, the widow. in context to the children being the first line of support. I rescind mine, sir. All right. You've repented. Well, there you go, Mike. You don't have to counsel them anymore. They're good. Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean, it is giving us requirements for what a widow, you know, a widow indeed must be. And we do see that, you know, beginning in verse five. But yeah, I think the The instruction there in verse four has to do with the fact that he's really not a widow indeed if she's got children. Just because they aren't practicing quote-unquote piety, we'll talk about that word in a second, and they're not making some recompense to their their mother, they need to learn to do that. It's kind of the thing. So it's kind of like, Timothy, if she's got children, and you're not taking care of her, maybe you need to go talk to the children before you put her on the list. Right. So it's kind of the way I took that. But especially because it's kind of is that practicing piety is kind of joined to that next the next phrase, and to make some return to their parents.

And I mean, probably if you're a widow, you probably don't still have parents necessarily. I mean, some widows are quite young. But in this case, we're talking about those who don't have a support network, would be probably the modern term for that, right? So yeah, that's kind of the way I understood first let them learn, is you've got families who, children or grandchildren, who are taking care of their their widowed mother or grandmother, and they need to.

I also focused in on the word first, where it says, first let them learn, which would indicate that this is the first line of defense, so to speak, that widows should be cared for by their own, that the church is really a backup, where there's no family to care for her. That's kind of... kind of my thought. And the thing is, I mean, there might be a temptation for his children or grandchildren to think, well, you know, the church has got mom.

So we're off the hook, right? I mean, the church takes care of everybody who's over 60. So it's kind of the becomes the social welfare system. And, and, you know, children stop taking care of their own parents. And Paul's laying out, I think, pretty clearly here, no, you have a responsibility to care for your own within your own family.

So So I want to interject something here. Please do, yeah. Probably I'm looking around. I'm the oldest guy here. Congratulations. You have to learn to be old. You have to learn to allow people to take care of you. You have to learn what it's like to be dependent, especially if you have been independent most of your life. When this circumstance comes along, I think the widow has a lot to learn about what their demeanor should be in terms of the people who have stepped forward and family to take care of them. We need to learn how to accept the grace that's provided here.

So, piety is an interesting word because it just shows a reverence for and a thankfulness for the care. Yeah, that's good, Mike. That's good. Yeah, that's good. And that leans towards the interpretation that the practicing piety is the widow on the part of responding to her family caring for her. Yeah, that's good. I mean, I think the word piety is hard for us to interpret, maybe. It doesn't mean a lot to me, honestly, in my vocabulary.

You know, in the next question there, what are they to learn? I guess that's what we're getting into here. What are they to learn? It says there to learn piety. So what is piety? Mike, you were starting to get into that. So why don't we answer what piety is. So looking at the Greek word for that, I was looking at that. It's interesting, it's active infinitive, so it's acting with a purpose or a result.

And then it says in Zodiates, in 1st Timothy 5.4, usbero, or usbio, refers to the respect and honor children were to learn in their home. I'm now thinking back, is this also back on the widow, though, that she taught their kids how to respect? So I may be less repentative of my first thought that this is somewhat on the widow that she was to teach them how to honor father and mother. So are you repenting again? Halfway. I'm halfway repenting. I'm seeing both sides of this now. Yeah. That's right. Well, yeah, I mean, you're right. The word repentance is, or not, sorry, not repentance, the word piety is an interesting one.

You can look up some of the other uses of it. One of the interesting ones is in Acts 17, verse 23, where Paul says, what you worship in ignorance, I proclaim to you. Well, the word worship is the word piety. you might translate as something like devotion, your practice devotion to your peer family, sort of a reverence, a devotion, we could say respect maybe, you know, but it's a little bit beyond that.

There's a commitment, a devoted commitment to care for your family or like like Mike was saying, to learn to receive what has been provided to you by your kids. And I think you're right, Courtney, there is a responsibility on the part of parents when you're raising kids to teach them that kind. And probably, it's going to be best taught by being modeled in the way that you care for their grandparents and your own parents.

They'll see that. They'll understand that this is how family works. When it's not modeled, it's not I'm going to be caught really. So, which is, uh, it's good. It's good. Um, it's good to have this kind of, uh, it's kind of instruction, these kinds of reminders right here in, in scripture. Right.

So, um, so, so, you know, we divide up that, that verse for, you know, our sisters there to practice piety, um, in regard to their own family. and to make some return to their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God." And that phrase there is why it tended to make me think that this is directed to children and what they're to do for their parents. What does it mean there, to make some return to their parents? Anyone have a different translation of that?

I think in the King James is something like requite. I don't even know how to pronounce that word. Is that right, Mike? Yeah, requite. Okay, we need the oldest man in the class to tell us how to speak. Mine says repaying their parents. It kind of reminds me of the role reversal. Parents are taking care of their kids when they're younger and then in later days it kind of switches so the kids are doing more care for their parents.

It's a weird dynamic, but it just is the way it needs to happen. Yeah, exactly. Exactly right. And yeah, being Canadian, and I know America's not too terribly far behind in some ways, socialism tries to intercept that, right? And we think, oh, all the old people are going to be taken care of through our socialist programs. But the way that God wants it to work is we care for our children when they're young, and when we're old and we can't we provide for ourselves, they return that. And that is what the word means.

It actually has kind of the content of paying off a debt, even, that you've kind of, in all your childhood years, you didn't know it, but you were incurring debt. I know it's your turn. return it. I mean, I don't know that we want to think of it necessarily that way, but the word does carry that sense. I mean, obviously, if it's a debt of love, it's not a real burden. I mean, it is a financial burden, a material burden in a sense, but when it's in a healthy family, when it's rooted in love, it's not a hard thing to do to take care of your loved ones.

Just wanted to comment on that. You could say that children owe it to their aged parents to make a return for the sacrifice that they gave for your sake when you were you were in diapers so now they're in diapers so you get to return the favor you know the other thing that's there I think is the fact that You have an environment where you have mom, dad, kids, and a grandparent.

Right. The kids are learning from that situation of what their responsibility is going to be 50 years down the road, however, you know. Yeah, that's right. That this is the way a family goes. And so the piety that's being learned or the figuring out what, you know, I don't know, if you're 10 years old, you don't probably ever think about, I'm going to have to take care of my parents.

It's not a have to thing. It's because I want to. Yeah. Cause I work with my grandparents, you know? Yeah. Yeah. No, that'll, that'll speak more to your kids than anything you can ever tell them. Um, it makes the really tight fit family. Yeah, it does. Yeah.

And I mean, one of the things as well as a parent, I mean, I never realized until I began to have my own kids what my own parents sacrificed and went through for my sake. So you begin to, you know, have an appreciation for that as you go through life.

So, um, I've got a really good friend right now who is getting ready to build a house next year, and he's already planning on a second phase of building. Once they have the main part done, they're going to build an attached garage with a, I don't know what you'd call it, a granny suite maybe, you know, attached to their house. So he's already, I mean, he's younger than me, but he's planning. He'd like to be able to take his parents or his wife's parents in whatever, you know, however the need arises.

So, really cool to see that. And that's exactly the kind of thing that Paul is talking about here. So, what do you think about Social Security? doesn't yeah it's yeah 50 bucks a year yeah yeah put people on that system it's hard to get off mm-hmm you'll never you'll never win a nation off of government welfare so um I don't know how far we want to go down the politics road here, but you know, this right here, what we see in this text is instruction that makes all of that unnecessary.

You know, if the church, if a believer, at least within the church, Right? Honestly, what's happened, and this always happens, is that the world sees things that work really well in the church, and they steal them. I mean, who is it that started educating children and teaching them to read and write? It was Christians, so that their kids could read the Bible. And then the secular society hijacked that for all of the material benefits that come along with education.

Well, in the same way, within the church people cared for one another they provided for one another the elderly in the age were just left to die they were taking care of and i'm honored and respected and the world system sees that it kind of hijack it and turn it into a very sterile and unsustainable i'm kind of a system that nobody really cares the elderly they're just they just get uh... you know some financial uh... Okay, so yeah, anyway, we'll leave that alone a little, but yeah, I think the idea here is that we are to care for our own, and when there aren't family members to do that, the church does that. The church steps in and takes care of those needs.

Is that good on that point? So do you think that the children are responsible for their parents if they're not a good representative of pie? Oh, now Donna's getting below the surface here. Yeah, that's good. They're not necessarily ideally perfect. Yeah.

Well, my personal example, and she's with the Lord now, so I don't want to insult my own grandmother, but my parents took my grandma in, in the last years of her life. She was a wonderful lady. I always thought she was just perfect, right? You always think your grandparents are perfect. But I have heard from my mom that in her later years, she got quite cantankerous. I wasn't living close by at that point, but there were some difficulties. It was not always easy. She wasn't always easy to care for. But neither are toddlers, right?

They throw tantrums too. And so, yeah, you know, I think that's part of the responsibility is to love our own, to love those even when they're not maybe the most lovable in their demeanor. So is that kind of your question, Donna? Or are you something else sort of in mind? Oh, I think about, well, like Mike, I think about your family. You know, your dad was just... That's being very nice.

It will be hard to help or support. I think it's interesting right here that we think about the only alternative that you have for taking care of your parents is to have them move into the spare bedroom. when in fact there's a lot of other options. And the overall point here is that whatever works best for your family, you should be in support of that, as an example. If your grandparents or grandmother or grandfather needs a special, has a special needs person who needs care in a special way that you can't give it. Well, you're there to help support whatever that need is, you know? Yeah, that's right. That's a good point, Mike. That's really good. I just have one more point too. Sorry, this will be quick.

I'm just thinking of how I saw my mom working so hard to take care of my dad's mom, especially, and then her own mom and her husband, second husband, whatever. And I just, I mentioned to my mom one time how I'm impressed with how, you know, how much she devoted her time and, you know, he was just tiring work. And she said, you know, it's not a burden, it's a privilege. So that comment has always stayed with me, that it's a privilege to be able to take care of your aging parents.

That's the right attitude, I think. Yeah, that's right. That's great. That's great. And I think that's part of what it means to show piety. You don't do it because you have to. You do this because you want to. Love is involved in there. It's really good.

So question seven says, in what sense is this true? And I think we've kind of talked about that quite a bit here. I don't know, unless there's anything else, Mike, you wanted to add to number seven. I put that one line in there. It says, it has been observed that it's easier for one poor father to raise 10 children than it is for 10 wealthy children to help one poor father. I thought that was really appropriate.

Yeah, and that's what question seven is kind of referring to. Yeah, this is not true. Yeah. Yeah, easier. Yeah, read that read that comment one more time. So we get it here. It's been observed that it's easier for one poor father to raise 10 children than for 10 wealthy children to help one poor father. Yeah, that's, that's interesting.

Um, and, and you see it, you know, I Can't tell you how many people, I don't know, at least a number of people I've talked to who were raised probably in a larger family, like that described. And they grew up and they said, you know, I never knew we were poor.

And yet, because you were cared for and, you know, so. it doesn't take it doesn't take great financial wealth to be able to care for someone does it I mean there are these that way you're gonna have to work provide but you can care for someone on really on very little so Let's look at question eight then.

What three things are characteristic of deserving widows? And this is coming out of verse five. So what three things there are characteristic of deserving widows? You can pretty much read the verse and get it. What are the three, if you break that up into three points? He who is a widow in deed and who has been left alone. Right, so we can make that point one. Alone. Trust in God. Say it again, Cheryl. The second one would be trust in God. Right, okay, so she, um, yeah, has fixed her hope on God.

That's the one you're talking about, yeah. Yes. Which is, which is actually a perfect tense. So that's past action with abiding results. So she has fixed her hope on God. And then number three, what would number three be? Continues in supplications and prayers. That's according to New King James. Yeah. Continues in supplications and prayers. Yeah. Or in treaties and prayers we have in the NASB. night and day, and that's a present tense. So that's a continual action. She continues in this depending on God and treating the Lord for things. So those are the three things that Paul outlines there.

She's alone. And that also is actually a perfect passive. At some point, she has entered into this state of being alone, right? When the last of her family departed, she became truly alone in the world. uh... a uh... a believer you see or has put her faith in god uh... in uh... it is he has fixed her hope on god uh... and uh... that uh... obviously to do that uh... she's got to be a believer it's kind of uh... uh... implied uh... but i think a little bit uh... there are certainly believers who have not fix their hope on God in terms of their situation, their provision. I think that's kind of the sense here.

You've got a person who is alone. They have no means by which to support themselves. I think we have to remember that in that In that day, it would have been very difficult for an elderly woman to obtain income. There were no secretarial jobs in terms of typists. So much of the work was physical manual labor. A woman over 60 would have gotten very, very difficult to do much to provide for herself. And so her hope was fixed on God. And then number three, she continues in that place of dependence on God for her provision. So question number nine.

What was the word? I have a question, Dave. Does your translation say that she prays night and day? Yep. It does. You want to talk about that? Well, she isn't going to get a lot of sleep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so what does that mean? What does it mean that she prays night and day? And we, you know, Paul uses this language, right? He talks about praying continually and sometimes we take that as, oh, you know, yeah, when do you sleep or eat? I mean, but obviously it's not to be taken as straightforward, literal, kind of a sense. And so, so what's the idea there? I think it's the same idea as pray without ceasing that we've talked about before.

She's always in a state of bringing all of her needs before God. That's kind of, you know, as the day's needs arise, She brings that to the Lord. I kind of put in my notes here, someone who is completely cast upon the Lord for sustenance. And there's an old word for it, cast upon the Lord. But be completely dependent. And to be consciously aware of that. And I think of...

The verse, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, let your requests be made known to God. I find it interesting that as you progress in these verses that the widow, or widow were done, either one, They're probably, hopefully, a more mature believer. In other words, they have a faith that where there's a dependence on the Spirit of God to be reminding them all the time of their relationship and intimacy with the Lord Jesus, and they're constantly in communication with him about every circumstance that arises. That's indicative of a more mature believer, where a less mature believer would be looking to the world system and other things to solve their problems, where this person would be in communication with the Lord about everything all the time.

That's right. That's right. Yeah, that's good. And that's why I thought about Philippians 4, 6. You know, whenever some need arises that would naturally cause us to tend towards anxiety, instead of going there, we bring that to the Lord in prayer. And that becomes kind of the normal pattern of life, right? Is that well, Lord? What's next?

You know, just one of the thoughts I think of, you know, brought up last week about the principle of love in this is, so what if you don't make the criteria? So if the widow doesn't make the criteria? One of three. She made two out of the three. I mean... Well, it's kind of like the same for a criteria for an elder. You take everything as an elder, all the criteria of an elder. We've been through that. What are all the criteria? And yet, no one meets all of them. So I think it's the same out here.

The general characteristic is She's a godly woman, and if she has family, she should take care of them. But more than she's not a wild thing going crazy, and you'll see that in the next kind of verses. But it's not that she checked the boxes. It's like a form. And all three, you check them, okay, you're a widow indeed. I think this is just that she's a godly woman, doesn't have children, and you have to take care of them. So. Yeah. Well, and I love that. I love the hope in God. The grammar there is that she has hope as a settled, permanent viewpoint of her life. That's what it's not. It's a settled issue. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's, that's good.

I mean, I think, you know, yeah, Courtney, I think these instructions here are, are given to, um, I think Mike said last week, um, um, Oh, what was your term now? Something about gaming the system. Um, you know, these things are put in place here because otherwise you have this tendency for people to say, Oh, Hey, I hear that, you know, so-and-so gets, uh, gets all her, you know, um, meals provided for by the church i think i'm gonna go attach myself to that church right you know and so there's a stipulation that's put in place here this is this is specifically for believers uh... people who are are uh... but not just you know come along and say oh yeah i'm a christian here can i have the money you know this is you know these are people who you know you have to know them in order to know that they have this character same same thing with an elder you gotta know the people you gotta know them quite well to be able to evaluate that. And I think by knowing, you'll know whether they're gaming the system or not.

Yeah, yeah. Moving on a long time. Yeah. Alright, well we still have two questions left. I don't know, next week I'm going to be in Tennessee, so we'll see what... I mean, I should be able to join, but... See what happens, but we've kind of touched on a few of the things that are in those last two questions anyway, so I guess I'll talk to you this week. Yeah. Mike and see, but. Okay. Anyway. All right.

Well, why don't we just close in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the things that you are teaching us here. We thank you that your word is living and active. We thank you that these instructions given 2000 years ago are still applicable. Things that really have not changed all that much. And your word is like that. It always speaks directly to the needs and situations and circumstances that we see. We pray that we would trust you with these things and take your word with the full authority with which you've given it. And we just pray in Jesus' name. Amen.