1 Timothy 5:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Let us not seek rest here, that we may find it there. Let us not give ourselves to enjoyment here, that there we may taste true enjoyment and true delight. It brings no evil and contains countless good things.

May we all be counted worthy to receive them in Christ Jesus, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

When the Apostle urges honor for true widows in verse 3, defines their qualities in verse 5, and especially indicates the age for their selection in verse 9, he plainly has in mind those honorable widows. They were to be objects of the Church's special care and eligible for election to assist the Church's ministers, as deaconesses.

The Apostle speaks separately about widows who have families, with children and grandchildren, and likewise about unreliable homeless women. The first, as wholly given to God and constantly attending divine services, he commands to be respected.

The second he advises to labor in their own household, repaying what is due to parents, and raising and teaching children. For this work is pleasing to God.

Concerning the third kind of widows, the Apostle speaks sternly. As those who do not care for their own blood relatives, they are worse than unbelievers. As those given over to pleasure, they have, as it were, died while still alive to the work of salvation, both their own and the common salvation.

Young widows are discussed separately. The Apostle advises them to marry, lest they fall under Satan's power, as happened to some of them through apostasy from the faith by sensual desire.

Chrysostom says: "If any woman, being a widow, has not turned to worldly life, she is a true widow. The woman who hopes in God and practices prayer is a real widow. Her advantage lies in being deprived even of the happiness children bring, because in place of everything she has God."

As for those who live delicately, "such people have neither soul nor spirit, but live only by the flesh. Scripture calls them soulless, saying: 'My Spirit shall not remain in these men, for they are flesh' (Gen 6:3). They had a soul, but it was dead. Therefore they were called flesh.

"The Apostle says: I command them not to be satiated, because this is an evident sin. Thus it is impossible and wholly unfitting for one who leads a luxurious life to be a partaker of the Mysteries.

"Therefore we too, obeying Paul, shall command that widows who are given over to pleasure be excluded from the number of widows.

"Concerning those who do not care for their relatives, he says: God established the bonds of kinship for this reason, that we might have more occasions to do good to one another.

"Therefore, if you do not do what an unbeliever does, have you not rejected the faith and become worse than an unbeliever? Where then should he be placed, and what rank should he occupy, who wrongs his own household?"

Blessed Theophylact says: "Do you see that he wishes this to be law? He does not leave it to free choice whether to indulge in pleasures or not. Rather, he forbids this as sin. For this is the meaning of the word 'command,' παραγγελλε. It stands for: with all strictness forbid them to dare such a thing."

He took this interpretation from Chrysostom, who speaks more fully about it: "Do you see that this instruction takes the form of law? He does not leave this to each person's freedom, but says: command them not to be satiated, because this is an evident sin.

"Therefore it is impossible and wholly unfitting for one who leads a luxurious life to be a partaker of the Mysteries. 'And these things command,' he says, 'that they may be blameless.' Do you see that this is numbered among sins?

"For what is left to each person's freedom, even if it is not observed, in no way prevents one from being blameless. Therefore we too, obeying Paul, shall command that widows given over to pleasure be excluded from the number of true widows."

If "and these things" is referred to what precedes, verse 5 may also be joined to verse 6. The meaning will be: require that a widow who has renounced a second marriage not only refuse self-indulgence, but continue in prayers night and day.

Verse 4 may also be joined, including among those to whom the command is given the children and grandchildren. Then the sense is this: command them to maintain and care for their widowed mothers and grandmothers, so as not to fall under reproach before the faithful.

This thought is directly connected with verse 8, which follows: if anyone neglects his own relatives, he is worse than an unbeliever.

If "and these things" is referred to what follows, that is, to "that they may be blameless," the meaning will be: and command this also, that they be pure and blameless in every respect.

For even while abstaining from sensory pleasures, they may display many other things in their conduct for which they will rightly be subject to reproach.

This thought appears in Ambrosiaster: "The Apostle requires that a widow have such care for the goodness of her deeds and manners that it be impossible to reproach her in anything.

"Having renounced worldly life and been freed from cares for the body, she dedicated herself to God precisely in order to lead an approved life. In this she can easily succeed.

"For since the occasions that usually open an entrance to sins have been removed from her, nothing now prevents her from remaining unharmed in her good conduct."

Let us add that there is no need to insist that this passage must necessarily be understood in only one way. While holding one such thought, do not reject the other.