1 Timothy 5:3-4 Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. ⁴ But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. 

I love the wisdom of the Bible when talking about caring for others. In this chapter, Paul writes to Timothy about the care for widows. Rather than imploring him to take care of every widow in the same way, he says that widows with children should be taken care of by their own family. In other words, Paul is pragmatic. Let those who can receive care from their own families, receive it from them – and let the church’s focus be on those widows who are completely alone.

Later on in this chapter Paul gives some more direction: those who are under 60 should not be put on the “widows list” so that they won’t be tempted to hang around life doing nothing. Rather they should (re)marry and work hard. They should not hold out their hands for a contribution, but instead be a contributor to society themselves.

This is Biblical economics. What do we learn from this for our day and age? We need to take care of those who really can’t take care for themselves and those who do not have their own support network. Others, we need to implore to work hard, and give care to those they can. When we all do our part, the church will be healthy and we will take our responsibilities as we should.