Mr. Hamilton,<\/p>\n
Do you by chance know what I Timothy 5:11-12 fully means in its context? I was wondering because it has something to do with promises. I was talking to someone about these verses, though, and we weren’t sure what is meant by “incurring condemnation” in this instance. Would it have been wrong for the women to remarry? And if they did, would they have had to divorce their new husbands to be right with God? I know this is kind of complicated, and I know you would probably say that their pledge is much more serious since it was to the church and would have several witnesses (if my understanding is correct). I was just wondering if you could provide any clarity on this.<\/p>\n\t
If a woman’s husband dies, she is free to marry another (Romans 7:2-3). In I Timothy 5:11-15,\u00a0 Paul urged younger widows to remarry. In I Corinthians 7:39-40, Paul states that widows can remarry, but he does not give blanket approval to any marriage. The marriage must be in accordance with the Lord’s will. The one she is marrying must have the right to be married (Matthew 19:9), and the marriage must not hinder her service to God (Matthew 6:33). This also matches Paul’s concern in\u00a0I Timothy\u00a05:11-12 over the possibility that younger widows, in their eagerness to remarry, may cast off their faith.<\/p>\n
The problem was that young widows had too much time on their hands (I Timothy 5:13) and were getting involved in gossip. Since they were young, they would still desire the pleasures in this world (I Timothy 5:11), which might pull them away from their faith (I Timothy 5:9). Rather than have a potential cause for scandal, they should marry “and give the enemy no occasion for reproach<\/em>” (I Timothy 5:14). All of this explains why widows younger than 60 or who have family are not put on the list for care by the church.<\/p>\n Our commitment to the Lord when we become Christians is the most logical pledge (“first faith”) Paul refers to. However, some commentators assume that the churches provided aid to widows in exchange for a pledge to serve the church. The problem is that this is an assumption that can’t be proven from the Scriptures. Besides, the Greek text literally says “the first faith.”<\/p>\n Nothing says that the marriage has to end. It is the leaving of the faith that must be corrected.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Mr. Hamilton, Do you by chance know what I Timothy 5:11-12 fully means in its context? I was wondering because it has something to do with promises. I was talking to someone about these verses, though, and we weren’t sure what is meant by “incurring condemnation” in this instance. Would it have been wrong…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[64,153],"class_list":["post-95652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-marriage","tag-widows"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67407,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-married-couples-have-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":95652,"position":0},"title":"Must married couples have children?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Mr. Hamilton! I hope this finds you well! I have a question and wanted to hear your thoughts on it. I don't know of any verse that says Christians, if married, should have children. However, in I Timothy 5:14, Paul says he wants widows to bear children. Does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23797,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-distinguish-the-needy-from-the-wanters\/","url_meta":{"origin":95652,"position":1},"title":"How do you distinguish the needy from the wanters?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! I came across your site and subsequent Bible studies while trying to research the subject of giving but not in the traditional sense. Since my on-line searches are not producing the answers I am looking for, and since I noted that you are a preacher, I thought I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4015,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-can-the-church-do-for-widows\/","url_meta":{"origin":95652,"position":2},"title":"What can the church do for widows?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am interested in knowing what can the church do for the widows? There is a lady who is a widow and a member of the Lord's church.\u00a0 She has five grown children. Can the church pay for her husband's funeral out of the treasury? What if all members\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16783,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wouldnt-a-new-testament-church-realize-that-we-are-our-brothers-keepers\/","url_meta":{"origin":95652,"position":3},"title":"Wouldn’t a New Testament church realize that we are our brothers’ keepers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: On\u00a0the home page, it says that you really don't participate in community activities, fundraisers, home missions, or anything like that, in the way I interpreted it anyway. Wouldn't a New Testament church realize that we are our brothers' keepers? And that James said faith without works is dead? I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8851,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-god-allow-polygamy-under-the-old-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":95652,"position":4},"title":"Why did God allow polygamy under the Old Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Wondering if anyone has any materials on \"multiple marriages\" in the Old Testament? Would like to hear your views on why this was tolerated among God's people. I understand this was not God's choice, however, there is no outcry from the prophets against such. The practice of multiple wives\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25440,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/once-a-mans-children-grow-up-he-is-no-longer-qualified-to-be-an-elder\/","url_meta":{"origin":95652,"position":5},"title":"Once a man’s children grow up, he is no longer qualified to be an elder","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I should have known before I started reading \"The Elder and His Children\" that in the end, you, as most other preachers and teachers do, say that an elder does not have to have children at home and rule them well.\u00a0 I believe this to be false teaching, for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}