⁹A widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less than sixty years old, having been the wife of one man, ¹⁰having a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has assisted those in distress, and if she has devoted herself to every good work.

The apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, at times presents truth in its ideal. But being also pragmatic, he applies truth to the real world as it is. While the responsibility for the care of a widow lies with the family, sometimes that doesn’t happen for a variety of reasons. In the example in our passage, Paul is thinking of a woman who has raised children. A woman’s adult children may refuse to provide for her or be unable to provide adequately for her. They may be absent, dead, or have their own overwhelming burdens. Sometimes, women are simply left without a family social net to help them.

The church could quickly become overwhelmed with applications for welfare and spread their combined resources so thin that the marginal effect will not accomplish much for any one person. So Paul lays down a few principles for who qualifies for being “put on the list.”

Most commentators recognize that he is talking about an officially designated list of those qualified to receive benevolence from the church’s combined resources. This hearkens back to the early church in Jerusalem, where

. . . abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. (Acts 4:33–35)

Some twenty-plus years later, Paul is fleshing out how this can work in a more organized, structured way. So he lays out the criteria for widows’ support. First, she must be at least sixty years old to be put on “the list.” Why sixty? Some suggest this was a Jewish cutoff signaling the beginning of old age. Others suggest that the term “the list” was used for enumerating the soldiers in a military unit. Many feel this list is to be of women who perform in some recognized or official capacity in the church.

The rest of the criteria remarkably overlap with the characteristics previously listed for elders, deacons, and their wives (1 Tim. 3:1–13). The church should notice and support, therefore, those women who have lost their husbands, are of proven character, and have no tangible means of support.

Lord, I pray that my church will take this admonition seriously.