If any man or woman that believes has widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.
All Commentaries on 1 Timothy 5:16 Go To 1 Timothy 5
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Observe how again he speaks of those as widows indeed, who are left destitute, and have no resource from any other quarter. It was better to have it so. For thus two great objects were attained. Those had an opportunity of doing good, while these were honorably maintained, and the Church not burdened. And he has well said, If any believer. For it is not fit that believing women should be maintained by unbelievers, lest they should seem to stand in need of them. And observe how persuasively he speaks; he has not said, let them maintain them expensively, but let them relieve them. That the Church, he says, may relieve them that are widows indeed. She therefore has the reward of this help also, for she that helps the Church, helps not her only, but those widows too whom the Church is thus enabled to maintain more bountifully. I will therefore that the younger widows— do what? Live in luxury and pleasure? By no means; but— marry, bear children, guide the house. That he may not be supposed to encourage them to live luxuriously, he adds, that they give no occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. They ought indeed to have been superior to the things of this world, but since they are not, let them abide in them at least upright.
