1 Timothy 5:3-16 | Support Sometimes

If you have a Bible, you can go and grab it and turn it to the book of 1 Timothy. We’re going to be looking at 1 Timothy 5:3-16. If you don't have a Bible, you can use a pew Bible in front of you. If you don't own a Bible, we would love for you to keep that Bible. Feel free to take that Bible home with you; we would love for you to have a copy of God's Word that you can read. We would love for you to be able to keep that as a gift from our church. We're going to be looking at 1 Timothy 5:3-16.

Last week we saw Paul talk about treating fellow members in the church like their family, exhorting older men like fathers, older women like mothers, younger men like brothers, and younger women like sisters in all purity. Now, he turns his attention to caring specifically for members of this spiritual family and what that looks like in the life of the church.

Instructions for Supporting Widows

Again, we'll be looking at 1 Timothy 5:3-16. It says this:

Support widows who are genuinely in need. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn to practice godliness toward their own family first and to repay their parents, for this pleases God. The widow who is truly in need and left all alone has put her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers; however, she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command this also, so that they will be above reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his own family, especially for his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. No widow is to be enrolled on the list for support unless she is at least sixty years old, has been the wife of one husband, and is well known for good works—that is, if she has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the saints’ feet, helped the afflicted, and devoted herself to every good work. But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when they are drawn away from Christ by desire, they want to marry and will therefore receive condemnation because they have renounced their original pledge. At the same time, they also learn to be idle, going from house to house; they are not only idle, but are also gossips and busybodies, saying things they shouldn’t say. Therefore, I want younger women to marry, have children, manage their households, and give the adversary no opportunity to accuse us. For some have already turned away to follow Satan. If any believing woman has widows in her family, let her help them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it can help widows in genuine need. — 1 Timothy 5:3-16 (CSB)

Let's pray. We pray even this morning as we go through this passage that covers such a practical need, that you would help us to be moved with compassion and discernment in knowing how to best serve you and honor those around us. We can only do this by your help and by your Spirit. So we ask that you give it in Jesus' name, amen.

Discerning Who to Support

Someone comes up to you on the street and asks you for money. What do you do? Some will turn them away immediately. Maybe you might even lie and say, “I don't have any cash in my pocket,” while you have your wallet. Others will immediately hand the person money without any reservation. Others will even try to question the person and figure out how much you can trust them, as you deliberate, “Okay, do they look like they're on drugs? What are you going to do with the money again?” As you deliberate what to do with the cash in your wallet, what would you do?

On the one hand, Jesus says in Mark 14 that you will always have the poor with you, in reference to the priority of spending time with Jesus. On the other hand, that same Jesus in Matthew 25:40 says:

“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ — Matthew 25:40 (CSB)

How does a Christian prioritize caring for the least of these while evaluating a right use of the resources that God has for us? I have no wisdom for you today in terms of how exactly to respond to that specific situation. But Paul gives wisdom for Timothy as he wrestles with a very similar question: the question of the people that are needy not just in the community, but specifically within the spiritual family of God. So, this is going to be the main idea for us this morning: to support those in genuine need.

God's Heart for the Needy

You can see that in verse 3, “Support widows who are genuinely in need.” And that word for “support”—some of your Bible translations might say “honor widows”—is the same exact word and idea: to respect, to dignify. But that honor that the widow receives comes with financial expectations. There's a demographic of people here that are in need, and Paul is telling them, “Give them money, actually support them, honor them.”

If there's a demographic of people in the world that would be destitute, it would be widows, especially in this time. They are often too old to be able to work or provide for themselves. They lack a spouse to be able to provide and care for them, and the widows in these communities would often end up needy or homeless. It's no wonder that Naomi and Ruth, two widows, would represent a destitute and despised Israel in the Old Testament. Widows represent the lowest rung of the societal ladder. And that's precisely why the Bible goes out of its way to dignify widows.

You see, it's all over the Old Testament. In the prophets, the proof of Israel's disobedience, the outward evidence that they had fallen away from the Lord, was the way that they treated orphans and widows. Isaiah 10 says:

Woe to those enacting crooked statutes and writing oppressive laws to keep the poor from getting a fair trial and to deprive the needy among my people of justice, so that widows can be their spoil and they can plunder the fatherless. — Isaiah 10:1-2 (CSB)

Isaiah is full of spiritual accusations, but one of the proofs that God gives that their hearts have fallen away from the Lord is that they are passing unjust laws that take advantage of the orphan and the widow. That's the proof. You can look at the laws that the nation of Israel had as signs that they have fallen away from the Lord. Exodus 22, which we just read this morning, says:

“You must not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, they will no doubt cry to me, and I will certainly hear their cry. — Exodus 22:22-23 (CSB)

Why would Moses and God give that kind of law—to not take advantage of a widow and an orphan? Because it's incredibly easy to take advantage of a widow and an orphan in a society where you can plunder them and no one would know, there would be no repercussion for it, for you to abuse them. And God is saying that even if no one in your community sees the way that you treat them, God sees, and he hears their cry. God shows Naomi and Ruth extravagant grace in providing them a redeemer in Boaz. Jesus praises the widow who drops two coins into the temple offering, stating that she gave more than all the rich in Israel because she gave all that she had.

In the book of Luke, Jesus gives the parable of a widow persistently begging an evil king for help. The evil king is so annoyed that he goes, “I'll just do what she asks so she gets off of my back,” and Jesus presents that as a positive image of what faithfulness looks like to the Lord. If that evil king will listen to a persistent widow, how much more will a heavenly, good King listen to those who are in need?

In the Church in Jerusalem in Acts 6, the widows are being attended to as an expectation, in such a way that when the Gentile, the Greek widows, aren't being fed and the Jewish widows are being fed, there's almost a church split, and at least an establishment of the proto-deacons. James 1:27 goes as far as to say:

Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. — James 1:27 (CSB)

The proof of a pure religion to God is caring for the orphan and the widow in your holiness, the way you treat the least of these and the way you treat your own soul, your own heart. If you are a widow in need, God cares about you. If you feel needy, despised, alone, isolated, scared, and you go to the Lord and ask him for help, the Bible is resoundingly clear that God cares about you.

It says in verse 5 that the widow who is truly in need has put her hope in God. She has placed her petitions day and night before the Lord, and the Lord hears every single one of your petitions. He cares about you. This is not about a social gospel; the idea of caring for widows in their distress is not about replacing the heart of the gospel at all. It is about the second greatest commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If we don't do that, then we're not Christians. We don't show that to others. It is the evidence of our faithfulness to God.

The Gospel and Our Generosity

The greatest example of this kind of care comes from Jesus himself. All of us spiritually are utterly bankrupt. Jesus writes in the church to blame to see us. He says you think that you're self-sufficient with all of your riches, and you don't realize that you're pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. In the midst of that, Jesus was sent as a gift from God our Father. Love came to the unlovable, and on the cross, he paid the penalty of sin that you and I owed. He satisfied justice perfectly by taking God's wrath on himself, and he rose from the dead, paying that penalty in full.

There are riches of grace available to you and I in the person of Christ. If you're not a Christian, that is the good news of the gospel. We do not believe in a religion that expects you to pay back your debts, where you need to work and work and work until you pay back what you are owed. Jesus is not expecting you to come to him cleaned up and able to pay out, but to come to him messed up and in need, to say that “I am a sinner in need of a Savior.” In turn, Jesus gives you extravagant grace—grace that exceeds any of the spiritual needs that you may have.

You can have complete forgiveness in him if you turn from your sin and trust in Christ. He can and will forgive you your sin, redeem you, and make you whole. And the church's care for the least of these, for those who are despised and forsaken like widows, is an extension of the care that God has shown us in the gospel. Our generosity reflects his generosity. Caring for the poor and needy is not the heart of the gospel. Hear me clearly on that: Christ's penalty-taking, substitutionary atonement for sinners, his sacrifice for sinners, is the heart of the gospel. But caring for the poor and needy is the proof of the effects of the gospel; it's the proof of this kind of changed life.

And I want all of us that feel this genuine burden to help those in need. It should be the genuine desire of our hearts to see those genuinely in need, genuinely cared for. It begins in the church. In fact, the community of God, the church, is the focus. This is where this special care is expressed. This is where people are expected to be cared for. Paul's not talking about renewing every single poor person in Ephesus; he is focusing on his spiritual community.

Paul's Three Conditions for Support

Paul is in full agreement with a need to support widows; that's why he's telling Timothy to do it. At the same time, he adds, after this command, a giant 13-verse-long asterisk on that support. Notice that he says in verse 3, “to support those who are genuinely in need.” In other words, there are some who are not genuinely in need, and the church needs to be able to discern whether these are persons who the church should come around and support. Paul gives three conditions to look at as you evaluate whether or not to support these widows. Condition number one:

1. She Lacks a Family

Look at verse 4:

But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn to practice godliness toward their own family first and to repay their parents, for this pleases God. — 1 Timothy 5:4 (CSB)

The widow who is truly in need and left all alone has put her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers; however, she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command this also, so that they will be above reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his own family, especially for his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. — 1 Timothy 5:5-8 (CSB)

If anyone has surviving family, like kids or grandkids, it's the family's responsibility to take care of their family member. So last week we talked about how the gospel gives us a new spiritual family to look at. That does not mean that we give up our responsibility to our physical family. And the responsibility is especially given to their children to repay their parents. Do you know today that the average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 is about $300,000? $300,000! You have the paper diapers, for food, for hospital visits—it's endless. Some of you are looking at your kids like, “Absolutely, pay up!” You want God to be happy? You take care of your parents.

It also means that God is displeased when we don't take care of our family, when we don't repay your parents, when you don't give them the honor that they are due. This exact issue comes up in the life of Jesus when the Pharisees are trying to pin him using different rules and regulations that they created on top of the law. Jesus calls them out for creating loopholes that try to avoid providing for their own parents. They have money in their bank accounts; they have parents who are in need, and what they would do is they would designate their money to go to the temple after they died, kind of like writing a will: “This money will go to the church after I pass away.” And because that money is designated to the Lord, they were claiming that they were spiritually obligated to not help their parents with this money. See what they're doing? Even while they're alluding, they still use this money however they wanted. It was called Corban; it's banned as sacred.

Even though you can use it for your own bills, for your own vacations, your own yacht—and Jesus is looking at them and saying, “In your effort to try to be holy, you are forgetting the Ten Commandments: ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” That is not just a financial obligation; it is a spiritual obligation. And while the command is broader than just financial provision, it is never less than that. Christians take care of their family. In fact, he doesn't just say that taking care of your own family is the right thing to do. He doesn't just say it's a good thing for you to practice. Do you see the language that Paul uses when he talks about caring for your own family? He says that by caring for your own family first, you are learning to practice godliness. Do you think about paying for your parents' rent that way? Learning to practice godliness? Do you want to be godly? Feed your mom, take care of your dad. Because if you don't do those things, what does it say about who you are? What use is church attendance if your mom is homeless? What's the point of your Bible knowledge if your mom isn't taken care of?

The way that we treat our family is tied to our witness. That's why if anyone does not provide for his own family, especially his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever because you are claiming that you can follow Christ and hate your family at the same time. And that is absolutely contrary to everything that the Bible teaches. That is a weighty matter. It affects our ability to validate our profession of faith, and it proclaims a hypocritical faith to a watching world.

So, while Paul tells us to focus on whether or not a person has family who can take care of them—and it is important that we stress that on the front end—we can also expand this and talk about a widow's need in general. Paul is basically saying, figure out whether or not the widow actually needs help. Are there other needs that can get addressed through other parties? Other obligations? Are there other people who can take care of them? I would even go as far as to say, are there other resources that this widow or this person in need can use? Whether it's the state, social security, other sorts of provisions? Are they actually in need? Are they expecting the church to subsidize things that other parties can relinquish themselves with whatever responsibilities they have?

That's why Paul says in verse 5 and 6 that a widow is truly in need and left all alone. She has placed her hope in God. She will pray day and night. She is a true Christian. She is going before the Lord because she has no one else to turn to. And that is a beautiful picture of what dependence on God looks like. To recognize at the end of the day, “I can't trust my bank account. I can't trust the government. I can't trust anything around me. The only person I can go to is the Lord.” That is not just a sign of desperation; that is a sign of devotion, of honor. That is something that we ought to lift up as an example of how all of us ought to live. She's a true Christian, worthy of dignity, respect, and care. But if this widow is self-indulgent, if she's not actually in need and she's posturing herself as though she was, Paul does not mince words: “She is dead even while she lives.” There is hypocrisy that exposes the state of the heart. And Paul is making very clear that Christians should not support widows who are not genuinely in need.

2. She Is Godly

Verse 9 says:

No widow is to be enrolled on the list for support unless she is at least sixty years old, has been the wife of one husband, and is well known for good works—that is, if she has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the saints’ feet, helped the afflicted, and devoted herself to every good work. — 1 Timothy 5:9-10 (CSB)

The church in Ephesus has an enrollment list. This list can either mean a list of those who received help from the church, kind of like you have a list where checks go out and you're able to help those in financial need, or it meant a list of people who are available for service in the church. So it's kind of like, “Hey, these widows are willing and free and able to help,” and you might ask a widow to come by and help clean your house, and in exchange, you'd provide them funds that help them continue their life. It's a way of kind of dignifying their work and providing them support at the same time. In other cases, this isn't just for anyone who has needs; they have qualifications that they have to meet in order to get on this list. It's for those who demonstrate godly character.

And the first qualification is that they need to be 60 years old. Why do they have to be 60? I don't know, I have no idea. There's nothing spiritual about the number 60. There's no particular reason for that. I think the main idea is that 60 is old enough that you can't do most work. You're not going to get hired to work on a field. I'm not trying to offend anyone who's more elderly. All I'm trying to say is that you likely won't get hired for physical labor, and you likely won't get remarried. It's kind of the other piece Paul seems to be looking at, and we'll talk more about that later. They also need to be faithful to their spouse, like they need to have had a good reputation while they were married. They need to be known for good works.

It seems that with this pledge to receive support, these widows are being expected to serve the church in some capacity. They're serving the church members and ministering to them. It's not just that they're sitting around collecting checks; they're actually ministering to the body, and with that comes expectations for their character. These people are showing hospitality, they're washing the feet of the needy, and they're helping the afflicted. And these widows are marked by their work more than their need. See, they are invested in the life of the church. They have a reputation of being a qualified, righteous person, of being above reproach. If they're going to be serving the saints on behalf of the church, they need to be good representatives of the church. If they're going to receive the support of the church, they need to actually support the work of the church, not actively impede it with their bad example, which leads us to their condition.

3. She Is Old (Not Young)

Now, I kind of separate these two, even though Paul intertwines them, so just stay with me. The condition is intertwined with one's character. Let me give you the Scripture again:

But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when they are drawn away from Christ by desire, they want to marry and will therefore receive condemnation because they have renounced their original pledge. At the same time, they also learn to be idle, going from house to house; they are not only idle, but are also gossips and busybodies, saying things they shouldn’t say. Therefore, I want younger women to marry, have children, manage their households, and give the adversary no opportunity to accuse us. For some have already turned away to follow Satan. If any believing woman has widows in her family, let her help them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it can help widows in genuine need. — 1 Timothy 5:11-16 (CSB)

If a widow is young, she is not to be supported for two reasons. The first is that they might want to marry, might be drawn away from their desire, and renounce their pledge. Now, it's always interesting trying to figure out what this pledge is. And I'm still not entirely sure what this can mean. So here's what I know: there's a list of widows that enroll for spiritual service or financial support. And those who are enrolled on this list need to be making some kind of commitment, a pledge, whether it's to serve the church or to remain unmarried. And young women have the ability and the desire to get remarried after their first husband passes away. And that remarriage would reflect poorly on these women because they're going back on their word. They publicly said, “I'm going to serve the church instead of getting married again,” and they went back on their word by pursuing remarriage. So, my best guess is that this is not quite the same thing as like an oath of celibacy or kind of like becoming a nun, as some people might like think about, but more an oath of service. They're forsaking the ministry work that they've committed themselves to do; they're flip-flopping on their word, as James 5 talks about:

Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “yes” mean “yes,” and your “no” mean “no,” so that you won’t fall under judgment. — James 5:12 (CSB)

It seems like with this commitment from the church is expected a commitment from these women. And these younger women have this flippant inability to commit to the ministry of the church and it reflects in the way that they behave as well. I don't think Paul is trying to get stereotypes about all women everywhere; I think he's specifically addressing a situation in Ephesus where these women are doing exactly what he's talking about.

But these young women in the church in Ephesus seem to be taking advantage of the church's generosity and hospitality and using it for their own selfishness. Rather than learning to practice godliness, they are learning to be idle, to be lazy. They're lounging, they're going from house to house, and they're gossiping—right, they're enjoying tea time, they're slipping little details here and there, spreading rumors and causing division in the church on the church's dime. And they're also busybodies. You ever do that? You ever log into your work computer and just kind of click around a little bit without doing anything? Busy bodies that look like they're working hard. They're present, but not present. And they're not contributing anything. And it reflects poorly on their faith.

See, it seems to be culminating with these women abandoning the faith altogether. Paul says that they are turning away to follow Satan. They, like demons and Judas and so many others before, are falling in love with the world and following the devil. Hypocrites should not be receiving help. Instead, these women should work. They should get married, have kids, and manage their households. This seems to line up with Paul's exhortations in Titus 2 to younger women in general. He says that young women should love their husbands, their children, be self-controlled, pure, work at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God's Word will not be slandered.

That's why he says they should do those things: do it so that God's Word won't be slandered, that their character lines up with what God says. And here Paul tells young women to do the exact same thing so that they give the adversary no opportunity to accuse us—that their lazy behavior gives Satan an opportunity to attack, to accuse the church, to tarnish the reputation of Christ, and the church is dragged down by their bad example of gossip and laziness. In other words, the community, the city of Ephesus, knows about these women. They know about the trouble that they bring. They know about their loose lips. And it reflects poorly on the gospel. If these people are supposed to be representing Christ and they're causing destruction in the city, what does that say about the Lord that they're claiming to serve?

See this happen all the time when there are in churches or in community life in general: pastors that take advantage of churches, collecting checks while not actually working. Christians claim to be following Christ while acting duplicitously in their work or at their job. People who sing songs in the pews while beating their family at home in private. God hates hypocrisy. He hates it, and he sees our hearts. And Paul, in restricting support for these widows, isn't doing it out of hatred for women in need, but for zeal in protecting the gospel witness. We need faithful Christians.

And the same goes for our society today. There are definitely things that are different today than in this time where Timothy wrote this letter. I mean, one obvious example: widows can work. They can actually get jobs, right? Women are able to work and collect checks. Women don't have to marry in order to be able to provide for themselves like they did back in the time that Paul is writing. The Paul's principle of provision still remains here. There are opportunities for self-sufficiency—more today than there was back in the Church of Ephesus. You can work. You can collect programs, social programs, state provisions, social security, right? You can find resources that serve the disenfranchised in the world and be able to take care of yourself.

And Paul seems to be concerned about protecting the help of the church—that if those who actually need it, they give it to those who don't need it, it would dishonor the reputation of Jesus and would give space for accusations from Satan. In other words, it's not just about making sure you help those who are in need; it's also about protecting those who are actually in need by not giving money to those who aren't in need. Paul seems to be burdened in both directions. And that support is oriented around more than just financial help.

Principles for Church Benevolence Today

The reason why Paul is concerned with all these things about character and life situation and reputation has less to do with a dollar amount. It has more to do with the word that he used in verse 3: to honor them. Support is more than just financial help; it's oriented around honor, around dignity. Why do you support those who are genuinely in need? To honor them, to dignify their need, to show them that they are worthy of your respect and love despite their financial situation. Why do you reject ungodly widows? Because if you were to provide for their financial need, you would not be honoring them; you would be dishonoring the reputation of Christ. In either case, you are protecting the reputation of the gospel and consistent Christian living, either by giving funds to those who are in need or withholding funds from those who don't need that help from the church.

So with all these caveats, how do we care for the church? If we seek to protect and care for the least of these, I just want to give us a couple principles for us to keep in mind as churches as we seek to serve the body.

1. Prioritize the Work of Ministry

In Acts 6, we see the issue of Greek widows not being fed. And the Apostles' statement is really controversial. They stand up in front of the church and say, “It is not right for them to serve these tables, where they're supposed to serve the word.” Imagine that. Imagine your Greek grandmother not getting fed, and the Apostles go, “Yeah, not our first job.” That's exactly what they do. The church has always prioritized the ministry of the Word. In other words, the mission of the church is not primarily to help the disenfranchised. The goal of our church is not to primarily start a food bank or to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. The job of the church is to display and proclaim the gospel. And that's also reflected in the way that we steward our resources. We'll talk more about the work of the ministry in the next passage. I think there's a reason why Paul couples that support of widows and the support of pastors together in this chapter.

2. Support Church Members

Our responsibility should be to our physical family and then to our spiritual family and then to everyone else. Galatians 6:10 states:

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith. — Galatians 6:10 (CSB)

That doesn't mean that we always have the means to help. Our benevolence fund can zero out; we could run out of money. Our church may decide that certain types of support, especially long-term support, are just out of our means given the resources that our church has, the size of our church. But our heart's disposition should be to help, to want to support these people.

3. Support Members in Genuine Need

These widows represent those who are in need. I don't think you have to be a widow to qualify for what Paul is talking about. I think it's fine to broaden it to the widow, the orphan, or anyone who comes to this church who is in genuine need. As Jesus says in Matthew 25:40, “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.” I don't care what kind of life situation you confront. If you are in genuine need, our church wants to help you. I believe that this happens in small ways all the time. People giving others rides to church, church members visiting one another in hospitals, or even helping people move from place to place. That is a natural thing, and I see that happening in our church; I'm very encouraged by that. As the church grows, it could be considered appropriate to designate certain ministry leaders or deacons to facilitate this type of work more formally. But for smaller churches like ours, much of this assistance happens day-to-day with more extreme examples being facilitated through our deacons.

4. Evaluate Legitimate Conditions for Support

Based on this passage, I can give you three conditions to evaluate whether or not we should support someone. First, look at someone's circumstances. Are there other opportunities for them to receive help, where they can be helped out? Is there family, social services, any recourse for a provision outside of the church to support that it might be helpful? Paul is actually demoting the church in terms of the priority of who should be first in helping these people out. That is why he says, “Go to your family first.” He is really treating the church in a sense like a last resort. Second, character. Is this person someone that demonstrates godliness? If they don't demonstrate proper Christ-like behavior, that is a non-starter. So a church member who is disruptive, arrogant, ungodly, and in a dismal condition, and expects the church to take care of them, the church should not support them. Which may mean that they leave and slander and disenfranchise whatever ministry goes on here, and the church has to be okay with making a difficult decision like that. Third, competence. Are they able to work? Are there viable alternatives for how they can be gained support apart from the church?

And I hope you realize that these three kind of questions that we would ask means necessarily that the church should not and will not rush into non-dangerous cases. This is not a situation where someone asks for help and immediately receives a check. The church is actually discerning and trying to evaluate how to distribute its resources as well. Evaluating conditions takes time, and we want to be deliberate, not frantic, with the funds that we receive.

5. Preserve and Restore Dignity

The goal is to preserve the dignity of the supported church member, to restore dignity. That would look different for each church member. For some, that might look like assembling an action plan to support and equip a church member with the tools to be able to be self-sustaining. Sometimes a lot with the people that are struggling with homelessness often is that they don't just need financial support; they need tools to know how to get back on their feet, ways of being able to help them become self-sufficient. For others, it may look like connecting them with other benevolent, more wealthy church members who have the means to provide for them long-term generously. I emailed a group of about 150 pastors to ask about what their churches do to care for widows and the needy in their community, and I heard so many encouraging stories of all the things that these churches are doing.

One of the things I persistently heard most often was that the church members that were wealthier in the church would silently be supporting those who are in need in the church. No one else knew about it. It wasn't like a public-poster thing. It's just something that those people wanted to do to care for the widows and the orphans in the church. I love that example.

6. Deacons Facilitate Benevolence Ministry

Deacons should facilitate benevolence ministry under pastoral oversight. In Acts 6, deacons are tasked with facilitating the care for Gentile widows. That doesn't mean that pastors don't provide oversight, but that means that I can't be the one who covers day-to-day operations. I'm not a nonprofit. I'm not a homeless shelter. That's not the job of a pastor. The job of a pastor is to prioritize the ministry of the Word. The deacons take care of table ministry and facilitate those things. The way that works in our church right now, for a church of our size, is that we have a benevolence fund. In the envelope, you can designate giving to go to the benevolence fund that's in addition to your regular giving. They go to a separate bank account, we have a fund, and the deacons have the ability at their own discretion to distribute those funds to those who are in need. We don't give more than that. We don't give less than that. We have those funds that are readily available for those who are in need. If you have questions, talk to Alan Garcia, and he might be able to help you.

We will love our church family. Our goal is to reflect the Father's love for His children as we care for our spiritual family. I was watching a stand-up comedian who observed—he's an Indian man—he doesn't see any homeless people on the street begging for money, and the whole community is laughing. His audience is primarily the people that share a similar ethnic descent. He says, “It's rare to see that. You just don't see people that are Indian standing up in the corner or holding up the sign and asking for funds.” And the reason is because their view of the family is so tight-knit. He goes on to say that if he ever saw an Indian man, he would roll down his window and say, “Raj, is that you? Yeah. Raj, go home.” The family is so ingrained into their community that it's implicitly unthinkable that anyone would go homeless in their culture.

And that's exactly what the church needs to be like. We need to be a place where we can tell fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that they can go home, and that they would receive everything that they need, and that we would do everything that we can to help those in genuine need. Because that's exactly what our Father in heaven did for us. Let's pray. We pray for those that are in need at our church right now that you would see them in their poverty and their distress, that you would hear their cries.