Widow of the Good News

Widow of the Good News Program is established by Beth Israel Messianic Congregation in Beth Israel (Pageri) Magwi County and South Sudan to:

1. Provide widows and their children with basic housing facilities and training in micro businesses so that they can eventually support themselves for self reliance.
2. Eliminate the need for widows in Pageri Payam to brew alcoholic beverages to support themselves and their children given the fact that this brewing industry destroys both the spiritual and physical developmental capacities of an individual.

God’s general design is that most women will marry and receive protection and provision from their husbands. However, when women in the church lose their husbands, the church needs to care for them in the proper way. So Paul instructed the church about its obligations in that area. As follows:

1. THE CHURCH’S OBLIGATION TO SUPPORT WIDOWS (v. 3)
2. THE CHURCH’S OBLIGATION TO EVALUATE THEIR NEEDS (vv. 4-8)
3. THE CHURCH’S OBLIGATION TO MAINTAIN A HIGH STANDARD FOR WIDOWS WHO SERVE IN THE CHURCH (vv. 9-10)
4. THE CHURCH’S OBLIGATION TO INSTRUCT YOUNG WIDOWS TO REMARRY (vv. 11-15)

“The younger widows refuse [to put on the official list]; for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they will marry, having condemnation, because they have cast off their first faith. And, besides, they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, rule the house, and give no occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some are already turned aside after Satan. If any man or woman that believeth has widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged, that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.”

Widows in the Biblical Sense and Their Right

1. Those whose unsaved husbands desert them
   Sometimes an unbelieving husband will leave his wife when she becomes a believer. In the early church desertion was a common occurrence. First Corinthians 7:15 says, “If the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not in such cases.” If an unbeliever ends his marriage with his believing wife, the woman has the privilege and right to remarry–but only a believer (7:39; 9:5).
2. Those whose husbands engage in an adulterous lifestyle
   According to the Lord Jesus, sexual sin is legitimate grounds for divorce (Matt. 5:32; 19:9), especially an ongoing adulterous lifestyle without repentance. In Old Testament times it resulted in the guilty party’s death–and death certainly dissolved a marriage! God’s graciousness doesn’t sentence the innocent party to lifelong celibacy. Where biblical grounds for divorce exist, there is freedom to remarry.
3. Those whose husbands die
   Romans 7:2-3 says that when death dissolves a marriage there is freedom to remarry.
   “I will” in 1 Timothy 5:14 speaks of calculated, rational thinking, not emotion. Paul instructed the church to encourage younger widows to remarry rather than placing them on the official list of the church’s servants or helpers. Being placed on the list might end up spiritually hurting younger widows. For example, suppose an unsaved husband left his wife because she was a believer. Or perhaps she divorced him because of his ongoing adulterous lifestyle. She essentially becomes a widow, feeling hurt and brokenhearted. In the emotion of the moment she says, “I’ll never marry again. I’ll devote the rest of my days to the Lord. Please place me on the list so I can serve with the other godly women.”Since it could be difficult for her to sustain the commitment she made in her time of grieving, the church was to “refuse” to place her on the list (v. 11). “Refuse” is a strong word Paul previously used in 1 Timothy 4:7: “Refuse profane and old wives’ fables.” The church’s refusal to place younger widows on the list is an affirmation of not placing a widow on the list who is under sixty years of age (1 Tim. 5:9). However, needy widows of any age are eligible to receive financial support (vv. 3, 5). First Timothy 5:11-15 gives several reasons for the church’s encouraging younger widows to remarry rather than placing them on its list of servants