Sometimes, digging deeper into a passage of Scripture leads me in an unexpected direction. This is really not very surprising, of course. God is much smarter than I am, so it only makes sense that I won’t always be able to predict in what direction he’s going to lead me, even though I know that his end goal is to make me like Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18).
For example, I was recently reading in Paul’s instructions to his former disciple Timothy, about how the church should care for widowed believers:
Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. Give the people these instructions, so that no one may be open to blame. Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:3-8).
I notice, first of all, that only those widows who don’t have children or grandchildren are to be cared for by the church, and only those, in particular, who are living godly lives. In short, financial assistance is only to be provided when it will not be an occasion for sin, either by the widow herself or by her family. This was, of course, written in and for a time in which there was neither welfare nor Social Security, and in which saving for retirement was only practical for those who were fairly wealthy. Given that cultural context, it’s a bit unsettling that this was what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write.
I have to admit that, to me, this sounds pretty harsh. What if the widow has children or grandchildren, but they refuse to support her? If her children belong to Christ the church can require them to do their duty or face excommunication, but what if they are not believers? In this passage Paul says that the children are to “put their religion into practice,” which implies that they have religion to put into practice. They are Christians, in other words. The case of a non-believing family refusing to support a widow who follows Jesus is not specifically addressed.
I further need to recognize that my own gut reaction to this passage, when I look at it closely, seems to be to treat these instructions as self-contained, a straightforward commandment like “you shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15) that can be easily understood, and obeyed, on its own. But is this the right perspective? Paul wrote in an earlier letter that the entire law can be summed up as, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Romans 13:8-10). Jesus said much the same thing in Matthew 22:36-40. If that’s the case, then these instructions to Timothy do not stand alone as a law in themselves, but are rather part of the working out of how we are to live in love. They are, of course, still to be obeyed, but as part of a larger whole (which, in fact, is actually also true of “you shall not steal”).
The principle here is that a widow’s family has an obligation to support her financially. If it was the usual practice of the church to step up and provide whenever the children refuse, that would give many of them an excuse not to fulfill their obligation, and ease the consciences of people whose consciences should not be eased. Now, since we are operating under the law of love, there could be an argument for making an exception in an extraordinary case. Indeed, making such an exception might even shame the offending children into doing what they ought to do. Regardless of that, however, it is perfectly clear that the church is not to behave in a way that encourages people to neglect their obligations to their own family.
Paul’s other condition, that only a widow who is godly is to be supported, and not a widow who “lives for pleasure,” is more reasonable. It seems, in fact, just to be an example of tough love. The pleasure-seeking widow could, after all, take the money she spends on loose living and use it to pay for her necessities instead. If she’s lacking food and shelter by her own decision, the church should not help her continue to live that way.
And we should note Paul’s statement about the deserving widow who “puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.” Like the children mentioned earlier, the widows he’s talking about are believers. Nothing in this passage is talking about helping the unbelieving poor as a way of proclaiming the gospel to them. That’s a completely different matter, and one that is treated elsewhere in Scripture. This passage is about how we in the church are to care for our own elderly sisters. We are to help them when they are in need, but in such a way that it does not encourage sin, either in them or in others. We are not to support an ungodly lifestyle by those who call themselves believers. In fact, and this once again seems harsh, resisting sin is a higher priority than meeting the physical needs of food and shelter and clothing.
But if I make that my priority what happens to compassion? And what about the Golden Rule? Well, what about it? Let’s look at that. Jesus taught his disciples, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12). This comes near the end of his Sermon on the Mount. Notably, it comes after Jesus’ teaching about storing up treasure, which I think we need to look at more closely in order to understand how it all fits together.
We’ll start with:
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:16-18).
This sets the stage. In my service, I should be seeking to please God, not to show other people how godly I am. What’s next?
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
In this context, the “treasures on earth” that Jesus is talking about are obviously the good opinions of other people. Having a good name or a reputation as a philanthropist is a treasure on earth. Being known as a godly man is a treasure on earth. Respect and admiration are treasures on earth. But worldly benefits of any sort are not to be sought after. They are a distraction from the genuine riches that God offers.
Let’s go on.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23).
What I am looking at, what I am seeking, the goal I have set before me; this determines whether my whole self is full of light or of darkness. Am I looking for treasures on earth or treasures in heaven? Whichever one I am seeking, that will be what I focus my attention on. That will be what my actions will be directed toward obtaining. In Jesus’ own words, it’s where my heart will be. And whenever I am faced with a choice about how to spend my time and effort, what I am looking toward will determine what I choose. My perspective – what I am able to see – is determined by which direction I choose to look.
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
That last sentence seems a little bit jarring, bringing up money after Jesus has just been talking about doing good works. But the word translated “money” here in the NIV is mammon, which means much more than just money. According to the Dictionary of Deities and Demigods in the Bible, which is one of the standard references used by scholars, Mammon is the name of an evil, superhuman being that was thought to enslave and possess people. The name probably comes from an Aramaic root meaning “that in which one puts trust.” Jesus is using the name Mammon figuratively here to mean anything that I might devote my life to outside of the kingdom of God. I can’t give my life both to God and to anything else.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:25-34).
Here is the summation of this section of Jesus’ sermon. It begins with the warning not to do good deeds for the purpose of seeking earthly approval, and it concludes with the command not to pursue any earthly thing; not even the food and clothing I need to survive. If I am working to store up treasure in heaven, God will take care that my earthly needs are met as well. Just as I am to look to God rather than men for approval, so I am to look to him rather than the world to provide what I need.
And there’s the aha moment. The Golden Rule was not given in isolation. If I am seeking God’s kingdom and his righteousness ahead of everything else, then treating others the way I want them to treat me means treating them as if they also are putting his kingdom and his righteousness first, at least if those others are my sisters and brothers in Christ. It means believing the very best about them. It’s from this perspective that what Paul wrote about caring for widows begins to make sense. Pursuing God’s righteousness is to be a higher priority for Timothy than caring for physical needs, just as it is for the widows he’s using church resources to help.
All of this presupposes that the one giving help is seeking God’s kingdom first. There is no justification whatsoever for me making God’s righteousness a higher priority in anyone else’s life than it is in mine. That’s crucial: I am to be storing up treasure in heaven instead of on earth. I am to keep my eyes “healthy.” I am to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness. And while I’m doing that, I’m also to treat others the way I want to be treated.
And when I do that, I need to expect opposition. If following God’s priorities seemed harsh to me until I looked deeper, it will appear that way to others as well. For those who see things only from a worldly perspective, God’s priorities will often appear harsh, and even, at times, morally wrong. One of the ironies of this world is that being seen by everyone as a good person is incompatible with following the one who is the source of all goodness. Jesus warned his disciples that, “the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God,” not from any intent to do evil, but out of ignorance; “They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me” (John 16:2-3).
So we’ve come quite a ways, from caring for believing widows to facing opposition, possibly even to the point of being killed, by people who, in their ignorance, think that they are doing what is right. What appeared, at first, to be a tight focus on helping one particular group of people led to insight about the entire thrust of my life, and who I will serve.
Humanly speaking, it does not make sense to prioritize godliness over essential physical needs, such as food and clothing. That’s because a human perspective sees only this world. As followers and disciples of Jesus, however, we have a different perspective. We “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).