Today’s passage provides the qualifications for a widow before considering her for financial support by the church. Interestingly, several qualifications are strongly connected to her efforts involving hospitality. Did she lodge strangers? Did she wash the saints’ feet? Did she relieve the afflicted? These questions basically sum up whether or not the lady was “given to hospitality” (Romans 12:13). A woman who had given her life to others was counted worthy of receiving help from others once she was no longer able to support herself. She was to be held in high esteem if she had taken others in when they had no place to go, or washed the feet of other saints when they entered into her home, or relieved those around her who were afflicted.
All good motives for Christian service should be rooted in love. As believers, we have a God-given responsibility in the area of hospitality. Twice the Bible refers to being “given to hospitality” (Romans 12:13; 1 Timothy 3:2). The First Timothy passage specifically speaks of the qualifications of a bishop. However, God never intended for hospitality to be limited to church leadership. In fact, the passage in Romans identifies hospitality as a responsibility for all believers. To be “given to hospitality” means to be led by or under the control of hospitality. In other words, everything we do involving others should be motivated by the desire to be hospitable. Titus 1:8 takes hospitality a step further by declaring that a bishop must be “a lover of hospitality.” Christians should purpose to find joy spending time with others, sincerely desiring to strengthen and encourage them in some area of need.
An epistle (Colossians 4:16) is a letter from one person, or a group of people, to another. The epistle of Second Timothy was from Paul to a preacher named Timothy. Timothy was a young man (1 Timothy 4:12) but possessed a strong love for the Lord. Paul testified of this truth repeatedly and today’s passage shows Paul commenting on Timothy’s “unfeigned faith.” There was something refreshingly genuine about Timothy’s walk with the Lord. Though Paul was speaking specifically about Timothy’s faith, he made mention that this faith did not start with Timothy. This faith had been passed from his grandmother Lois to his mother Eunice, and then on to Timothy. In fact, he was being taught scripture from the time he was a child (2 Timothy 3:15). This type of upbringing yielded a young man of “unfeigned faith” who further matured into adulthood with spiritual fortitude worthy of emulation.
