Commentary on 1 Timothy 4:1-5 and 5:9-16

Recently a dear friend whom I’ve known for a few years moved away to Knoxville, Tennessee (Go Vols!). He is a fun guy who hosted a Bible Study at his house. I attended for the past couple years and truly grew as a result of it.

About a year ago I realized I am a Calvinist. And not just someone who says they’re a Calvinist but is actually struggling mentally with one or two points. No, I am a full-blown five-point Calvinist, or as John Piper likes to joke (I think but you never know with him), a seven-point Calvinist. In the past year I have only grown in this conviction.

Well my friend is not a Calvinist. In fact, he’s a pretty hardcore Arminian, who also believes in Baptismal Regeneration. This is not a post to bag on my friend, since I know he loves the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. Instead I bring this up to point out the tremendously different views he and I share.

Well in addition to being kind of an accountability partner (not so much in the traditional sense, but since we both coached high school football, in making sure the other was maintaining focus on our real job there), he and I began discussing and going back and forth on doctrine. But that ended in roughly March or April. He moved in June, so it had been awhile since he and I had discussed such intriguing topics…until I received a Facebook message about a week ago.

He wanted me to peruse and thus give my opinion on the two passages in 1 Timothy noted above—1 Timothy 4:1-5 and 5:9-16. I know he wanted to discuss these since he believes they point to a person being able to lose their salvation.

Below is my defense as to why I believe these verses instead point us to a far different truth. I believe ultimately these two passages point us to a sweet example of what to look out for in our churches, which is an incredible grace of God through his spirit, to us. You will notice a break in between a part of my response. That notes the second e-mail after he posed a couple questions to my first response. As I would always encourage, if you are reading this, Calvinist or not, please feel free to respond to me with questions, comments, and/or concerns. I do not want to be the one-stop shop for biblical knowledge.

With both passages you asked me to look at, it is important to note the context. As you know it is Paul writing to Timothy, who is a young church planter and disciple. Paul is basically instructing him (and consequently all to follow) how to run a church, and all the different things to look after.
Among these are people who appeared to be in the faith departing for deceitful spirits & teaching of demons. Some will forbid marriage & require abstinence from certain foods. He’s saying in the end times, these are the things we must look out for. Of course, just as we do not know when that is, neither did Paul. He believed them to be coming quickly.
In the same light, 5:9-16 is reminding him what true saving faith looks like. Paul was very weary of idolatry, including marriage as a possible avenue to pursue idolatry. He’s saying have younger widows marry b/c they are at least contributing to creation and God’s plan. This eliminates the effort of Satan to bring them down, b/c they are better off married than to pursue something they cannot have. Those widows who were not married ran b/c they were seeking after things of the flesh and ran from the faith b/c of it.
I would argue then that to truly understand this passage we must understand as Paul did that even these widows who seemed to be these amazingly kind people had hearts of stone that were capable of running from the truth at any moment. Therefore as a minister of grace it is our job to help them in every way possible to remain in the faith, since we cannot know who is among the elect. [Note: You will see my understanding of the older widows does change slightly in the next section, although I would still say it’s true that their hearts are wicked.]

For 4:1-5, I would compare that to 2 Tim 3:1-5. Pay close attention to verse 5. This is important because it’s the same author writing to the same subject. We have two options: a. he’s contradicting himself, which of course calls in to question all of scripture; or b. he’s clarifying himself in what he means when he says that some will depart from the faith.
Additionally, we must look at the whole Bible and see that it is very clear about salvation or a word I like even more (because salvation in our age has become an often thrown around shallow term), sanctification, as a process that lasts one’s whole life, but it is a result of them already being justified (1 Cor 1:2, Acts 20:32, 26:18, & Rom 6:1-4). These verses show us that our sanctification is guaranteed b/c we have been justified and if we’re justified Jesus will ensure that we remain w/ him (John 6:39), so much so that he will come before the elect could be swayed by the enemy, if that were even possible (Mat 24:22-25).
As for 5:9-16, I believe both are true. Age is important b/c we must remember that in that day and age (no pun intended), 60 was OLD! 60 meant that woman was about to die. No man would want to marry her (most likely). Therefore if she’s older, she is likely not apt to the same spiritual attacks that a younger widow is.
As for v.15, it just seems strange b/c Paul is actually talking about whether some of the women are even true widows. And in verse 9-10 he talks about how we’ll know their faith [the older widows]. So I think Paul is painting a picture of what a truly believing widow looks like and contrasting that by saying that the younger woman who has not shown such fruit cannot be trusted in the body, unless she gets married. See the overall context here is not about salvation, but about the building up of the body. Paul is talking about building a healthy gospel-centered church. And just as we see in many of, if not all, the other epistles is Paul talking about being aware of and crushing any attacks or possible weak points of the church that the enemy might use to break it up. Just b/c our salvation is eternal and guaranteed doesn’t mean that we don’t have to fight for it. We fight for the souls of all those we come into contact with, again b/c we cannot know who is among the elect and who is not, and b/c there will be those not among the elect that appear as if they are, and many others who will try to trip the elect up. And so God preordained that the way we walk in his will (among others) is to fight for what we believe and to fight for others souls to believe that same amazing truth that salvation is by grace thru faith alone, and that faith should lead us toward treasuring Christ above all things, and that we cannot wait to be in his eternal weight of glory! Amen!

What Others are Reading: