For years I’ve thought of the orphans and widows that James refers to in James 1:27 as unrelated individuals. But the other day it dawned on me that James is probably including single mothers and their fatherless children as a third category besides orphans and widows. Here’s the verse:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after?orphans and widows?in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (NIV)
The reason I’m thinking the orphans and widows James is referring to includes single mothers and their fatherless children is because in biblical times, fatherless children were considered the same as orphans. For example, theHebrew word for “orphan” isyatom. But it can also be translated “fatherless,” as the New International Version does in Isaiah 1:17:
Take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the cause of the widow.
People in ancient times placed fatherless children in the same category as orphans because women had little independent means of support. Often, they had three bleak options: begging, prostitution, or starvation. In fact, single mothers fared worse than widows, since they had to care for both themselves and their children.
So the next time you read about widows and orphans in your Bible, don’t forget to include single moms and their fatherless children in your thinking.
Because God hasn’t.
Discussion Questions
- In what ways did single mothers in biblical times have a more difficult time than individual widows?
- In what ways may single mothers today have a more difficult time than widows?
- What does it mean in practice to “take up the cause” of someone in need?
- In what ways has your men’s team ministry done that?
- Are there still people in your church with long term needs that are not being met?