When reading about the history of the early church in the book of Acts, or when perusing the letters the Apostles wrote to their churches scattered around the Northeastern Mediterranean, it doesn’t take long to notice the importance the church placed on meeting the needs of widows and others in their midst.
As early as Acts 2, where we have a glowing account of the first days of the early church, we see a strong hint at the presence of a significant widows ministry when we read, “They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need” (2:45).
Later, in Acts 4, that hint becomes stronger. “There were no needy persons among them,” we’re told (4:34). This lack of need had to include widows, for in those days they were most often the neediest persons of all.
But what is hinted at in Acts 2 and 4 becomes explicit in Acts 6, when the Hellenistic Jews complained that “their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.” The result? The institution of the office of Deacon.
This emphasis on meeting the needs of widows continues throughout the New Testament (i.e., Acts 20:32-35; Galatians 2:10; James 1:27; 1 Timothy 5; 1 John 3:16-18).
But the question is why? Why did the early church have such a huge emphasis on meeting the needs of its widows? There are at least two reasons:
- They saw their ministry to their widows as proof of their obedience to God’s massive number of commands to serve widows in the Old Testament. (Deuteronomy 1:18; 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:17, 20, 21; 26:12, 13; Job Job 6:27; 24:3, 9, 21; 31:16-22; Psalm 10:14, 18; 68:5; 82:3; 94:4-7; 146:9; Proverbs 15:25; 23:10; Isaiah 1:23; 10:1, 2; Jeremiah 5:28; 7:6; 22:23; Ezekiel 22:7; Hosea 14:3; Zechariah 7:1-14; Malachi 3:5)
- They saw their ministry to their widows as critical to having a positive testimony in their communities, which in turn provided a foundation for effective evangelism. We see this in the summary statements that follow the accounts of the widows ministry in Acts 2, 5, and 6: “…enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47); “…they were highly regarded by the people. …More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number” (5:13, 14); “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith” (6:7).
So here is the progression: The early church obeys God’s clear and explicit commands in the Old Testament to meet the needs of its widows. This obedience results in the church having favor among the larger external community. This favor in turn results in people coming to the Lord.
Pretty simple stuff: Obedience to serving widows = Favor in the general population = Lots of people getting saved. The problem is, this progression is completely absent in America’s churches today. The questions are, why is today’s church ignoring its widows and what happens when it does?
I will answer those questions in my next post.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
Since 2003 New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry
Learn how to mobilize your men’s ministry to meet every pressing need in your church here.
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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
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