Marriage
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10. Is it not written that we must refuse those widows who desire to
marry? Therefore the Scripture shows that God wants us to accept in His
Church only those widows who are able not to break the first bond of
matrimony, and the same Scripture condemns those widows who have broken that
indissoluble bond which cannot be broken even by the death of one’s spouse.
Am I right in saying this? |
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No, you
are wrong. First of all, let us see who these widows, whom the Scripture
commands us to refuse, are. Paul says to Timothy: “But refuse the younger
widows; for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire
to marry, having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith.
And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and
not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought
not” (1 Timothy 5:11-13 - NKJV). These words of Paul to Timothy come after
these other words in which the apostle commands Timothy to let a widow be put
on the list of widows (to be helped by the Church) if she has some particular
qualifications: “Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore
years old, having been the wife of one man, Well reported of for good works;
if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have
washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have
diligently followed every good work” (1 Timothy 5:9-10). Therefore the widows
who are blamed by Paul are those widows who have grown wanton against Christ,
that is to say, those widows whose sensual desires have overcome their
dedication to Christ (1 Timothy 5:11), and not those widows who want to marry,
because it is lawful for a widow to marry in that Paul says that he wants the
younger widows to marry, as it is written: “Therefore I desire that the
younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to
the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some have already turned aside
after Satan” (1 Timothy |