{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1685","native_reference":{"book_number":610,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":16,"verse_to":16},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: But if it is praiseworthy to have one's soul free from this failing of greed, how much more glorious is it to gain the love of the people by liberality. This should be neither too freely shown to those who are unsuitable, nor too sparingly bestowed upon the needy.… There is also another kind of liberality which the apostle teaches, \"If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her assist them. Let the church not be burdened so that it may assist those who are real widows.\" Useful, then, is liberality of this sort.<br/><i>— On the Duties of the Clergy 2.15.68, 72-73</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: \"Now no one of those at the table knew for what intent He spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the money-bag, that Jesus said unto him, Buy those things which we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor.\" The Lord, therefore, had also a money-box, where He kept the offerings of believers, and distributed to the necessities of His own, and to others who were in need. It was then that the custom of having church-money was first introduced, so that thereby we might understand that His precept about taking no thought for the morrow was not a command that no money should be kept by His saints, but that God should not be served for any such end, and that the doing of what is right should not be held in abeyance through the fear of want. For the apostle also has this foresight for the future, when he says: \"If any believer hath widows, let him give them enough, that the church may not be burdened, that it may have enough for them that are widows indeed.\"<br/><i>— TRACTATES ON John 62.5</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Observe how again he speaks of those as \"widows indeed,\" who are left destitute, and have no resource from any other quarter. It was better to have it so. For thus two great objects were attained. Those had an opportunity of doing good, whilst these were honorably maintained, and the Church not burdened. And he has well said, \"If any believer.\" For it is not fit that believing women should be maintained by unbelievers, lest they should seem to stand in need of them. And observe how persuasively he speaks; he has not said, \"let them maintain them expensively,\" but \"let them relieve them.\" \"That the Church,\" he says, \"may relieve them that are widows indeed.\" She therefore has the reward of this help also, for she that helps the Church, helps not her only, but those widows too whom the Church is thus enabled to maintain more bountifully.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Timothy 15</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: If a faithful man or woman has widows, let them be supported, and let the Church not be burdened, so that it may provide adequately for the truly widows.</p><p>If a faithful man. He repeated: If a faithful man or woman has widows. For if they were unfaithful, it would not be necessary for them to be supported by them, lest the faithful appear to be in need of the unfaithful. Moreover, the laws also concern those who obey them, not those who are not subject to them.</p><p>let him provide for them. Let the matter be done lightly. For through this, let them support, Paul meant the necessary nourishment.</p><p>so that the Church is not burdened. So the faithful, supporting their own widows, also contribute to the widows of the Church. Just as the Church, not being burdened, and for this reason nourishing more abundantly those it nourishes, namely truly the widows, that is, those unprotected and isolated.</p><p>and that those who are truly widows. Truly widows are those who are abandoned on all sides. For he who does this, Paul says, not only supports them if he provides for them, but also greatly helps the rest, granting them relief.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"c9e962e51baba72c5fad05027306cfe202ad7f89d512eb62c1dde5dd52d98143","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1685,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"7e1c7f68174289817ac8db5c86b7662a0ded16298c0d95e18de4f764864c432f","translator":null,"work":null}