1 Timothy 5:10

‘Well reported of for good works; if she has brought up children, if she has used hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work.’

However, as well as being over sixty and the wife of one man, there were also other important requirements, although for a committed Christian woman they were not really ones which were unusual. They would indeed be the expected norm for any Christian woman. Thus she must have a reputation for good works, some of which are then described in detail. The kind described would have been fairly commonplace. Most widows would have brought up children, and no doubt the elders would take into consideration how well her children had developed. Hospitality to strangers was common in those days in view of the fact that inns were unpleasant, expensive and even immoral. Most Christian families would thus have given hospitality to strangers at one time or another, most on a fairly regular basis. Washing the feet of visitors from afar who came to a house church would be another fairly common action of godly women, as the visitors came into a house church after travelling some distance in their sandals on dusty roads. Relieving those who were afflicted (affliction might hint at some forms of spasmodic persecution, although it may simply have such things as sickness and bereavement in mind) would be another common occurrence. Furthermore we must not read too much into the use of the term ‘enrolled’. It simply means that a list had been made. Consider how we regularly speak of Sunday School teachers and even children being enrolled. Or alternatively that they had simply been brought into the reckoning of the elders.

So these women would simply have done what many dedicated Christian women had done. They were not super-saints. They had simply demonstrated a true Christian commitment, and their genuine love and concern for others. But they had done it with a smile and without grumbling (‘diligently following every good work’) and were recognised as the kind of women who were willing to do anything reasonable, and even go beyond that. Their age would make them suitable in that they were likely to have few other distractions, if any, would probably be known as very sober, and would not be so frowned on in having to deal with men. For although much of their work would be among women, they would tend to have more contact with men than the ordinary women in the church. And when involved with helping males they would not be a temptation to any males whom they assisted or who visited the church, as they would be seen by them as motherly figures. On top of that they would be very conscious in those days that their time was short before they had to go and meet their Master.

In churches where travellers constantly passed through, where slaves might come who were ill-treated, where there would be many sick and where young women would need guidance, such women would have been worth their weight in gold. There is no suggestion that they should be paid. All that was required was that they take a pledge that they would genuinely devote themselves to the work for the remainder of their lives (like any good old time Methodist). Note how at a time when many would think that these women should slacken off, Paul expects them to buckle down and become even more active. The hearer they got to the finishing tape, the harder they should run. ,