1 Timothy 5:3,4, & 8
Take care of any widow who has no one else to care for her.
But if she has children or grandchildren, their first responsibility is to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. This is something that pleases God.
If anyone doesn’t take care of their own relatives, especially their own household, thy have denied the faith; they are worse thanĀ unbelievers.
This is simply what we do.
We take care of widows. We care for those who cannot care for themselves or have no family to do so.
In following Jesus, this is nothing special, in a sense.
I remember when I was working at Outreach, Inc. with homeless youth, and a pastor of mine made the observation, “It’s kind of sad that we call this ‘cutting edge’ ministry. Shouldn’t this just be normal, run-of-the-mill Christian ministry?”
YES!
He got it.
Taking care of those in various states of difficulty, our immediate family first, is plain-jane, vanilla Christian ministry. It’s not going above and beyond our call to duty. It’s more like doing the bare minimum.
And it pleases God.
So let’s not break our arms patting ourselves on the back.
Let’s just make sure we’re doing what we’re called to do, and not for thanks, not to feel good inside, but because it is right.