Outside the Camp

“The form of wor­ship that is clean and unde­filed from the stand­point of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and wid­ows in their tribu­la­tion, and to keep one­self with­out spot from the world” — James 1:27

In our con­gre­ga­tions James 1:27 is often quoted in order to estab­lish what to look for in true reli­gion today. Sadly the focus is often on the keep­ing of one­self “with­out spot from the world” with lit­tle atten­tion given “to look[ing] after orphans and wid­ows in their tribu­la­tion”. In his let­ter James high­lights the impor­tance of char­i­ta­ble acts such as when he says that faith can­not exist with­out good works like pro­vid­ing for “a brother or sis­ter in a naked state and lack­ing the food suf­fi­cient for the day”. — James 2:15

In Bible times, as is often the case today, wid­ows and orphans are among the need­i­est of peo­ple. These are ones that may suf­fer from neglect. Our lov­ing Heav­enly Father though cares for them deeply. He is called, “a father of father­less boys and a judge of wid­ows” (Psalm 68:5) His care for them is expressed at Psalm 146:9 where it says “The father­less boy and the widow he relieves.”

Jehovah’s care for wid­ows and orphans was reflected in the Law of Moses where the peo­ple were ordered to care for wid­ows and orphans. It is emphat­i­cally pro­claimed at Dueteron­omy 27:19 “Cursed is the one who per­verts the judg­ment of an alien res­i­dent, a father­less boy and a widow!”

How seri­ous did Jeho­vah take this law? Very seri­ously! The mal­treat­ment of wid­ows and orphans was one of the rea­sons that Jeho­vah pun­ished His name peo­ple, allow­ing them to be killed and taken cap­tive by enemy nations such as Baby­lon. In regards to this Isa­iah made the prophetic denouce­ment, “Woe to those who are enact­ing harm­ful reg­u­la­tions and those who, con­stantly writ­ing, have writ­ten out sheer trou­ble, in order to push away the lowly ones from a legal case and to wrest away jus­tice from the afflicted ones of my peo­ple, for the wid­ows to become their spoil, and that they may plun­der even the father­less boys!” — Isa­iah 10:1,2

The care of the such needy indi­vid­u­als was a con­cern for the early Chris­t­ian con­gre­ga­tion. In Acts 6:1–6 we read about how men “full of spirit and wis­dom” were appointed to dis­trib­ute food to improver­ished wid­ows. The Apos­tle Paul spoke to Tim­o­thy regard­ing a “list” that hon­or­able wid­ows in need of relief could be placed on in the event that they had no fam­ily to pro­vide for them. (1 Tim­o­thy 5:3–9)

In our con­gre­ga­tions today sel­dom are appoint­ments made of indi­vid­u­als to spear­head the tak­ing care of the needy among us and there are few lists made to keep such ones in mind. Be that as it may that does not excuse us from our scrip­tural respon­si­bil­i­ties to take care of such ones. As a Chris­t­ian con­gre­ga­tion we have a com­mu­nity respon­si­bilty to take care for them as they are related to us in the faith (Gala­tions 6:10)

And I can hon­estly assess that from my own expe­ri­ence there is a real and imme­di­ate need. Those of us who are young need to step up and pro­vide for them. In my con­gre­ga­tion the wid­ows seem to get by finan­cially and they have food on their tables but they are lit­er­ally starv­ing for atten­tion. Our elderly ones who were the build­ing blocks of our con­gre­ga­tion are shown lit­tle regard. Those who find them­selves in nurs­ing homes are all but for­got­ten about.

Rebekah and I had the priv­elege of going out to eat Sun­day after the meet­ing with an elderly sis­ter. Can you imag­ine this faith­ful sis­ter ques­tion­ing whether or not the friends would take care of her when the great tribu­la­tion started? That she should even have to ques­tion such a thing is a pos­i­tively sad state­ment of the real­ity she faces. That she still comes to the Sun­day meet­ing each and every week despite such dis­cour­age­ment is a tes­ta­ment to her faith.

There is such a great joy and sat­is­fac­tion in tak­ing care of the needs of oth­ers. As John expresses, “for this is what the love of God means, that we observe his com­mad­n­ments; and yet his com­mand­ments are not bur­den­some” (1 John 5:3) I’m find­ing out how true that is. At one time it did seemed like tak­ing care of the wid­ows was a bur­den but this is tru­ely not the case. I’m so happy that some of Rebekah and my clos­est friends in con­gre­ga­tions are such ones. And in tak­ing care of them there is a com­plete and total mutual encour­age­ment for us as well. Some­times it seems that we get more out of it then they do.

Let us all look for ways to help out those in need among us, espe­cially our dear elderly sis­ters! Let us not look down upon them in their days of tribu­la­tion. Rather let us include them in our gath­er­ings, speak to them often, keep them in our prayers, and care for their phys­i­cal needs.

Why do I write these things? I’ll con­clude with the heart stir­ring words of our Lord Jesus:

“These things I have spo­ken to you, that my joy may be in YOU and YOUR joy may be made full. This is my com­mand­ment, that YOU love one another just as I have loved YOU.” — John 15:11,12