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If any wife has lost her husband and has not yet reasoned within herself and has not decided whether she should remain a widow or enter into a second marriage, he [Paul] says, I suggest that it is better to remain so; if she cannot bear this burden, then let her marry; but those who have already defined themselves, and have registered themselves as widows, and have entered into a covenant with God, no longer have the power, he says, to enter into a second marriage. Therefore, writing about them in the Epistle to Timothy, he says this: “Do not accept young widows, for they, falling into luxury in opposition to Christ, want to marry. They are condemned because they have rejected the former faith” (1 Tim. 5:11, 12). Do you see how here he reproaches and punishes them and recognizes them as worthy of judgment and condemnation because they violated the covenant with God and betrayed the vow (4)? According to the Apostle Paul, a widowed woman should be like this: she raises children, serves the needs of the saints, provides services to strangers and does not give in to her passions (see 1 Tim. 5:10). After the death of her husband, she, says the apostle, is clothed in widow's clothing and, indulging in grief, must demonstrate appropriate morals before everyone. An incontinent widow is a wild beast; going around houses, she spreads indecent words: “I am a poor, defenseless widow: I had a lot of wealth both in the field and at home, there was a lot of livestock and clothes, but my husband, being inexperienced in worldly affairs, squandered it all; my dowry was very rich, but no matter what I told him, he did not listen. Of course, I could not go against him and against his will I helped him squander his estate; and now he left me without everything.” So, whomever she hugged and caressed during her life, after death she handed over to the ridicule of her friends and acquaintances. Such a widow, after the death of her husband, looks around here and there and looks for where to find her secret lover, and under the pretext of prayer or caring for her home, she causes temptation to many; committing lawless deeds and conceiving in the womb, she tries to hide it and uses thousands of ways to cause a miscarriage, resorting to the help of poison or the assistance of other depraved wives. In her heart there is no fear of God, who sees everything, and when she commits a sin, she is not ashamed, but she is ashamed of the fruit of this sin and avoids it (5). “Defend the orphan, stand up for the widow. Then come, and let us reason together, says the Lord” (Isa. 1:17, 18). Scripture often speaks this way about widows and orphans; but we don’t even think about it. Meanwhile, imagine what a reward! “Though your sins,” it is said, “are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they will be as white as wool” (Isa. 1:18). Widows are defenseless, and therefore [the Lord] cares a lot about them. They, of course, could enter into a second marriage, but out of fear of God they endure the sorrows of widowhood. Let us all give them a helping hand: both husbands and wives, so that we ourselves may someday not be subjected to the difficult fate of widowhood, or, if we are subjected to it, we will have every right to expect philanthropy for ourselves. The tears of a widow have considerable power: they can open the very sky. Let us not offend them, we will not increase their misfortunes, but we will provide them with all possible help. If we act in this way, we will provide ourselves with perfect security both in this life and in the next century. Not only here, but also there they will serve as protection for us; for the benefits they have shown, they will deliver us from most of our sins and give us the opportunity to boldly stand before the judgment seat of Christ (9). You might be interested in: