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Personal Responsibilityby James Bayles The directive to give aid to widows and orphans is documented well in many
passages of the Bible. God gave Israel instruction in the Law to be
responsible toward widows and orphans. One example, "Do not deprive the alien or
the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a
pledge." Deuteronomy 24:17. Father God gives insight to
Himself in Deuteronomy 10:17-18, "For the Lord your God is the God of gods
and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not
show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and
the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and
clothing." The covering for orphans and widows immediately follows
the explanation of who God is in that passage. That indicates an extreme
importance in widows and orphans. The value and protection of widows and orphans should be very simple to grasp, understand and acknowledge. However, that is not what was being done. Widows and orphans were often times taken advantage of or ignored completely. Instructions are given again. Isaiah 1:17, "Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." The nature of mankind has changed little since God gave Israel the Law. It has possibly become more corrupt and self-centered. Widows and orphans are still a big issue. The struggles they can face in everyday life can be extreme emotional, financial and physical loads to bare. Recorded in the New Testament, the church is again told in James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world".
Later, Paul instructed Timothy in his epistle to tell the Ephesus church the widow's immediate family was responsible for the care. Yes, the immediate family is responsible first, not the church or a social government program. It is wrong to consider aid from the church, government programs and organizations like H.O.W. to be primary care givers to widows and orphans. 1 Timothy 5:3-8, "Honor widows who are widows indeed; but if any widow
has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard
to their own family and to make some return to their parents; for this is
acceptable in the sight of God. Now she who is a widow indeed and who has
been left alone, has fixed her hope on God and continues in entreaties and
prayers night and day. But she who gives herself to wanton pleasure is
dead even while she lives. Prescribe these things as well, so that they
may be above reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his own, and
especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than
an unbeliever."
That is a serious declaration. That passage was written to Christians and it applies to everyone! It is morally wrong to leave our children and our wives unequipped with no provisions. It is morally wrong to leave widows and orphans in the care of government programs, creditors, or the church as a primary financial, food, health and emotional provider. Yes, Christian believers can have issues providing for their own as well as non Christians. Issues should not develop into neglect. Neglect can and does happen to widows and orphans frequently.
H.O.W. is a Christian non profit service organization and we recognize, as individual members and corporately, the need of doing good and sharing with widows, orphans and others the resources that God has provided us with. Assistance to widows and orphans is a means of worship to God by loving one's "neighbor" as one's self. The parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:29-37 illustrates this very well. A man is stripped, robbed and beaten half to death and left lying in a road by robbers. A priest noticed the man but moved to the opposite side of the road, ignored the man's need, and passed by. A Levite reacted exactly like the priest and ignored this need. The Samaritan instead had compassion and took care of the injured man with personal actions, personal sacrifice, personal finances, setup short term services and established a completion plan. The Samaritan helped his "neighbor" by his actions. In 2 Kings 4:1-7, a woman, newly widowed with fear of losing her sons to
creditors for her debts due, seeks advice from the profit, Elisha. Israel
had just completed a bloody war against the King of Moab and this woman's
husband died. Elisha was a Godly man and gave this woman instructions to
borrow empty vessels, as many as she could get, and to use her only possession
of value, a jar of oil, and fill these empty jars from it at home behind the
closed doors. The woman followed the advice and was given further
instructions from Elisha to then sell the jars of oil, pay off her debts and she
and her sons could live on the rest of the profits. Here a widow sought
instruction, a Godly man gave it, she followed the instructions, God blessed the
outcome. Notice it was done by faith behind "closed
doors". It was not a big spotlight news event that gave the widow or
Elisha headlines or glory to be seen by others in the area. Elisha helped his "neighbor" by
his instructions.
H.O.W. encourages and strives to assist family members, churches and service organizations in meeting needs of orphans and widows. H.O.W. will continue to serve widows and orphans with labor, finances, and instruction across the street and around the world as a act of worship to our God and compassion to our neighbor. H.O.W. utilizes financial gifts, equipment, medicines, material and labor of people, churches and businesses that share the desire to serve the needs of widows and orphans. H.O.W. is a Christian, non partisan, fully non profit and non salaried public service corporation. If you would like to give and be a part of this effort, it will be very much appreciated.
Helping Orphans and Widows
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Copyright © 2006
Helping Orphans and Widows
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Clearly, God has not changed His view on orphans and widows. The early Christian church did
a work and distributed food daily to Jewish widows.
This is accounted for in Acts 6:1-6. 
The church is given instruction to care for the "widows indeed" as
in 1 Timothy 5:9-16. These are women who are believers and active in a
church body. This is a minimum of service. It leaves one to
question the fate of the remainder of widows. Plainly stated, this does
help ease the "burden" on the church but it does not ease the burden on other widows and
orphans suffering who are not active Christian believers. What about them? 