1 Timothy 5:5-6

However not all in the second category should receive regular financial help. Only those widows without children or supporting relatives (Gr. memonomeme, "left alone") who give evidence that they are looking to God for their needs and are seeking to honor Him with their lives qualify (e.g., Anna in Luke 2:36-38). These are "widows indeed." Widows who give themselves to the pursuit of pleasure rather than to the pursuit of God do not qualify for regular support. This is the third group of widows in the passage.

"In the contemporary world many widows were tempted to resort to immoral living as a means of support, and that is probably in the apostle’s mind when he uses the verb spatalao (liveth in pleasure)." [Note: Guthrie, p. 101.]

These women receive in their lives the wages of their sin: spiritual deadness. The term "dead" describes widows who are presumably believers (cf. James 2:17).

"To have pleasure in life is a legitimate and healthy thing; but to live for pleasure, as some people do, and did even in Timothy’s day, is an unworthy, and unhealthy, thing. The difference between Christians is largely a matter of appetite-is he satisfied, with the things of God, or does he hanker after the things of the world?" [Note: King, p. 91.]

"It has been my experience in three different pastorates that godly widows are a ’spiritual powerhouse’ in the church. They are the backbone of the prayer meetings. They give themselves to visitation, and they swell the ranks of teachers in the Sunday School. It has also been my experience that, if a widow is not godly, she can be a great problem to the church. She will demand attention, complain about what the younger people do, and often ’hang on the telephone’ and gossip. (Of course, it is not really ’gossip.’ She only wants her friends to be able to ’pray more intelligently’ about these matters!)" [Note: Wiersbe, 2:229.]