1 Timothy 5:11 - Exposition

Younger for the younger , A.V.; waxed for began to wax , A.V.; desire to for will , A.V. Refuse . Note the wisdom of Paul, who will not have the young widows admitted into the roll of Church widows, lest, after the first grief for the loss of their husbands has subsided, they should change their minds, and wish to return to the world and its pleasures, and so incur the guilt of drawing back their hands from the plough. Would that the Church had always imitated this wisdom and this consideration for the young, whether young priests or young monks and nuns! Waxed wanton against ( καταστρηνιάσωσι ). This word only occurs here, but the simple στρηνιάω is found in Revelation 18:7 , Revelation 18:9 , and is used by the Greek poets of the new comedy in the sense of τρυφᾶν , to be luxurious (Schleusner, 'Lex.'). Trench ('Synonyms of New Testament'), comparing this word with τρυφᾶν and σπαταλᾶν , ascribes to it the sense of "petulance" from fullness, like the state of Jeshurun, who waxed fat and kicked ( Deuteronomy 32:15 ); and so Liddell and Scott give the sense of "to be over-strong." The sense, therefore, is that these young widows, in the wantonness and unsubdued worldliness of their hearts, reject the yoke of Christ, and kick against the widow's life of prayer and supplication day and night. And so they return to the world and its pleasures, which they had renounced.