Satan’s Strategy for Your Life #30: Seeking to Slander

“So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. For some have already strayed after Satan.” 

—1 Timothy 5:14-15

The family. The family is the foundation of society, which is why Satan attacks it so much. If he can thwart it, separate it, tear it apart, or even redefine it, then he attacks the foundation of society, family, Christian families in particular. The Christian God is Triune, which is to say, one God eternally existing as three separate, but mutually independent persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three making up one God, without division, but united in person, mission, and purpose. God as Trinity is the image of the family, and God as Father is the one from whom the concept of family originates. As Paul wrote,  

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named”—Ephesians 3:14-15.

Our culture today, blinded by Satan, wants to redefine family. The concept of spousal and parental roles is thought as outmoded and outdated. Men and women are failing to enter into the holy covenant of marriage, putting it off until later in life or refusing to enter into it altogether. Women, supposedly liberated by the puritanical values that have helped establish this country, are intentionally putting off having children until they are in the later thirties, thereby eliminating some of the God-given years whereby God desires they do marry and have children. God created the institution of marriage and did so for the mutual benefit of husband and wife and eventually children.

In today’s passage, Paul is writing to young Timothy about young widows and their responsibilities. Paul tells Timothy that the younger widows should marry, have children, and manage their own households. Why? Why would it matter if they refused to get married and have kids? Because in their prolonging or refusing remarriage, they have given the adversary, one of the names of Satan, an opportunity for slander. And why would such a practice be slanderous? Paul had already stated the reason in the preceding verses,

“But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not”—1 Timothy 5:11-13.

The younger widows desire for love and marriage overcame their fidelity to the faith. In other words, they wanted to get married so bad that they were willing to compromise God’s standards for marriage—i.e. they would marry anybody who came along, believer or unbeliever. And since the Bible says that believers in Christ are only to marry other believers, these widows, by marrying unbelievers, were risking their spiritual lives (1 Corinthians 7:39; 2 Corinthians 6:14). One’s spouse can have a huge effect on the other’s faith, so Paul was telling Timothy that the younger widows should marry believers so that they might have families and live the life that God has intended. But, should they remain unmarried, they may become  

“idlers going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not”—1 Timothy 5:13.  

“Idlers” means they would not be working, a God-ordained practice established in the creation itself. Secondly, to become a “gossip” or a “busy-body” meant they had become women spreading lies—and since Satan is the “father of lies” (John 8:44) they would become participants in his agenda.

Getting married “in the Lord” meant they would be doing what God has purposed them to do. God has established the family to bring forth “godly offspring” (Malachi 2:15) so that His name might receive glory and praise.

As our culture seeks to redefine the essence of family, it is encouraging to know that no matter how tumultuous the tides of culture may become, God’s Word stands firm as a beacon of light, cutting through the morass of cultural relativism as a testimony that God’s truth will always trump the lies of darkness. May we always find rest in that truth. Amen.