Today's passage offers us two images: the image of the scribes, who were used to honor and respect, and the image of a poor widow who gave to the Temple the last thing she had. At first glance, we have before us...
Today's passage offers us two images: the image of the scribes, who were used to honor and respect, and the image of a poor widow who gave to the Temple the last thing she had. At first glance, we have two different themes before us, with little connection to each other. And yet there is a connection between them, though it does not stand out at once. In essence, what is at issue here is wealth and poverty.
The point is not only that the "scribes," that is, the theologians and teachers of the Law, were usually people of means, which certainly cannot be said of the poor widow. In the Gospel, as in the Bible as a whole, poverty is considered first of all not as a material condition, but as a spiritual one. One of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament, Isaiah of Jerusalem, also considered himself "poor," even though he belonged to one of the finest aristocratic families of Jerusalem and was far from destitute. His followers as well, whom the Old Testament often calls "the poor," were apparently mostly people of moderate means. These people called themselves "poor" because they considered their only support in life to be not property and not social status, but God, to whom they entrusted themselves completely and without looking back, as though apart from God they truly had nothing else on which they could lean or grasp in a difficult moment.
And the poor widow, after giving to the Temple the last thing she had, acted in exactly the same way: her gift showed that she trusted God absolutely. It is different with those who gave only part of what they had: in that case another part of their savings remains, something they can always count on. Of course, such a gift also remains acceptable to God, but the fullness of trust is not yet there. The widow, by giving everything to God, showed Him precisely that full trust. It is just such poor people whom Jesus calls "blessed" in the Sermon on the Mount.
But wealth can be expressed not only in money or property. Knowledge, honor, social position: all of these are also a kind of wealth. And genuine Gospel poverty is impossible as long as the owner enjoys his wealth, which can take forms such as those seen in the scribes described in today's story, intoxicated by the signs of honor and respect shown to them by ordinary believers. The matter here, of course, is not knowledge or status in itself, nor even the sins that can be connected with it (the mention of "devouring widows' houses" in v. 40 is hardly accidental, especially considering that encroaching on the property of a widow or orphan is a direct violation of the Law that these people taught to others). The point is that knowledge and status obscure God for those who possess them, making them believe in something that is not actually there: their own righteousness and importance in God's eyes. And then one can hardly speak of the fullness of trust in God that Gospel poverty presupposes.
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3:12 All that are resolved to live godly - Therefore count the cost. Art thou resolved? In Christ - Out of Christ there is no godliness. Shall suffer persecution - More or less. There is no exception. Either the truth of scripture fails, or those that think they are religious, and are not persecuted, in some shape or other, on that very account, deceive themselves.
3:13 Deceiving and being deceived - He who has once begun to deceive others is both the less likely to recover from his own error, and the more ready to embrace the errors of other men.
3:14 From whom - Even from me a teacher approved of God.
3:15 From an infant thou hast known the holy scriptures - Of the Old Testament. These only were extant when Timothy was an infant. Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith in the Messiah that was to come. How much more are the Old and New Testament together able, in God's hand, to make us more abundantly wise unto salvation! Even such a measure of present salvation as was not known before Jesus was glorified.
3:16 All scripture is inspired of God - The Spirit of God not only once inspired those who wrote it, but continually inspires, supernaturally assists, those that read it with earnest prayer. Hence it is so profitable for doctrine, for instruction of the ignorant, for the reproof or conviction of them that are in error or sin, for the correction or amendment of whatever is amiss, and for instructing or training up the children of God in all righteousness.
3:17 That the man of God - He that is united to and approved of God. May be perfect - Blameless himself, and throughly furnished - By the scripture, either to teach, reprove, correct, or train up others.