Today’s Readings Podcast Description

Does 1 Timothy 5 bind widows—and therefore nuns—to a lifelong vow of celibacy? Calvin says no. Paul’s widows entered a public ministry to the poor. They pledged celibacy only because marriage would hinder that office, and they were chosen from those already proved in continence (*continentia*). Deaconesses are not nuns. They did not soothe God with chants, nor vow in adolescence before they knew themselves. The apostle admits none under sixty; the later deduction to twelve, twenty, and thirty years he will not excuse. Illegitimate vows do not bind. What God does not require is null. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Those who leave the monastery for an honest calling are not perjurers. The cross that frees from the curse of the law frees also from superstition’s nets. An impossible vo ...