Orphans and widows were the neediest people in ancient times. They had no man to provide for them and if their families did not help then they would be in real trouble.
"With minimal, if any, inheritance rights, she was often in a "no-man's land." She had left her family, and with her husband's death the bond between her and his family was tenuous. ...Nonetheless, the loss of a husband in ancient Israel was normally a social and economic tragedy. In a generally patriarchal culture, the death of a husband usually meant a type of cultural death as well. Although the denotation of widow referred to a woman whose husband had died, because of the social context the word quickly acquired the connotation of a person living a marginal existence in extreme poverty.
http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/widow.html
Our belief in God should move us to help the suffering and needy wherever we see them. There are many agencies where we can donate money to help the poor.
...to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction; and not only to see them, and speak a word of comfort to them, but to communicate to them, and supply their wants, as they may require, and according to the ability God has given: where there is true religion in the heart, there is love to God; and where there is love to God, there is love to the saints; and this will show itself to them, in times of affliction and distress; and where this is wanting, religion itself is not pure and undefiled.
...and to keep himself unspotted from the world: from the men of the world, who defile by their evil communications; and "from the vices of the world", as the Arabic version renders it, which are of a defiling nature; and, where religion is in its power and purity, and the Gospel of the grace of God comes with efficacy, it teaches to separate from the rest of the world, and to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly.
I do feel "spotted" or defiled by evil communications, as Gill wrote. I got a biography from the library but the author used Jesus name as a swear word and I felt bad so quit reading it. If I watched a TV show and the jokes were about sex, I felt defiled. People hopping in and out of bed is so common on TV now and that left me feeling defiled. Also, if there was a bad guy in a show then I was hoping someone would shoot him! Yep, I'm giving up on TV.
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