Kay

Mark wrote: “Again you ask “Why was the pledge necessary?”
Now i assume you ask this because you only see the pledge as a commitment to eldership. Since i have shown this is not the intention of the passage, rather a pledge to service to Christ i would think such a pledge would be necessary in order for the church to see she is a ‘true’ widow.”

Mark,
They already had the “pledge” in operation.

If the “pledge” itself made it plain for all the “church to see she is a ‘true’ widow” why did Paul have to give the qualifications ??

The “pledge” certainly wasn’t making the church see which ones were the true widows.

This is obvious by the fact that they had a lot of widows on a roll where they didn’t belong. And Paul had to tell them who did not belong.