First Letter to Timothy 5

¹ Do not speak harshly to a man older than yourself, but advise him as you would your own father; treat the younger men as brothers

² and older women as you would your mother. Always treat young women with propriety, as if they were sisters.

³ Be considerate to widows; I mean those who are truly widows.

⁴ If a widow has children or grandchildren, they are to learn first of all to do their duty to their own families and repay their debt to their parents, because this is what pleases God.

⁵ But a woman who is really widowed and left without anybody can give herself up to God and consecrate all her days and nights to petitions and prayer.

⁶ The one who thinks only of pleasure is already dead while she is still alive:

⁷ remind them of all this, too, so that their lives may be blameless.

⁸ Anyone who does not look after his own relations, especially if they are living with him, has rejected the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

⁹ Enrolment as a widow is permissible only for a woman at least sixty years old who has had only one husband.

¹⁰ She must be a woman known for her good works and for the way in which she has brought up her children, shown hospitality to strangers and washed the saints’ feet, helped people who are in trouble and been active in all kinds of good work.

¹¹ Do not accept young widows because if their natural desires get stronger than their dedication to Christ, they want to marry again,

¹² and then people condemn them for being unfaithful to their original promise.

¹³ Besides, they learn how to be idle and go round from house to house; and then, not merely idle, they learn to be gossips and meddlers in other people’s affairs, and to chatter when they would be better keeping quiet.

¹⁴ I think it is best for young widows to marry again and have children and a home to look after, and not give the enemy any chance to raise a scandal about them;

¹⁵ there are already some who have left us to follow Satan.

¹⁶ If a Christian woman has widowed relatives, she should support them and not make the Church bear the expense but enable it to support those who are genuinely widows.

¹⁷ The elders who do their work well while they are in charge are to be given double consideration, especially those who are assiduous in preaching and teaching.

¹⁸ As scripture says: You must not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the corn;[*a] and again: The worker deserves his pay[*b].

¹⁹ Never accept any accusation brought against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses.

²⁰ If any of them are at fault, reprimand them publicly, as a warning to the rest.

²¹ Before God, and before Jesus Christ and the angels he has chosen, I put it to you as a duty to keep these rules impartially and never to be influenced by favouritism.

²² Do not be too quick to lay hands on any man, and never make yourself an accomplice in anybody else’s sin; keep yourself pure.

²³ You should give up drinking only water and have a little wine for the sake of your digestion and the frequent bouts of illness that you have.

²⁴ The faults of some people are obvious long before anyone makes any complaint about them, while others have faults that are not discovered until afterwards.

²⁵ In the same way, the good that people do can be obvious; but even when it is not, it cannot be hidden for ever.