1 Timothy 5

KJV · Chapter 5/6

¹Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren;

²The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.

³Honour widows that are widows indeed.

⁴But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.

⁵Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.

⁶But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.

⁷And these things give in charge, that they may be blameless.

⁸But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

⁹Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man,

¹⁰Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.

¹¹But the younger widows refuse: for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry;

¹²Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith.

¹³And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.

¹⁴I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.

¹⁵For some are already turned aside after Satan.

¹⁶If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.

¹⁷Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.

¹⁸For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.

¹⁹Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.

²⁰Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

²¹I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.

²²Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.

²³Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.

²⁴Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.

²⁵Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Paul instructs Timothy on how to treat different groups in the church: the elderly, the young, widows, and leaders. He sets out criteria for caring for widows who are truly in need and calls for special honor for those who lead well.

Explanation

In the ancient world, with no social security system, widows without family were extremely vulnerable, and the church took on the role of caring for them, creating an organized system of support. Paul calls for discernment so that care would go to those who truly needed it, encouraging families to care for their own elderly relatives first. He also addresses the respect owed to leaders who labor hard in preaching and teaching. Today's application is that community care should be organized with wisdom, balancing compassion with family responsibility.

Fun facts

The quotation 'thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn' (5:18) comes from Deuteronomy 25:4 and was used by Paul, both here and in 1 Corinthians 9:9, to defend the right of those who work in ministry to receive support.

Verse-by-verse explanation

1 Timothy 5:1Paul asks Timothy to treat the older people in the church with the same respect he would treat his own parents, even when something needs correcting.
1 Timothy 5:2The same logic applies to the women of the church: treating the older ones as mothers, the younger as sisters, always with all purity.
1 Timothy 5:3The earliest churches kept up some kind of material support for widows with no other means of support, since there was no social safety net like today. Paul distinguishes “widows indeed” — those without family able to help — from those who still have relatives available, and in the next verse he first calls on the family’s own responsibility.
1 Timothy 5:4Before the church takes on the support of a widow, Paul expects her own family to care for her first, children or grandchildren repaying the care they received as children.
1 Timothy 5:5Paul describes the truly desolate widow, with no family nearby, as someone who lives trusting in God, devoted to supplications and prayers night and day.
1 Timothy 5:6By contrast, Paul speaks of another widow who lives only in pursuit of pleasure, and says something harsh: even while alive, she is, in a spiritual sense, already dead.
1 Timothy 5:7Paul asks Timothy to pass these instructions on to the church, so that no one would have grounds to criticize how the widows are treated.
1 Timothy 5:8Paul treats this duty very seriously: whoever does not provide for his own, especially those closest to him, has, in his view, denied the faith.
1 Timothy 5:9This describes something like an official list of widows supported by the church in exchange for a commitment to a certain kind of service to the community — a recognized order of sorts, not just informal help. The minimum age and the criteria that follow, like having raised children and lodged strangers, show that it was a role with real responsibilities, not just passive charity.
1 Timothy 5:10The list of qualifications for entering the official group of widows supported by the church includes concrete things: having brought up children well, lodged strangers, helped those in need.
1 Timothy 5:11It seems that some younger widows who joined this list of church support later ended up wanting to remarry, something Paul treats as breaking a commitment made earlier. His concern isn’t against remarriage itself — in the next verse he even recommends that younger widows marry — but against taking on a formal commitment and then abandoning it.
1 Timothy 5:12Paul considers that these younger widows, by wanting to remarry after joining this group, break a commitment they had previously made to the community.
1 Timothy 5:13Besides that, Paul notes that they ran the risk of spending their time wandering about from house to house, gossiping and saying things they shouldn’t — a practical problem in a small community.
1 Timothy 5:14That’s why Paul prefers that younger widows marry, bear children, and guide their own house, avoiding giving the adversary any occasion to speak reproachfully against the church.
1 Timothy 5:15Paul notes that this isn’t hypothetical: some widows had already turned aside after Satan because of this very situation.
1 Timothy 5:16Paul reinforces once more: if any believer has widows in his own family, he should support them, so that the church’s resources are freed up for those who truly have no one.
1 Timothy 5:17“Double honour” here seems to include both respect and financial support, especially for the elders who devoted their time to preaching and teaching. The next verse reinforces this by citing an agricultural proverb and a saying of Jesus side by side, treating both as equally authoritative.
1 Timothy 5:18The first part is a direct quotation from the law of Moses, about not muzzling the ox that treadeth out the corn; the second is a saying that appears in the Gospels on the lips of Jesus himself. Paul joins both together as “scripture,” which shows that the sayings of Jesus were already circulating with the weight of authority among the earliest Christians, alongside the Old Testament.
1 Timothy 5:19Paul protects church leaders from reckless accusations, requiring that any charge against an elder be accepted only on the word of two or three witnesses, the standard of Jewish law.
1 Timothy 5:20When someone truly sins, however, Paul calls for public rebuke, as a way of warning the rest of the community.
1 Timothy 5:21Paul asks, with a solemn charge before God and the elect angels, that Timothy apply these rules without favoring anyone out of friendship or personal interest.
1 Timothy 5:22Paul warns against being hasty in ordaining someone to leadership: laying hands too quickly on the wrong person could end up making Timothy himself a partaker of that person’s sins.
1 Timothy 5:23This practical health advice seems to counter some extreme total abstinence Timothy was practicing, perhaps because of the same ascetic currents mentioned in chapter 4. Paul recommends moderation, neither excess nor total prohibition.
1 Timothy 5:24Paul observes that some people’s sins are obvious right away, while others only show up after a while — a reminder to be patient before judging.
1 Timothy 5:25The same is true the other way around: good works are sometimes visible right away, other times they only reveal themselves over time, but one way or another they end up showing.

Chapters

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