1 Timothy 5King James Version
Honor widows that are widows indeed. Take care of one's own family. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake.
Paul gives Timothy detailed instructions on how to treat different groups in the congregation: older men like fathers, younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like sisters. He then works through a structured approach to widows, distinguishing those truly without support from those with family. He closes with guidance on honoring elders who lead well, handling accusations against elders carefully, and a personal aside urging Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach.
Pastoral care is structured, not improvised. The church owes real material provision to those genuinely without support, and that obligation runs through families before it reaches the congregation.
"Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine." (5:17) Paul extends the principle he just applied to widows into leadership: those who serve faithfully deserve recognition and financial support, not just spiritual gratitude.
Widows in first-century Mediterranean culture were among the most vulnerable people in any community. Without inheritance rights equivalent to men, without adult children to support them, they depended on family networks or public charity. The church's formal list for widow support, with its specific age and character requirements, reflects a community managing real resources under real scarcity, not writing abstract policy.
The chapter is populated with relational types rather than named individuals: the older man, the young women, the true widow, the elder under accusation. The widow criterion at verse 9, sixty years old or older, once married, known for hospitality and faithful works, suggests a formal role in the congregation, not merely a welfare category.
The early church's care for widows was among the practices that distinguished it from the surrounding culture, where widows without male kin were economically precarious. Paul's tiered system balances congregational generosity with family responsibility, preventing the church from being exploited while ensuring genuine need is met. The instruction to handle accusations against elders only with two or three witnesses (verse 19) draws directly from Deuteronomy 19 and protects leaders from slander while keeping them accountable.
The aside in verse 23, drink a little wine for your stomach and your frequent illnesses, is one of the most humanizing moments in any Pauline letter. In the middle of formal ecclesial instruction, the apostle pauses to notice that Timothy is physically unwell and pushes back against an asceticism that is apparently making him sick.
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.