1 Timothy 5

¹Do not say sharp words to one who has authority in the church, but let your talk be as to a father, and to the younger men as to brothers:

²To the older women as to mothers, to the younger as to sisters, with a clean heart.

³Give honour to widows who are truly widows.

⁴But if any widow has children or children's children, let these see that it is right to take care of their family and their fathers and mothers: for this is pleasing in the eyes of God.

⁵Now she who is truly a widow and without family puts her hope in God, giving herself to prayer day and night.

⁶But she who gives herself to pleasure is dead while she is living.

⁷Give orders to this effect, so that no evil may be said of anyone.

⁸If anyone has no care for his family and those in his house, he is false to the faith, and is worse than one who has no faith.

⁹Let no woman be numbered among the widows who is under sixty years old, and only if she has been the wife of one man,

¹⁰And if witness is given of her good works; if she has had the care of children, if she has been kind to travellers, washing the feet of the saints, helping those who are in trouble, giving herself to good works.

¹¹But to the younger widows say No: for when their love is turned away from Christ, they have a desire to be married;

¹²And they are judged because they have been false to their first faith;

And they get into the way of doing no work, going about from house to house; and not only doing no work, but talking foolishly, being over-interested in the business of others, saying things which they have no right to say.