1 Timothy 5

¹Don’t rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father; the younger men as brothers;

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

³Honor widows who are widows indeed.

⁴But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety toward their own family and to repay their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God.

⁵Now she who is a widow indeed and desolate, has her hope set on God and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.

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

⁷Also command these things, that they may be without reproach.

⁸But if anyone doesn’t provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

⁹Let no one be enrolled as a widow under sixty years old, having been the wife of one man,

¹⁰being approved by good works, if she has brought up children, if she has been hospitable to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, and if she has diligently followed every good work.

¹¹But refuse younger widows, for when they have grown wanton against Christ, they desire to marry,

¹²having condemnation, because they have rejected their first pledge.

¹³Besides, they also learn to be idle, going about from house to house. Not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not.