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The First Letter to Timothy 5

5 Do not speak harshly to a man who is older than you are. Instead, advise him as if he were your father. Advise younger men as if they were your brothers. 2 Advise a woman who is older than you as if she were your mother. Advise younger women as if they were your sisters. As you do all of this, you must act in a completely proper way.

3 Make sure that the congregation takes care of widows who truly have no one else to care for them. 4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these children or grandchildren should first learn that they must take care of their own family. In this way they can repay their parents and grandparents for the things that they did for them when they were young, because doing that pleases God. 5 A widow who is truly alone and has no one to help her confidently expects that God will help her. So she prays persistently, and she earnestly asks God to help her. 6 But a widow who lives only to please herself is spiritually dead even though she is still physically alive. 7 Teach these things as well, so that no one will say that the believers are behaving badly. 8 But if anyone does not take care of his own relatives, and especially those who live in his own house, he has rejected what we believe. He is worse than a person who does not believe in the Messiah.

9 Add a widow to the list of true widows only if she is at least 60 years old. She also must have been faithful to her husband. 10 People must report that she did good works. They must report that she brought up her children well, that she welcomed strangers, that she humbly served the believers, that she helped people who were suffering, and that she was eager to do all kinds of good works. 11 But do not add younger widows to the list of true widows. When they feel strong desires, they will change their minds about being devoted only to the Messiah and they will want to get married again. 12 When they do this, they will become guilty of violating the vow that they made at first to remain as widows. 13 In addition to that, they also become accustomed to doing nothing. They go from one house to another house, not only doing nothing good, but also talking about people and meddling in other people’s affairs. They say things that they should not say. 14 So, instead of the church adding young widows to the list of true widows, I prefer for younger widows to remarry and have children. These women should manage their homes well. In that way they will not give the enemy, Satan, an opportunity to accuse them of doing wrong. 15 I write these things because already some younger widows are no longer obeying the Messiah but instead are obeying Satan.

16 If any believing woman has widows among her relatives, she should help them. In that way, the group of believers will not have to take care of more widows than it is able. The group of believers will then be able to help the true widows who have no family members to care for them.

17 The believers should both honor and pay the elders who lead them well, especially the elders who work hard at preaching and teaching what the Scriptures say. 18 We know that this is right because we read the following in the Scriptures that Moses wrote: “While an ox is threshing grain, you must not tie its mouth so that it cannot eat any grain.” And we also know this is right because Jesus said, “People should pay those who work for them.”

19 Only listen to someone who accuses an elder of doing wrong if at least two or three people testify about the matter. 20 When you meet to worship, correct those who sin in front of everyone, so that the rest of the people will be afraid to sin.

21 With God and the Messiah Jesus and God’s chosen heavenly servants watching me and listening to me, I solemnly call upon you to obey the instructions that I have just given to you. Judge every matter fairly and do not favor one person over another.

22 Do not be in a hurry to appoint someone as a leader in the group of believers. If he sins, it will be as though you have sinned, too, so do not do that. You must avoid sinning. 23 Stop drinking only water, Timothy. Instead, also drink a little wine to help with your frequent stomach sicknesses. 24 When some people sin, everyone knows about it and knows that God will judge them for it. But when other people sin, no one knows about it until a much later time. 25 In the same way, everyone knows about many of the good things that people do. But even when people do good things secretly, everyone will find out about them later.

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