1 Timothy 5:3–16

³Honor widows who have no families. ⁴The children or grandchildren of a widow must first learn to respect their own family by repaying their parents. This is pleasing in God’s sight. 

⁵A widow who has no family has placed her confidence in God by praying and asking for his help night and day. ⁶But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead although she is still alive. ⁷Insist on these things so that widows will have good reputations. ⁸If anyone doesn’t take care of his own relatives, especially his immediate family, he has denied the Christian faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 

⁹Any widow who had only one husband and is at least 60 years old should be put on your list ⸤of widows⸥. ¹⁰People should tell about the good things she has done: raising children, being hospitable, taking care of believers’ needs, helping the suffering, or always doing good things. 

¹¹Don’t include younger widows ⸤on your list⸥. Whenever their natural desires become stronger than their devotion to Christ, they’ll want to marry. ¹²They condemn themselves by rejecting the Christian faith, the faith they first accepted. ¹³At the same time, they learn to go around from house to house since they have nothing else to do. Not only this, but they also gossip and get involved in other people’s business, saying things they shouldn’t say. 

¹⁴So I want younger widows to marry, have children, manage their homes, and not give the enemy any chance to ridicule them. ¹⁵Some of them have already turned away to follow Satan. ¹⁶If any woman is a believer and has relatives who are widows, she should help them. In this way the church is not burdened and can help widows who have no families.