1 Timothychapter 5
25 verses · BSB1 Timothy book hub →
Speaks with:1 Timothy 5×4Titus 2×31 Timothy 4×31 Timothy 3×31 Timothy 6×32 Peter 2×3
Summary
Chapter summary
Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father. Honour widows that are widows indeed. She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour. Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Lay hands suddenly on no man. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake. Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. Henry reads the chapter as the pastoral manual's middle chapter.
Context
Epistle · Paul — 1 Timothy overview
- A. 1–8 Treat the Church as Family; Provide for Your Own
- B. 9–16 Enrolling Widows, and the Young Ones Sent Home
- C. 17–25 Double Honor, Public Rebuke, and No Hasty Hands
The outline
A.Treat the Church as Family; Provide for Your Ownvv. 1 to 8
Read vv. 1 to 8 →B.Enrolling Widows, and the Young Ones Sent Homevv. 9 to 16
Read vv. 9 to 16 →C.Double Honor, Public Rebuke, and No Hasty Handsvv. 17 to 25
Read vv. 17 to 25 →
The world behind this chapter
1 Timothy 5The history
A widow without a son was in serious danger. There was no state pension, a woman's property rights were limited, and her options narrowed to remarriage, family support, dependence on charity, or worse. Jewish communities had long organized relief funds, and the church inherited the practice.
So the church kept an actual roll. This chapter is the administration of it: an age line at sixty, a record of service, and a rule that families support their own first so the fund can reach women who truly have no one. It is a budget document as much as a moral one.
The younger-widow instruction reflects the same world. Roman law under Augustus actually pressed widows to remarry, and a young woman on a permanent charity list with time on her hands and access to every house in the network was a problem waiting to happen.
The rules about elders are courtroom rules. Two or three witnesses is the standard of Deuteronomy, and applying it to a church leader protected him from a single malicious accuser while making a proven charge public. The advice about a little wine is medical: water supplies were unreliable, and wine was the ordinary remedy for a bad stomach.
What it meant to them
The first hearers included the widows themselves. The chapter tells them the church will not abandon them, and tells their grown children that shifting the cost onto the congregation is a denial of the faith.
For elders, the double message is plain: the ones who work hard at teaching deserve to be paid, and the ones who sin get named in front of everyone. Honor and accountability arrive together.
Sources cited
- Bruce W. Winter, Roman Wives, Roman Widows
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 1 Timothy 5. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.