1 Timothy 5

Introduction

First Timothy 5 is one of the most practical chapters in the Pastoral Epistles, addressing how Timothy should manage relationships and responsibilities within the church at Ephesus. Paul covers three major areas of church life: how to treat people of different ages and stations (vv. 1-2), the care and enrollment of widows (vv. 3-16), and the honor and discipline of elders (vv. 17-25). The chapter reveals a church that is becoming organized enough to need policies — who qualifies for financial support, how leaders should be compensated and held accountable, and how to avoid favoritism.

The widow passages are the longest sustained treatment of this topic in the New Testament and provide a window into the social realities of the early church. Widows in the Greco-Roman world were among the most vulnerable members of society, and the church took on significant responsibility for their care. But Paul is concerned that this generosity be well-ordered: families should care for their own, younger widows should remarry, and only those who are truly destitute and have demonstrated a life of faithful service should be enrolled for church support. The elder section that follows establishes principles of fair compensation, due process, and impartial discipline that remain foundational for church governance.

Treating Others in the Church (vv. 1-2)

Notes

• πρεσβυτέρῳ ("older man/elder") — This word can mean either "older man" (by age) or "elder" (a church office). In this context, most interpreters take it as referring to an older man in general, since the church office of elder is discussed separately beginning in verse 17 (where the plural πρεσβύτεροι clearly refers to the office). The contrast with νεωτέρους ("younger men") in the same verse confirms the age-based meaning. Paul is establishing a household model for church relationships: the church is a family, and Timothy should treat its members with the respect and affection appropriate to family roles.

• ἐπιπλήξῃς ("rebuke harshly") — This verb means to strike at, and by extension, to rebuke sharply or censure. It appears only here in the New Testament. The word carries a note of violence or severity — it is not a gentle correction but a dressing-down. Paul does not say Timothy should never correct older men, but that the manner matters: he should παρακάλει ("appeal to, encourage, exhort") rather than publicly humiliate. The verb parakaleō is one of the warmest words in Paul's vocabulary, carrying tones of comfort, encouragement, and respectful persuasion.

• ἐν πάσῃ ἁγνείᾳ ("in all purity") — The phrase modifies Timothy's interaction with younger women specifically. The word ἁγνεία denotes moral purity, chastity, and innocence. Paul's concern is practical: a young pastor working closely with younger women must be above suspicion. The qualifier "all" (pasē) is emphatic — every kind of purity, in every situation, with no exceptions.

Honoring True Widows (vv. 3-8)

Notes

• τίμα ("honor") — The imperative form of τιμάω, which means not only to respect but also to provide material support. The same verb appears in the command "Honor your father and mother" (Exodus 20:12), which Jewish tradition understood to include financial provision. In verse 17, the noun form τιμή is used of the "double honor" due to elders and clearly includes compensation. Paul's use of this word signals from the outset that "honoring" widows involves tangible, financial care — not merely verbal respect.

• τὰς ὄντως χήρας ("truly widows") — The adverb ὄντως means "really, genuinely, in fact." A "true widow" in Paul's usage is not merely a woman whose husband has died, but one who has no family to support her and no other means of provision. Paul repeats this phrase in verses 3, 5, and 16, making it the controlling concept for the entire section. The church's limited resources must go to those who have no other recourse.

• ἔκγονα ("grandchildren") — This word literally means "offspring, descendants" and appears only here in the New Testament. Paul extends the obligation of care beyond children to grandchildren. The principle is that family responsibility comes before church responsibility.

• εὐσεβεῖν ("to show godliness/reverence") — This is the verb form of εὐσέβεια ("godliness"), one of the key words in the Pastoral Epistles. Here godliness is not an abstract spiritual quality but a concrete action: caring for aging parents. The children and grandchildren are the subject of "let them learn" — their first lesson in godliness is not in the church assembly but at home.

• ἀμοιβὰς ἀποδιδόναι τοῖς προγόνοις ("to make repayment to their forebears") — The noun ἀμοιβή means "return, repayment, recompense" and appears only here in the New Testament. The idea is reciprocity: parents spent years raising and providing for their children; now those children owe something back. This is not a debt that can be fully discharged, but gratitude should express itself in practical care.

• σπαταλῶσα ("living self-indulgently") — This participle comes from σπαταλάω, meaning to live luxuriously or for pleasure. It appears also in James 5:5, where it describes the self-indulgent rich who have fattened themselves for the day of slaughter. The contrast with verse 5 is sharp: the true widow puts her hope in God and devotes herself to prayer; the self-indulgent widow has placed her hope in comfort and pleasure, and is spiritually dead despite being physically alive. The phrase ζῶσα τέθνηκεν ("living, she has died") is a striking oxymoron — the perfect tense tethnēken indicates a settled state of spiritual death.

• Verse 8 contains one of the strongest condemnations in the Pastoral Epistles. The person who fails to provide for family members has τὴν πίστιν ἤρνηται ("denied the faith") — using the same verb (ἀρνέομαι) used of denying Christ (Matthew 10:33; 2 Timothy 2:12). Even unbelievers, Paul says, recognize the obligation to care for family. A professing Christian who neglects this duty is behaving worse than pagans and has effectively repudiated the gospel through action even if not through words.

The Enrolled Widows (vv. 9-16)

Notes

• καταλεγέσθω ("let her be enrolled") — This verb appears only here in the New Testament. It was used in classical Greek for enrolling soldiers in an army or registering citizens on an official list. Paul is describing a formal enrollment — a recognized register of widows who would receive ongoing church support and possibly serve the congregation in an official capacity. The use of military/civic language suggests this was not casual charity but an organized institution.

• ἑνὸς ἀνδρὸς γυνή ("a one-man woman") — This is the exact counterpart of the elder qualification in 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:6 (μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἀνήρ, "a one-woman man"). It describes marital faithfulness and devotion — a woman whose life was characterized by fidelity to her husband. Whether it also excludes those who remarried after a spouse's death is debated, but the emphasis appears to be on character rather than marital history.

• The list of qualifying good works in verse 10 reads like a job description in reverse — it surveys the widow's past life for evidence of servant-hearted character. ἐτεκνοτρόφησεν ("she raised children") uses a rare compound verb appearing only here in the New Testament. ἐξενοδόχησεν ("she showed hospitality") is likewise a New Testament hapax, combining ξένος ("stranger") and δέχομαι ("to receive"). Foot-washing was a menial act normally performed by slaves or by the lowest-ranking household member, so "washing the feet of the saints" indicates a willingness to perform humble service (cf. John 13:14-15). Each qualification tests whether the widow has a track record of selfless, practical love.

• The age requirement of sixty was high by ancient standards, when average life expectancy was significantly lower than today. This suggests that the enrolled widows were a relatively small, select group of women who had demonstrated lifelong faithfulness. Some scholars see this institution as an early precursor to monastic orders of women.

• καταστρηνιάσωσιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ("their desires draw them away from Christ") — This unusual compound verb appears only here in the New Testament. The prefix kata- ("against") combined with strēniaō ("to live sensuously") creates the sense of desires that work against their commitment to Christ. The genitive tou Christou indicates that their sensual impulses pull them away from Christ specifically. If the enrolled widows had pledged themselves to devoted service to Christ (a "first commitment," v. 12), then the desire to remarry would represent breaking that pledge.

• τὴν πρώτην πίστιν ἠθέτησαν ("they set aside their first faith/commitment") — The word πίστις here likely means "pledge" or "commitment" rather than "faith" in the theological sense. The verb ἀθετέω means "to set aside, annul, break" — it was used of annulling contracts or treaties. Paul is not saying these women lose their salvation by remarrying; he is saying they break a formal pledge they made when enrolled. This is why he wants to prevent the problem by not enrolling younger widows in the first place.

• φλύαροι καὶ περίεργοι ("gossips and meddlers") — The word φλύαρος means "one who talks nonsense, a gossip, a babbler." The word περίεργος means "meddlesome, a busybody" — literally, one who works around (from peri-, "around," and ergon, "work") at things that are not their business. In Acts 19:19, the related noun refers to those who practiced magic arts. Paul's counsel for younger widows to marry and manage households (v. 14) is not a restriction but a positive direction: household management (oikodespotein, "to rule a house") gives them a constructive sphere of authority and activity.

• τῷ ἀντικειμένῳ ("the adversary") — This participle means "the one who opposes" and could refer to Satan (as in v. 15) or to human opponents of the church. Given the immediate context — "for some have already turned aside after Satan" — the primary reference is likely Satan, though human enemies who would seize on scandal are also in view. The word ἀφορμή ("opportunity, occasion") was a military term for a base of operations; Paul wants to deny the adversary any foothold for attack.

• Verse 16 contains a textual variant: some manuscripts read πιστὴ ("believing woman"), while others read πιστὸς ἢ πιστή ("believing man or woman"). The shorter reading — "believing woman" — is generally preferred as the more difficult reading (a scribe would be more likely to add "man" than to remove it). The focus on a woman is fitting: a wealthy Christian woman with widowed relatives or dependents in her extended household is specifically addressed. She should care for them herself rather than shifting the burden to the church.

Interpretations

• Was the "enrollment of widows" an official church order? The language of formal enrollment (καταλεγέσθω), the specific age requirement, the list of qualifications, and the apparent pledge or commitment (v. 12) suggest that this was more than a simple charity list. Some interpreters see this as an early ecclesiastical order — a recognized group of older women who received church support in exchange for a commitment to prayer, service, and celibacy. This institution may be the precursor to later orders of deaconesses and consecrated widows in the early church (cf. the "order of widows" discussed by Tertullian, Hippolytus, and the Apostolic Constitutions). Other interpreters view it more simply as a benevolence roll — a list of widows who qualified for ongoing financial support — without reading a formal vow or institutional structure into the text. The truth likely lies between: the enrollment carried expectations of devoted service and was more structured than casual almsgiving, but the full-blown religious orders of later centuries read more into the text than Paul explicitly states.

Honoring Elders (vv. 17-20)

Notes

• οἱ καλῶς προεστῶτες πρεσβύτεροι ("the elders who lead well") — Here πρεσβύτεροι clearly refers to the church office (unlike v. 1, where it meant "older man"). The participle προεστῶτες comes from προΐστημι ("to stand before, to lead, to manage") — the same verb used of elders in 1 Thessalonians 5:12 and Romans 12:8. The adverb καλῶς ("well, excellently") distinguishes effective leaders from those who merely hold the office. Not all elders lead well; those who do deserve special recognition.

• διπλῆς τιμῆς ("double honor") — The word τιμή here picks up from verse 3, where widows are to be "honored" (tima). Since that honor included financial support, "double honor" almost certainly includes material compensation — not merely double respect. Some interpreters take "double" literally (twice the support given to enrolled widows), while others take it as an idiom for "generous, ample." Either way, Paul is establishing that church leaders deserve financial support, especially those who devote themselves to the labor-intensive work of preaching and teaching. The verb κοπιῶντες ("laboring, toiling") implies exhausting effort — this is not casual volunteer work but demanding service.

• Verse 18 is remarkable because Paul introduces two quotations under the single heading "the Scripture says" (λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφή). The first quotation — "You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing" — comes from Deuteronomy 25:4 and was already applied by Paul to ministerial support in 1 Corinthians 9:9. The second quotation — "The worker deserves his wages" — is found verbatim in Luke 10:7, where Jesus sends out the seventy-two. By placing a saying of Jesus alongside an Old Testament text and calling both "Scripture," Paul appears to be treating Luke's Gospel (or the tradition behind it) as having the same authority as the Torah. This is one of the earliest indications that the words of Jesus and the apostolic writings were being recognized as Scripture alongside the Hebrew Bible.

• φιμώσεις ("you shall muzzle") — From φιμόω, meaning "to muzzle, to silence." The image is vivid: an ox treading grain on a threshing floor should be allowed to eat some of the grain it is processing. To muzzle it would be cruel. Paul's argument is from lesser to greater: if God cares about the fair treatment of working animals, how much more does He care that those who labor in the gospel receive fair compensation?

• κατηγορίαν ("accusation") — From this word we get the English "category," but in Greek it means "a charge, an accusation brought before a tribunal." Paul's rule — no accusation accepted against an elder without two or three witnesses — echoes the Old Testament principle of Deuteronomy 19:15. This provides elders with a measure of protection against frivolous or malicious accusations, which leaders are especially vulnerable to. However, the protection is not absolute: when the accusation is substantiated, verse 20 demands public rebuke.

• τοὺς ἁμαρτάνοντας ("those who are sinning") — The present participle indicates ongoing, persistent sin, not a single lapse. Paul is describing elders who continue in sin after being privately confronted. The public rebuke (ἐνώπιον πάντων ἔλεγχε, "expose/convict before all") serves a double purpose: accountability for the offending elder and a warning (φόβον, "fear") for the rest of the congregation. The severity matches the seriousness of the situation — a leader's unrepented sin damages the entire community.

Interpretations

• "Double honor" — respect, compensation, or both? There is a long-standing debate about whether διπλῆς τιμῆς refers primarily to respect and esteem, or to financial remuneration, or to both. Those who emphasize respect argue that timē fundamentally means "honor" and that Paul is saying effective elders deserve heightened recognition. Those who emphasize compensation point to the supporting quotations in verse 18, which are explicitly about the right to material provision, and to the use of timaō in verse 3 with financial overtones. Most interpreters today hold that both are included — the elder who leads well deserves both community respect and material support — but the financial dimension is the primary point Paul is defending, since it is the aspect that needed scriptural justification.

Impartiality and Prudence (vv. 21-25)

Notes

• διαμαρτύρομαι ("I solemnly charge") — This compound verb intensifies the simple martyromai ("to testify, to witness"). The prefix dia- adds thoroughness and urgency. Paul uses it when he wants to convey the utmost gravity (2 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 2:14). The solemn charge is given "before" (enōpion) three witnesses: God, Christ Jesus, and the ἐκλεκτῶν ἀγγέλων ("chosen angels"). The mention of "chosen angels" is unusual — it appears only here in the New Testament in this form — and may serve to remind Timothy that heavenly beings observe how church affairs are conducted. Angels are present at the assembly of God's people.

• χωρὶς προκρίματος ("without prejudgment") — The noun πρόκριμα appears only here in the New Testament. It means "prejudice" or "prejudgment" — literally, judging before the evidence is heard. Combined with κατὰ πρόσκλισιν ("according to favoritism/partiality" — another New Testament hapax), Paul demands that Timothy administer discipline and ordination without either bias against the accused or favoritism toward friends and allies. Both words are legal in character, reflecting the judicial nature of Timothy's responsibilities in the preceding verses.

• χεῖρας ταχέως μηδενὶ ἐπιτίθει ("lay hands on no one hastily") — The laying on of hands in the Pastoral Epistles is associated with ordination and commissioning for ministry (1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6). Paul's warning is that Timothy should not rush to ordain someone to church leadership without adequate vetting. Hasty ordination of an unqualified or unproven person would make Timothy complicit in whatever damage that person later causes — hence, "do not share in the sins of others." The connection to verses 24-25 is logical: some people's character is immediately evident, but others require time before their true nature emerges. Patient observation before ordination is essential.

• μηκέτι ὑδροπότει ("no longer drink only water") — The verb ὑδροποτέω ("to be a water-drinker") appears only here in the New Testament. The adverb μηκέτι ("no longer") indicates that Timothy had been abstaining from wine entirely. Paul's advice to use οἴνῳ ὀλίγῳ ("a little wine") is medicinal and practical. In the ancient world, water supplies were often contaminated, and diluted wine was safer to drink. Timothy's stomach problems and frequent illnesses may have been exacerbated by drinking only water. This parenthetical verse, wedged between instructions about ordination and discernment, is one of the most personal and humanizing moments in the Pastoral Epistles. It also reveals that Timothy was scrupulously ascetic — perhaps to avoid any appearance of the self-indulgence Paul condemned in verse 6 — and Paul had to correct his excess of caution.

• πρόδηλοι ("evident, clear beforehand") — From pro- ("before") and dēlos ("clear, evident"). Some people's sins are so obvious that they "go ahead" of the person to judgment — the verdict is clear before the trial. Other people's sins ἐπακολουθοῦσιν ("follow after") — they trail behind and emerge only later, under closer scrutiny. The same principle applies to good works (v. 25): some are immediately visible, but even the hidden ones will eventually come to light. Paul's point connects directly to the caution against hasty ordination: character takes time to assess, and both sins and virtues will eventually become apparent. Timothy should be patient and observant, trusting that time reveals what is hidden.

Interpretations

• "Laying on of hands" — ordination or reconciliation? Most interpreters take the "laying on of hands" in verse 22 as a reference to ordination, connecting it to 1 Timothy 4:14 and 2 Timothy 1:6. However, some interpreters, noting the context of church discipline in verses 19-20, argue that it refers to the restoration of a repentant sinner — the laying on of hands as a sign of forgiveness and readmission to fellowship. On this reading, Paul is warning Timothy not to restore disciplined members too hastily. The ordination interpretation is more widely held because (a) the laying on of hands for ordination is well-attested in the Pastoral Epistles, (b) the concern about "sharing in others' sins" fits naturally with the risk of ordaining someone unfit, and (c) verses 24-25 about the delayed visibility of character support the theme of careful vetting before appointment.