Amplified Bible
1 Timothy 5:3
3Honor and help those widows who are truly widowed [alone, and without support].
1 Timothy 5:3 in other versions
Context of 1 Timothy 5:3
1Do not sharply reprimand an older man, but appeal to him as [you would to] a father, to younger men as brothers, 2to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters, in all purity [being careful to maintain appropriate relationships]. Honor and help those widows who are truly widowed [alone, and without support]. 4But if a widow has children or grandchildren [who are adults], see to it that these first learn to show great respect to their own family [as their religious duty and natural obligation], and to compensate their parents or grandparents [for their upbringing]; for this is acceptable and pleasing in the sight of God. 5Now a woman who is really a widow and has been left [entirely] alone [without adequate income] trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
Read all of 1 Timothy 51 Timothy 5:3 word by word
χήρας τίμα τὰς ὄντως χήρας.Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for 1 Timothy 5:3
- 1 Timothy 5:2to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters, in all purity [being careful to maintain appropriate relationships].
- Exodus 20:12“Honor (respect, obey, care for) your father and your mother, so that your days may be prolonged in the land the Lord your God gives you.
- Matthew 15:6he is not to honor his father or his mother [by helping them with their need].’ So by this you have invalidated the word of God [depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect] for the sake of your tradition [handed down by the elders].
- 1 Thessalonians 2:6nor did we seek glory and honor from people, neither from you nor from anyone else, though as apostles of Christ we had the power to assert our authority.
- 1 Peter 2:17Show respect for all people [treat them honorably], love the brotherhood [of believers], fear God, honor the king.
- 1 Peter 3:7In the same way, you husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way [with great gentleness and tact, and with an intelligent regard for the marriage relationship], as with someone physically weaker, since she is a woman. Show her honor and respect as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered or ineffective.
- 1 Timothy 5:9A widow is to be put on the list [to receive regular assistance] only if she is over sixty years of age, [having been] the wife of one man,
- Deuteronomy 10:18He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the stranger (resident alien, foreigner) by giving him food and clothing.
- Deuteronomy 14:29The Levite, because he has no share [of land] or an inheritance among you, and the stranger, and the orphan and the widow who are within your [city] gates, shall come and eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
- Deuteronomy 16:11and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite who is within your [city] gates, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His Name (Presence).
- Deuteronomy 27:19‘Cursed is he who distorts (perverts) the justice due to a stranger, an orphan, and a widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
- Job 29:13The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, And I made the widow’s heart sing for joy.
- Job 31:16“If I have withheld from the poor what they desired, Or have caused the eyes of the widow to look in vain [for relief],
- Psalms 68:5A father of the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widows, Is God in His holy habitation.
- Psalms 94:6They kill the widow and the alien And murder the fatherless.
- Psalms 146:9The Lord protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow; But He makes crooked the way of the wicked.
Commentaries on 1 Timothy 5:3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 3Honor widows that are widows indeed - One meaning of the word , to honor, is to support, sustain, etc., Matthew 15:4, Matthew 15:5; and here it is most obviously to be taken in this sense. Provide for those widows especially which are widows indeed - persons truly destitute, being aged and helpless, and having neither children nor friends to take care of them, and who behave as becometh their destitute state. But see the note on 1 Timothy 5:10.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 3Honour widows - The particular attention and respect which are enjoined here, seem to refer to the class of widows who were supported by the church, and who were entrusted with the performance of certain duties toward the other female members, see 1 Timothy 5:9. It is to be remembered that the contact of the sexes was much more circumscribed in Oriental countries than it is among us; that access to the female members of the church would be much less free…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 3-8Verses 3-8 Honour widows that are widows indeed, relieve them, and maintain them. It is the duty of children, if their parents are in need, and they are able to relieve them, to do it to the utmost of their power. Widowhood is a desolate state; but let widows trust in the Lord, and continue in prayer. All who live in pleasure, are dead while they live, spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sins. Alas, what numbers there are of this description among…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 3-16A widow without wealth or family was alone in a world that did not support her. The Christian community was expected to care for such widows among its members (see Deuteronomy 10:17–19; Isaiah 1:17; compare Acts 6:1–6; James 1:27). Some suggest this passage implies a religious order of widows in the first-century AD church at Ephesus. However, there is no obvious evidence of such an order, only of a ministry to help community members without financial…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 33. Honour--by setting on the church roll, as fit objects of charitable sustenance (1Ti 5:9, 17, 18; Ac 6:1). So "honor" is used for support with necessaries (Mt 15:4, 6; Ac 28:10). widows indeed--(1Ti 5:16). Those really desolate; not like those (1Ti 5:4) having children or relations answerable for their support, nor like those (in 1Ti 5:6) "who live in pleasure"; but such as, from their earthly desolation as to friends, are most likely to trust wholly in…Read the comment
Topics related to 1 Timothy 5:3
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on 1 Timothy 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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