1 Timothy 5:3-9

3Respect those widows in the church who are really alone.

4If a widow has children or grandchildren, then they should take care of her. The children must help their parents or grandparents because they belong to the same family. Their parents helped them, so they need to give them something in return. The children need to learn that important lesson. It is what God's message teaches them to do and it makes God happy.

5Some widows are really alone and they have nobody to take care of them. A widow like that trusts God that he will help her. As a result, she prays a lot, at night and during the day, and she asks God to help her.

6But some widows only want to enjoy themselves. For a widow like that, her spirit is already dead, even while she is still alive.

7Teach everyone clearly to do these things. Then nobody can say that the believers are doing anything wrong.

8Every believer must take care of his own family. Certainly, he must do that for the people who live with him in his home. If anyone does not do that, it shows that he has refused God's true message. That person is worse than someone who does not believe in Christ.

9If you want to put a widow's name on the list of widows, this is what she must be like. She must be more than 60 years old. She must have been the wife of one husband.