New International Version
1 Timothy 5:3
3Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.
1 Timothy 5:3 in other versions
Context of 1 Timothy 5:3
1Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. 4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. 5The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
Read all of 1 Timothy 51 Timothy 5:3 word by word
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Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for 1 Timothy 5:3
- 1 Timothy 5:2older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
- Exodus 20:12“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
- Matthew 15:6they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:6We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority.
- 1 Peter 2:17Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.
- 1 Peter 3:7Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
- 1 Timothy 5:9No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband,
- Deuteronomy 10:18He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.
- Deuteronomy 14:29so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
- Deuteronomy 16:11And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you.
- Deuteronomy 27:19“Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
- Job 29:13The one who was dying blessed me; I made the widow’s heart sing.
- Job 31:16“If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
- Psalms 68:5A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
- Psalms 94:6They slay the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless.
- Psalms 146:9The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways 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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