1. Do not speak angrily to an older man, but talk to him as if he were your father. Treat younger men like brothers.
2. Treat older women like mothers, and younger women like sisters. Always treat them in a pure way.
3. Take care of widows who are all alone.
4. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, the first thing they need to learn is to do their duty to their own family. When they do this, they will be repaying their parents or grandparents. That pleases God.
5. If a widow is all alone and without help, then she puts her hope in God and prays night and day for God’s help.
6. But the widow who uses her life to please herself is really dead while she is still living.
7. Tell the believers there to do these things so that no one can say they are doing wrong.
8. A believer should take care of his own relatives, especially his own family. If he does not do that, he has turned against the faith. He is worse than a person who does not believe in God.
9. To be on your list of widows, a woman must be 60 years old or older. She must have been faithful to her husband.
10. She must be known as a woman who has done good works. By this, I mean good works such as raising her children, accepting visitors in her home, washing the feet of God’s people, helping those in trouble, and using her life to do all kinds of good deeds.