The elder women as mothers - Showing still the same respect for age, and for the proprieties of life. No son who had proper feelings would rebuke his own mother with severity. Let the minister of religion evince the same feelings if he is called to address a "mother in Israel" who has erred.

The younger as sisters - With the feelings which you have toward a sister. The tender love which one has for a beloved sister would always keep him from using harsh and severe language. The same mildness, gentleness, and affection should be used toward a sister in the church.

With all purity - Nothing could be more characteristic of Paul's manner than this injunction; nothing could show a deeper acquaintance with human nature. He knew the danger which would beset a youthful minister of the gospel when it was his duty to admonish and entreat a youthful female; he knew, too, the scandal to which he might be exposed if, in the performance of the necessary duties of his office, there should be the slightest departure from purity and propriety. He was therefore to guard his heart with more than common vigilance in such circumstances, and was to indulge in no word, or look, or action, which could by any possibility be construed as manifesting an improper state of feeling. On nothing else do the fair character and usefulness of a youthful minister more depend, than on the observance of this precept. Nowhere else does he more need the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the exercise of prudence, and the manifestation of incorruptible integrity, than in the performance of this duty. A youthful minister who fails here, can never recover the perfect purity of an unsullied reputation, and never in subsequent life be wholly free from suspicion; compare notes, Matthew 5:28.

The elder women as mothers - Treating them with the respect due to their age.

The younger as sisters - Feel for every member of the Church, old and young, male and female; consider them as fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters; treat them all with gentleness; and labor to keep them in, not to expel them from, the Church.

With all purity - Εν πασῃ ἁγνειᾳ· With all chastity. See the note on 1 Timothy 4:12.

There are some who seem to take a barbarous pleasure in expelling members from, the Church. They should be continued in as long as possible; while they are in the Church - under its ordinances and discipline, there is some hope that their errors may be corrected; but when once driven out again into the world, that hope must necessarily become extinct. As judgment is God's strange work, so excommunication should be the strange, the last, and the most reluctantly performed work of every Christian minister.

The elder women as mothers,.... When they offend in any point, they are to be reasoned, and argued, and pleaded with, as children should with their mothers; see Hosea 2:2 and are to be considered as mothers in Israel, and to be treated with great tenderness and respect.

The younger as sisters; using the freedom as a brother may with a sister; and considering them as sisters in Christ, and in a way becoming the relation, tell them their faults freely and privately, but

with all purity: in such manner as to preserve chastity in looks, in words, and actions.

The elder women (πρεσβυτέρας)

N.T.o. Comp. πρεσβύτιδας aged women, Titus 2:3. The word indicates distinction in age merely, although some think that it points to an official position which is further referred to in the following directions concerning widows.

The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.

5:1,2 The Widows of the Church

SUMMARY OF I TIMOTHY 5:

Rules for Reproving. Honoring Widows. How They Should Be Supported. Who Are to Be Taken into the Number of Widows. The Younger Widows. The Presbyters. A Charge Concerning Timothy's Death.

Rebuke not an elder. An aged man. Treat him with deference due to age. It is evident from the four classes named together, the aged women, and the young women, that the reference in the word elder is not to office, but to age.

2. with all purity-respectful treatment of the other sex will promote "purity."

5:1,2 Respect must be paid to the dignity of years and place. The younger, if faulty, must be rebuked, not as desirous to find fault with them, but as willing to make the best of them. There is need of much meekness and care in reproving those who deserve reproof.