Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Human families and God’s family

5 Don’t rebuke a senior man in the church, but exhort him as you might do with your father—or, in the case of younger ones, with your brothers. ² Treat the older women as mothers, and the younger ones as sisters, with all purity.

³ Pay respect to widows who really are widows. ⁴ If a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to respect their own family and to make some repayment to those who brought them up. This, you see, pleases God. ⁵ A real widow is one who, left by herself, has set her hope on God, and continues in prayer and supplication night and day; ⁶ but a self-indulgent woman is dead even while she’s alive. ⁷ Give these commands so that they may be beyond blame. ⁸ If anyone doesn’t take care of their own relatives, especially their own household, they have denied the faith; they are worse than unbelievers.