1 If an old man does something wrong, don't speak angrily to him but speak quietly. You should speak to him in the same way that you speak to your father. And speak to young men as though you are speaking to your brothers. 2 Speak to old women as though you are speaking to your mother, and to young women as though you are speaking to your sisters. Speak kindly with clean thoughts.

3 If widows are living alone, be kind to them. 4 But some men and women may have a mother or a grandmother who is a widow. They should be looking after her, because she looked after them when they were little. If they look after her now that she is a widow, God will be pleased.

5 Is there a widow who has no one to look after her and she is living alone? She has put her hope in God. She always prays to him, asking him day and night to help her. 6 But some widows only think about themselves. They want too much food and drink and beautiful clothes to wear. They don't trust in God. They live like dead people, without thinking.

7 Tell God's people from me that they should look after widows so that no one will blame them. 8 It is really bad if a person doesn't take care of his family. It is as though he is rejecting God. It is wrong when people who don't know God do that kind of thing, but it is worse if God's people do it.

9 I want you to write down the names of the widows, so that God's people can look after them. Which widows should they look after? They shouldn't be looking after all of them but only the old widows who are over 60 years old, ones who have had only one husband, 10 and who have been good to other people. What kind of good things have they done? They have brought their children up well, and they have looked after strangers, and have helped God's people and people in trouble. And they have been busy doing all kinds of good things. Those are the kind of widows whose names you should write down.

11 Write the names of those old widows, but if any widows are not yet 60 years old, don't write their names down, because later on they may want to marry again and then maybe they will turn their backs on Jesus Christ. 12 If they do that, they will be breaking the promise they made to Jesus Christ before and other people will see them and blame them. Jesus Christ will see them and blame them too. 13 Young widows like that become lazy and wander from house to house. Then they talk about other people when they aren't there and make trouble for them. And they say things they shouldn't say.

14 I think that those widows should marry again and have children and look after their husbands and their children. Then people who hate us won't say anything bad about us who belong to God. 15 Some widows have already turned their backs on God and are following Satan now.

16 If a Christian woman has widows in her family, she should look after them herself. She must not let other Christians look after them. She must look after them herself, so that the other Christians can look after the widows who live alone.

17 The church elders who work for God help people to follow him. So you must pay them. If they do good work and teach people God's word and show them how to behave, you should pay them more. 18 God's word tells us,

19 Sometimes people blame the church elders for doing something wrong. If one person speaks to you about it, don't take any notice. Only listen if two or three people see him doing wrong and come and tell you. 20 But if an elder keeps on doing something wrong, blame him in front of the other elders so that when the other elders hear what you say they will be afraid and not do anything wrong themselves.

21 I am telling you this in front of God and Jesus Christ and the angels. You must obey everything I have told you. Don't speak good words to some people and bad words to others. Speak the same way to everyone. 22 Don't choose church leaders and lay hands on them quickly. And this is another thing. If other people do wrong, don't go with them but keep doing the right thing all the time.

23 Timothy, you only drink water, but you should drink a little wine too to make you better, because you are often sick. Wine is very good medicine for your stomach if you drink a little.

24 When some people do wrong, many others find out about it quickly before a judge can blame them. But when some other people do wrong, others don't find out about it quickly but only later. 25 In the same way, some people do good things and many people find out about it. But sometimes people do good and no one knows about it. But the good things they do cannot stay hidden forever.