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1 Timothy 5:14
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12 having condemnation because they have cast off their first1 faith.  
13 And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not.
14 Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
15 For some have already turned aside after Satan.
16 If any believing1 man or woman has widows, let them2 relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows.  
Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
<< 1 Timothy 5:13   1 Timothy 5:15 >>


1 Timothy 5:14

I will therefore that the younger women marry - As the preceding discourse has been about the younger widows, and this is an inference from it; it is most evident that by the younger women the apostle means the young widows. These he considers unfit for the office of the female diaconate, and therefore wills them to marry, educate children, and give themselves wholly up to domestic affairs. Here the apostle, so far from forbidding second marriages, positively enjoins or at least recommends them. And what man of sense could have done otherwise in the cases he mentions? It is no sin in any case to marry, bear children, and take care of a family; but it is a sin in every case to be idle persons, gadders about, tattlers, busybodies, sifting out and detailing family secrets, etc., etc. The good sentiment, put by an able poet and pious divine into the mouths of little children, cannot be ill applied to multitudes of women, mothers, and grandmothers: - "See how the little busy bee Improves each shining hour, And gathers honey all the day From every opening flower! In works of labor or of skill, We should be busy too; For Satan finds some mischief, still, For idle hands to do." Dr. Watts.

The adversary - Any person, whether Jew or Gentile, who might be watching for an occasion to reproach, through the misconduct of its professors, the cause of Christianity.




Other Adam Clarke entries containing 1 Timothy 5:14:

1 Timothy 5:11

 

<< 1 Timothy 5:13   1 Timothy 5:15 >>

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