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older women as mothers, younger as sisters, with all purity.
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Honor widows who are really widows.
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But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable before God.
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Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
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But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.
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And these things command, that they may be blameless.
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But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
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Do not let a widow under sixty years old be taken into the number, and not unless she has been the wife of one man,
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well reported for good works: if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work.
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But refuse the younger widows; for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry,
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having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith.