1 Timothy 5 Devotional: How to Love Like Family in God’s Church

How to Love Like Family in God’s Church 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

7-Step QT

1. 🙏 Quiet Time
2. 📅 July 14, 2025
3. ✝️ 1 Timothy 5:1-16
4. 📖 Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. (vv. 1-2).
5. 📝 The church is God’s family—where everyone belongs. Paul reminds us to treat others with honor, purity, and compassion—like real family. Church isn’t a performance or a platform—it’s a place of belonging.
6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?
7. 🙏 Share below, and let’s encourage one another in prayer!

7-Step QT Notes

1. 🙏 Quiet Time

Pause.

Take a deep breath.

God is not just your Father—He’s also building a family.

And you’re part of it.

2. 📅 July 14, 2025

Today’s passage reminds us that church isn’t just a place—it’s a spiritual family.

And in a healthy family, we treat each other with love, respect, and care.

3. ✝️ 1 Timothy 5:1–16

Paul gives Timothy practical instructions on how to relate to different people in the church—older men, younger men, older women, younger women, and especially widows.

The key idea? Treat everyone like family.

Not with judgment or distance, but with honor, purity, and compassion.

4. 📖 Key Verse

“Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.” (vv. 1–2)

5. 📝 Reflection

Paul’s message is simple but powerful:

The church is a family. And in God’s family, we don’t just coexist—we care.

He challenges us to:

• Respect older believers like we would our own parents.
• Support younger believers like siblings, with love and purity.
• Care for the vulnerable, especially widows, with intentional compassion.

💡 Think about this:

• In a world that often treats people as disposable, God calls us to treat each other as irreplaceable.
• Church isn’t a performance or a platform—it’s a place of belonging.
• You don’t have to be perfect to be part of the family. But you are called to love like Jesus.

6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?

• Who in your church or community might need encouragement or care?
• Are there people you’ve overlooked or avoided?
• How can you treat others more like family this week?

7. 🙏 Share below, and let’s encourage one another in prayer!

“Father, thank You for making me part of Your family. Help me to love others with honor, purity, and compassion. Show me how to care for those who are hurting or alone. Make our church a place where Your love feels like home.”

Scriptures

📖 1 Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

3 Honor widows who are truly widows. 4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. 5 She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, 6 but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. 7 Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. 8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

9 Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, 10 and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. 11 But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry 12 and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. 13 Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not. 14 So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. 15 For some have already strayed after Satan. 16 If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows (1 Tim 5:1-16, ESV).

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