1 Timothy 5:16

1 Timothy 5:16. If any man. Added as an afterthought, as enlarging the scope of the rule previously given in 1 Timothy 5:4. Not children or grandchildren only, but any relatives on whom the widow had claims, were to regard it their duty, as members of the Church, to support them, so that the funds of the Church might be applied only to maintain those that were ‘widows indeed.' Here, as before, they are, I believe, distinguished from the widows on the register the former entitled simply to relief, the latter to special privileges; the former probably doing the work of deaconesses, the latter set apart for functions analogous to those of the elders.