“The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.”
treat older women as mothers, younger women as sisters — with absolute purity — the parallel structure extends to women: older women (as mothers) and younger women (as sisters) require appropriate familial respect. The injunction hē panteē hagneia (with complete purity) guards Timothy against sexual impropriety even in pastoral relationships.
Church Fathers on 1 Timothy 5:2
Is he now speaking of the order? I think not, but of any elderly man. What then if he should need correction? Do not rebuke him, but address him as you would a father offending. Rebuke is in its own nature offensive, particularly when it is addressed to an old man, and when it proceeds from a young man too, there is a threefold show of forwardness. By the manner and the mildness of it, therefore, he would soften it. For it is possible to reprove without offense, if one will…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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