1 Timothy 5:14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I will therefore that the younger women Or widows rather, (concerning whom only the apostle is here speaking,) marry Instead of thinking to intrude themselves into a situation for which they are generally so unfit. From this command it is evident, that under the gospel second marriages are lawful both to men and women, and that abstaining from them is no mark of superior piety. It is true the apostle, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, advised all who had the gift of continency to remain unmarried; not, however, because celibacy is a more holy state than marriage, but because in the then persecuted state of the church, a single life was more free from trouble and temptation. See 1 Corinthians 7:9; 1 Corinthians 7:26; 1 Corinthians 7:32-39. Give no occasion to the adversary, &c. To reproach the gospel on account of the bad behaviour of those who profess it. For some widows have already turned aside after Satan Who has drawn them from Christ. He means that some of the widows employed by the church as teachers, had, through the temptations of Satan, deserted their station in the church, and, by marrying, incapacitated themselves for continuing in the excellent office they had engaged in. If any man or woman that believeth have poor widows Nearly related to them; let them relieve them If they are able; and let not the church be charged Or burdened, with maintaining them; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed That have no friends able to support them, and who, if the church did not grant them aid, would be entirely destitute.