1 Timothy 5:13 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house. — The first fervour of their devotion and renunciation of self will have cooled, their very occupation will become a snare to them — the going about to the various dwellings for the object of consoling, instructing, assisting, would give them, now that their minds were no longer exclusively turned to religious thoughts, and their hearts were no more alone filled by Jesus, many an opportunity of wasting precious hours, of indulging in frivolous, if not in harmful, conversation; and this the Apostle seems to have feared would be the result of these visits, and the fruit of their work, if the younger sisters were enrolled in the official list, for he speaks of such becoming “not only idle, but tattlers also and busy bodies, speaking things which they ought not.”