And these things give in charge. — That is to say, the duties of widows, as set forth in 1 Timothy 5:5, together with his (St. Paul’s) estimate of the gay and frivolous character painted in 1 Timothy 5:6.
That they may be blameless. — That, whether seeking support from the public alms of the Christian community or not, the widows of the congregation should struggle after an irreproachable self-denying life, and show before men publicly whose servants they indeed were. In these words there seems a hint that the former life of many of these women-converts to Christianity had been very different to the life loved of Christ, and that in their new profession as Christians there was urgent need of watchfulness on their part not to give any occasion to slanderous tongues.