1 Timothy 5:8, commentary and pictures

To provide for one's own, and especially for those of one's own household, is a first and most sacred duty of faith, and to fail in it is to deny the faith and be worse than an unbeliever. Such provision means supplying reliable food, clothing, a dwelling and household support with affection, interest and care that makes home comfortable and happy, not fault-finding and scolding that makes it miserable. It is met by diligent, honest labor in the six working days, using strength, time and means to the best advantage, with rigid economy that keeps clear of debt and avoids idleness, extravagance and wasteful amusements. The duty rests especially on the husband and father to work diligently, manage the cost of living, care for and train his children, and prayerfully consider before marriage and before increasing the family whether provision can be made. Acceptable liberality begins at home and must not rob the household to favor others, yet it then extends outward to aged relatives, feeble kindred and orphaned children kept and ministered to at home, with the church and conference providing only when family care is not possible.

Providing for One's Household

To fail to provide for one's own, and especially for those of one's own household, is to deny the faith and to be worse than an unbeliever, for care of one's family is a first and most sacred duty of faith. Supporting others must never be done by neglecting one's own family, and neglect while urging others to give is wrong. Faithfulness in these ordinary practical duties measures fitness for greater responsibilities, including shepherding the church. God does not promise abundance to one who neglects his own duty.

Provision means reliable food, comfortable clothing, a dwelling place, healthful diet with healthful food prepared, household support and fatherly attention. It requires tangible proofs of affection, interest, care and love that make wife comfortable and happy and strengthen love for those entrusted, especially wife and children, and it requires ceasing fault-finding and scolding that makes home miserable. True love for God strengthens such home care, while claimed holiness that rises above earthly thoughts into prayer and meditation and throws off toil and responsibility onto others is false. Sanctification is shown by deeds of kindness and mercy, regarding others better than self, and untiring work for good following Christ's example, never by idleness and abstract devotion that neglects duties lying directly in the pathway.

The duty is met by diligent, honest, useful labor during the six working days, earning bread and eating one's own bread. It means using the capital of strength, time and resources to the very best advantage in the fear of God, not idling in needless visiting and talking, and not working only when work is conveniently at hand. Strength is a stewardship from God, more valuable than money, gold and silver, houses and lands because it cannot be purchased, to be highly prized and used judiciously, with a man as much God's steward of strength as a rich man is steward of money. To fail to use strength to the best advantage for ease is as wrong as for a rich man covetously to retain riches because it is agreeable, and this requires learning self-denial and restricting appetite. Faithful conduct in this diligent provision is a clear witness to others.

It requires rigid economy in spending, quietly doing duty, keeping clear of debt, and living without hoarding wealth or extravagance that leaves nothing to help others. Earnings used economically should purchase food and clothing for children and provide a dwelling for the family. Time and money must not be squandered on multiplied holidays, artificial excitement, amusements, horse racing, betting and similar practices, which take from the poor the very means for family support and increase poverty and misery.

Those able to work must support themselves and provide for their own families rather than depend on brethren, the church, or others who provide help, being accountable to God for strength just as the wealthy are accountable for property, and setting aside what they can for charitable purposes and God's cause. The church is not required to support poverty caused by lack of diligence, economy or planning, since such help fosters dependence and harms those helped. Parents who choose to raise families without means or habits to support them must bear the consequences in their families rather than shifting responsibility to the church or its funds.

The duty rests especially on the husband and father to work diligently, do his best, and personally care for and take responsibility for his family. He is to manage even expensive family wants with a true sense of the cost of living, make his wife comfortable and happy, and care for and train his children for God as his first and most sacred duty rather than shifting the burden to his wife. He must not leave the family for long periods to pursue ministry, and a minister must work with his hands when not actively engaged in God's work, since his own idleness can deprive his wife of comforts. A minister with his own family must provide for them, knowing his home and all he has is provided through the cause of God, and if he left supported ministry for manual labor to support his own family he would not be free from anxiety and weariness and could not sit down at his own fireside. Neglecting motherless children and sacrificing their care for selfish pleasure is unfaithful to sacred responsibility, as is a wife's refusal to care for them to avoid burden and leaving them to strangers. Fulfilling this duty helps a wife respect her husband.

Before entering marriage and before increasing the family, husband and wife must carefully and prayerfully consider whether God will be glorified by the union, what provision can be made for children, and whether dependable work exists to sustain a family through every year of married life. To bring children into the world rapidly without means to support them, leaving them to suffer want while mothers and families are crushed by hardship, misery and overwork driven by uncontrolled passion, is a crime and violation of sanctified principle in marriage and does not glorify God. Parents making that choice must bear the consequences rather than shifting them to the church.

Family First, Then Others

Benevolence and liberality must be seen at home first, and the household must not be robbed or limited to favor others. Acceptable service begins by supplying one's own house and then extends outward in Christlike liberality to the poor and to God's cause as diligent effort is prospered, recognizing all means as His endowment. This first and most sacred duty means making wife comfortable and happy and providing children with comfortable food and clothing, including healthful diet, with tangible proofs of affection, interest, care and love, and ceasing fault-finding and scolding that makes home miserable. It is met by using time and strength responsibly to provide for family needs before setting aside for charitable purposes, laboring diligently instead of idling in needless visiting and talking, with time and strength as capital granted from heaven, and then laying by in store for charitable purposes and for advancing the work of salvation.

Supporting others must never be done by neglecting one's own family, yet family claims do not justify hoarding wealth or living so extravagantly that nothing remains to help others. Needy wife and children must be provided for in life and by will and must not be left destitute, but this does not require leaving inheritances to a long list of relatives who are not needy merely from custom, with God's cause kept first in consideration. The duty to one's own includes aged relatives who have no homes, feeble kindred, and orphaned children. Families are to keep them at home and minister to them personally with special respect and tenderness rather than sending them away or gathering them together in institutions, with relatives caring for aged and poor kin where they live and families taking in orphans.

When family care is not possible the work belongs to the church as both duty and privilege, and if the church cannot meet it the conference must provide, so the needy are not left destitute. This includes provision for faithful workers disabled by sickness or infirmity and for their dependent families. Relief goes first to the household of faith, especially commandment-keeping people and their needy widows and orphans, with each case examined and those able to support themselves not maintained from funds for the needy, while the church must not substitute institutions or proxy service for personal visiting and care of the sick and wise organization of aid for the poor. Providing also includes doing one's utmost to bring relatives to understanding of received truth and making every effort to save one's own people, not neglecting family for strangers nor diverting love from family to strangers. At home it means devoting time and means to the Master's work in family and neighborhood, studying the Bible and practicing it, training children in the fear of God and setting things in order, and such family reformation makes the church living and prosperous and makes diligent, persevering effort for others with prayer fruitful.

Faithful conduct in providing, in diligent labor through the six working days, is a clear witness to others, for neglecting that duty denies the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Separating business from religious duty is denial of the faith, and selfish pursuit of worldly gain at the expense of care and kindness contradicts Christian profession and confirms the ungodly in thinking religion is pretense. Care for one's own includes maintaining concern, contact and practical support for a father, such as regular letters, books and papers, and a monthly remittance, and neglecting him is inconsistent with being a real Christian. The neglect charged against H. C., who failed to use time and strength to support his household and to have something to help the cause while urging others to give, was wrong.