1 Timothy 5:8

But if any provide not The warning is general in form, but taken up 1 Timothy 5:4 and is again taken up 1 Timothy 5:16. The negative must be taken closely with the verb fail to provide, see note on 1 Timothy 3:5.

for his own His own relatives and connexions.

According to the best reading there is only one article for the two adjectives, so that it is one phrase rather than two. The R.V. indicates this by omitting the -for" after -specially". By rendering also his own household it indicates the full meaning -relatives and dependents dwelling in the same house."

he hath denied the faith The Christian religion based on -faith that worketh by love," and so here the Christian's -rule of life," briefly described in the earliest days as -the way," Acts 22:4, &c. There is the same close identification of -creed" and -life" in 1 Timothy 5:12, where see note.

worse than an infidel Better, as throughout its use so characteristic of the Epistles to the Corinthians (14 times), an unbeliever. It was the technical word for the heathen who had not yet -professed the faith," just as its opposite -faithful" or -believer" is the term used of all who had been admitted into the Christian body; e.g. Ephesians 1:1, and here, 1 Timothy 5:16. The clause has no sting therefore such as attaches to -infidel," implying the deliberate rejection of religion. They who refuse to minister to the comfort and sustenance of those belonging to them -are not true to the moral instincts of their own nature and fall beneath the standard which has been recognised and acted on by the better class of heathens." Fairbairn.