---
title: 1 Timothy 5:8
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-timothy-5-8/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-timothy-5-8.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Timothy 5:8
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Timothy 5:8

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

## JW Usage

JWs are familiar with 1 Timothy 5:8 — "if anyone does not provide for those who are his own... he has disowned the faith and is worse than a person without faith" — but do not apply it as a critique of the shunning policy. The Watchtower maintains that disfellowshipped family members are still provided for in "necessary family business" while social and emotional contact is severed. The 2016 JW Broadcasting segment featuring Governing Body member Anthony Morris III affirmed that a mother should not answer the phone when her disfellowshipped adult daughter calls.

## Protestant Usage

Paul says anyone who "does not provide for those who are his own, and especially for those who are members of his household, has disowned the faith and is worse than a person without faith" (1 Timothy 5:8, NWT). "Provide" (pronoei) encompasses care broadly — not just financial support but emotional presence, availability in crisis, and attendance at life milestones. A mother instructed not to answer her daughter's phone call is not providing for her own. The doorstep question is unanswerable: "Can you show me one verse where God tells a parent to stop speaking to their child because of a religious disagreement?" No such verse exists. Every passage the Watchtower cites (1 Corinthians 5:11, 2 John 10, Matthew 18:17) addresses congregational discipline among believers — not family separation. Luke 15:20 shows the father running to meet the prodigal before any confession is made.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [No Biblical Warrant for Family Shunning](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/shunning-family-no-biblical-warrant.md) — 1 Timothy 5:8 / Luke 15:4–7 / Matthew 9:10–13 [Practice]
- [Coerced Compliance Is Not the Same Moral Category as Virtue](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/coerced-compliance-vs-virtue.md) — The coercion threshold — what the fruit test can and cannot see [Practice]
- [The 2016 Broadcast — 'I Wouldn't Answer the Phone'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/morris-2016-shunning-broadcast.md) — When Governing Body instruction is explicit, the fruit test is not speculative [Practice]