the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, in all purity.
The church leader can deal with younger men (i.e., younger than the older men just mentioned) more directly but should always do so as brothers. The pastor should regard younger men not as inferior or superior to himself but as equals. In Timothy’s case these men were his contemporaries. Even an elderly man should think of younger Christian men as his brothers giving them the dignity of equals rather than looking down on them as inferiors.