Don't rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father; the younger men as brothers;
Rebuke not an elder ...  It is apparent that the church office of "elder" is not meant here, but merely older men, a fact apparent from the inclusion of "younger men" in the same verse.  "The context shows that the meaning is not a presbyter, but an old man."[1] Honor and respect of the aged is a Christian principle; but the tragedy is that this ethic is more honored in the non-Christian nations of Asia than in the "Christianized" West.  The meaning here is not that an elder must never be accused, because Paul, a little later, made provision for that.  The proper sensitivity, respect and regard for the elderly are in view here.