Worse than an unbeliever

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. - 1 Timothy 5v8

If a person did not know this passage and we asked them, ’What kind of person can be described as denying his faith and being worse than an unbeliever?’ what kind of responses would we get?

Someone who commits murder?
Someone who commits suicide?
Someone who cheats on his wife?

Possible so, but the specific words are applied to a specific situation that may not be the first one to come to mind. The man who is described as one who denies his faith and is worse than an unbeliever is the man who does not take care of those who depend on him.

Pretty severe words, but there they are. Paul uses the illustration of caring for a needy widow to move to a more general statement. People depend on us in many ways. This applies to much more than meeting monetary needs. If we are not meeting all the needs of those who depend on us, especially our own family, we are telling people that our faith is not real. We are acting worse than a lost man. We destroy our testimony before the world.

How important is caring for our own? So important that not doing it earns us some of the strongest invectives in Scripture.