1 Timothy 5:12

Corruptio optimi fit pessima; Christ, trust in Christ, the life of Christ, weresupreme during the former marriage; into the loneliness of widowhood, not safeguarded by age, the flesh and the devil have penetrated, and have dethroned Christ: a rebel's name only can be hers. Cf. 1 Timothy 5:15.

having damnation Rather, condemnation; a present -judgment," of being self-condemned as rebels, deserters: because they have rejected their first faith: -faith" being most naturally used here as above, 1 Timothy 5:8, the phrase -their first faith" may thus best refer to their early Christian life, just as in the Epistle to Ephesus (the same Church to which this letter goes) the condemnation is that they -have left their first love," and the exhortation is to -do the first works." The word -reject" is the same as in Jude 1 Timothy 5:8, -these … defile the flesh and set at noughtdominion," where the thought and subject are very much the same, -turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." To make the reference to the breaking of a vow or pledge of widowhood seems both inadequate and misleading.