Having damnation. — Judgment, not necessarily “damnation.” The Greek word krima is often thus unhappily translated. The context of the passage must in all cases decide the nature of the “judgment,” whether favourable or the contrary. Here it signifies that those who in after days give up a work which for their Master’s sake they had undertaken, expose themselves to a searching judgment, which will thoroughly sift the reasons that induced them to forsake the begun toil, and that, if the reasons be not satisfactory, will be unfavourable, and will surely involve condemnation.
Because they have cast off their first faith. — Though, probably, no vows respecting marriage were required from those widows who devoted themselves to the Lord’s service, yet virtually such a solemn enrolment partook of the nature of a life-long engagement — an engagement which, if they married again, must necessarily be given up.
Such a going back, such a giving up the higher and the more devoted life — the life of self-sacrifice, of self-abnegation — for the ordinary joys and cares of domestic life, for the useful but still every-day pursuits of ordinary men and women — such a going back, would be indeed a casting off their first faith, and such an example of backsliding could not fail to harm the cause of Christ.