Ambrose of Milan

How many masters has he who has forsaken the One! But let us not forsake Him. Who would forsake Him Whom they follow bound with chains indeed, but chains of love, which set free and do not bind, those chains in which they who are bound boast, saying: "Paul the bondservant of Jesus Christ, and Timothy." It is more glorious for us to be bound by Him, than to be set free and loosed from others. Who then would flee from peace? Who would flee from salvation? Who would flee from mercy? Who would flee from redemption?

He is called younger still, who had not yet reached the mature age of the white-haired faith, who had not yet grown into a perfect man, into that full measure of the age of the fullness of Christ (Eph. IV, 13). Finally, he is only called young there (Acts VII, 57), where he was keeping the garments of those stoning Stephen. And for this reason, he desired Philemon to be like him not in his youth but in his old age, as he wrote: I beg you even more, now that I am old like Paul (Philem. 9). Therefore, he advises that younger widows should be avoided (I Tim. V, 11), not because of their age but because of a certain lasciviousness of youthful transgressions and immaturity of virtue. However, there is greater praise for chastity in a young person than in an old person.