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Helping the Tempted
111
was ever reclaimed by reproach; but many have thus been repelled
and have been led to steel their hearts against conviction. A tender
spirit, a gentle, winning deportment, may save the erring and hide a
multitude of sins.
The apostle Paul found it necessary to reprove wrong, but how
carefully he sought to show that he was a friend to the erring! How
anxiously he explained to them the reason of his action! He made
them understand that it cost him pain to give them pain. He showed
his confidence and sympathy toward the ones who were struggling
to overcome.
“Out of much affliction and anguish of heart,” he said, “I wrote
unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that
ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.”
[167]
2 Corinthians 2:4
. “For though I made you sorry with my epistle, I
do not regret it: though I did regret it, ... I now rejoice, not that ye
were made sorry, but that ye were made sorry unto repentance.... For
behold, this selfsame thing, that ye were made sorry after a godly
sort, what earnest care it wrought in you, yea what clearing of your-
selves, yea what indignation, yea what fear, yea what longing, yea
what zeal, yea what avenging! In everything ye approved yourselves
to be pure in the matter.... Therefore we have been comforted.”
2
Corinthians 7:8-13
, A.R.V.
“I rejoice that in everything I am of good courage concerning
you.” “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always
in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for
your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;” “being
confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you
will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ: even as it is right for me
to be thus minded on behalf of you all, because I have you in my
heart.” “Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my
joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.” “Now
we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.”
Verse 16
, A.R.V.;
Philippians
1:3-5
;
1:6, 7
, A.R.V.;
4:1
;
1 Thessalonians 3:8
.
Paul wrote to these brethren as “saints in Christ Jesus;” but he
was not writing to those who were perfect in character. He wrote
to them as men and women who were striving against temptation
and who were in danger of falling. He pointed them to “the God of
peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great