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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - 2 Corinthians 13:10 - 13:10
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As if the apostle had said, "Verily I write thus to you, being absent, purposely, to reclaim you, lest being present, I should be forced to use some sharpness towards you, according to the power which the Lord hath given me, tending to your edification always, and not at any time to your destruction."
Observe here, With what tenderness the apostle treats these offenders; he tells them, the sharpness and severity in his letters (if they accounted it such) was upon a kind design, to prevent sharpness and severity in his dealings with them, when he came amongst them; yet withal, he assures them, that if matters should come to an extremity, that he must be forced to exercise his apostolical power, in cutting the contumacious off from the church's communion; he would exercise it with a tender regard to their good, not their hurt; for their edification, and not willingly to their destruction.
Learn we, from the apostle's practice, to execute the censures of the church with great tenderness and affection, with great pity and compassion, with extraordinary dread and caution; not with rashness and indiscretion, or upon every light and trivial occasion, but like a tender-hearted father, with a rod in our hands, and tears in our eyes.