Do we warn, encourage, or take care of people?
I Thessalonians 5:14 Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.
- Who do we warn? The lazy.
- Who do we encourage? The timid.
- Who do we take care of? The weak.
- Who are we patient with? Everyone.
It's important not to get them mixed up! Warning the timid scares them. Warning the weak leads to despair. Encouraging the lazy is useless. Encouraging the weak is meaningless. Taking care of the lazy helps them stay lazy. Taking care of the timid doesn't help them grow. And not being patient with the people you are trying to warn, encourage, or take care of means that in spite of your best intentions, it probably ain't gonna have much of a positive effect on them.
1 comment:
This is very interesting since it is so easy to mix these up and maybe make it worse instead of better. I had to read it twice to see how the little changes made it something totally different.
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