MH page 166

God “looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike.” Psalm 33:14, 15 .

God observes all inhabitants of the earth and understands every human heart. This is a scriptural quotation regarding divine omnipresence and creation.

He bids us, in dealing with the tempted and the erring, consider “thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Galatians 6:1 . With a sense of our own infirmities, we shall have compassion for the infirmities of others.

Believers should deal with the tempted with self-awareness and compassion, remembering their own human frailties. This paragraph focuses on spiritual empathy and self-reflection based on scripture.

“Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? “One is your Master; ... and all ye are brethren.” “Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother?” “Let us not therefore judge one another: ... but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.” 1 Corinthians 4:7 ; Matthew 23:8 ; Romans 14:10, 13 .

Scriptural warnings against judging others and placing stumbling blocks in their path. This paragraph consists entirely of scriptural quotations regarding interpersonal judgment.

It is always humiliating to have one's errors pointed out. None should make the experience more bitter by needless censure. No one 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.

Harsh censure and reproach alienate the erring, whereas gentleness and a tender spirit encourage recovery. The text asserts a broad empirical claim about human behavioral response to criticism versus gentleness.

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.

Reproof should be administered with friendship, clear explanation, pain-sharing, and demonstrated sympathy. Describes the pastoral and relational methods of the apostle Paul in dealing with wrongdoing.

“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.” 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 yourselves, 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.

Paul's expression of godly sorrow leading to repentance and comfort among the Corinthians. Contains scriptural quotations from 2 Corinthians describing spiritual sorrow and repentance.