+I. The doctrine was opposed to every form of impurity+ (ver.
3).--1. _It was itself pure._ 2. _It received no tinge of impurity
from the apostle's mind._ 3. _Its results were pure._
+II. The preaching was free from insincerity and selfishness+ (ver.
4).--1. _They avoided flattery._ Love of favour (ver. 5). 2. _They
avoided covetousness._ Aggrandisement (ver. 5). 3. _They avoided
vainglory._ Love of applause (ver. 6). Three rocks on which thousands
have been shipwrecked.--_Stewart._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 7, 8.
_Essential Elements of Success in Preaching. III. Gentleness._
There is a power in gentleness to subdue the wildest, mightiest
opposition, and to triumph over the most gigantic difficulties. The
gentle rays of the sun melt the ponderous iceberg more speedily than
the rolling billows of an angry ocean; the silent action of the
atmosphere wastes the rock which remains immovable under the strokes
of the heaviest weapon; a look from Moses vanquished the
calf-idolatry of the Israelites which the fluent eloquence of Aaron
had been powerless to resist; a calm, quiet word from Jesus paralysed
with fear the band of soldiers who came to arrest Him in Gethsemane.
True gentleness is never weak. It is the tough, indestructible
material out of which is formed the hero and the martyr. This quality
was conspicuous in the preachers at Thessalonica.
+I. It was the gentleness of patient endurance.+--1. _It enabled them
to bear the insult and outrage of their enemies._ Their preaching
roused violent opposition. They retaliated by praying for their
persecutors. Against physical force they fought with moral weapons;
and this attitude and policy had a powerful influence on their
enraged adversaries. The modern preacher can adopt no better method.
The offence of the cross has not yet ceased. It stirs up all the
enmity of the carnal mind. "And the servant of the Lord must not
strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in
meekness instructing those that oppose themselves" (2 Tim. ii. 24,
25). The power of a man is seen, not so much in what he can do, as in
what he can endure. It is only the Christian spirit that unites the
utmost gentleness with the utmost strength.
2. _It enabled them to bear with the weakness and imperfections of
their converts._--"As a nurse cherisheth her children" (ver. 7).--as
a nursing mother cherisheth her own children. They watched over them
with the tenderest assiduity, instructed them with the most
disinterested solicitude, accommodated and assimilated themselves to
their infant standpoint with all the devotion of a fond, painstaking
parent. In order to successful teaching, in spiritual as in secular
subjects, we must study the child-nature--take into account the
influence of environment, early prejudices, differing capacities and
temperaments, and the direction of characteristic tendencies. See
this illustrated in the Divine treatment of the Israelites under
Moses and the great Jewish leaders, and in the training of the twelve
by the great Teacher.
+II. It was the gentleness of self-sacrificing love.+--"So being
affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto
you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye
were dear unto us" (ver. 8).
1. _This gentleness arose from a genuine love of human
souls._--"Because ye were dear unto us." Love is the great
master-power of the preacher. After this he strives and toils with
ever-increasing earnestness as the years speed on; and it is the
grace that comes latest and slowest into the soul. No amount of
scholastic attainment, of able and profound exposition, of brilliant
and stirring eloquence, can atone for the absence of a deep,
impassioned, sympathetic love of human souls. The fables of the
ancients tell us of Amphion, who, with the music of his lyre, drew
after him the huge stones with which to build the walls of Thebes,
and of Orpheus, who, by his skill on the harp, could stay the course
of rivers and tame the wildest animals. These are but exaggerated
examples of the wondrous charm of the soul-compelling music of love.
"I have always been afraid," said a devoted young minister, now no
more, "of driving my people away from the Saviour. I would rather err
on the side of drawing them." The seraphic John Fletcher once said,
"Love, continual, universal ardent love, is the soul of all the
labour of a minister."
2. _The intensity of their love awoke a spirit of voluntary
self-sacrifice._--"So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were
willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but
also our own souls." To accomplish the salvation of their hearers
they were willing to surrender life itself. This was the temper of
the Divine Preacher who "came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give His life" (Matt. xx. 28; Mark x. 45). A similar
spirit imbued the apostle when he assured the weeping elders of
Ephesus in that pathetic interview on the lonely shore--"Neither
count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course
with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus"
(Acts xx. 24). The love of science nerves the adventurous voyager to
brave the appalling dangers of the arctic ice, amid which so many
have found a crystal tomb; but a nobler love inspires the breast of
the humble worker, who cheerfully sacrifices all the world holds dear
to rescue men from woe.
+Lessons.+--1. _That gentleness is a power not only in patient
endurance, but also in enterprising action._ 2. _That gentleness is
indispensable to effectiveness, either in warning or reproof. It
succeeds where a rigid austerity fails._ 3. _That gentleness is
fostered and regulated by a deep, self-sacrificing love._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._