Chapter LVI.—Let Us Admonish and Correct One
Another.
Let us then also pray for those who have fallen into any
sin, that meekness and humil
ity may
be given to them, so that they may submit, not unto us, but to the will
of God. For in this way they shall secure a fruitful and perfect
remembrance from us, with sympathy for them, both in our prayers to
God, and our mention of them to the saints.
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Let us receive correction, beloved, on
account of which no one should feel displeased. Those
exhortations by which we admonish one another are both good [in
themselves], and highly profitable, for they tend to unite
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us to the will of God. For thus saith
the holy Word: “The Lord hath severely chastened me, yet
hath not given me over to death.”
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“For whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”
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“The righteous,”
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saith it, “shall chasten me in mercy,
and reprove me; but let not the oil of sinners make fat my
head.”
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And again he
saith, “Blessed is the man whom the Lord reproveth, and reject
not thou the warning of the Almighty. For He causes sorrow, and
again restores [to gladness]; He woundeth, and His hands make
whole. He shall deliver thee in six troubles, yea, in the seventh
no evil shall touch thee. In famine He shall rescue thee from
death, and in war He shall free thee from the power
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of the sword. From the scourge of the
tongue will He hide thee, and thou shalt not fear when evil
cometh. Thou shalt laugh at the unrighteous and the wicked, and
shalt not be afraid of the beasts of the field. For the wild
beasts shall be at peace with thee: then shalt thou know that thy
house shall be in peace, and the habitation of thy tabernacle shall not
fail.
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Thou shalt know also that thy seed
shall be great, and thy children like the grass of the field. And
thou shalt come to the grave like ripened corn which is reaped in its
season, or like a heap of the threshing-floor which is gathered
together at the proper time.”
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Ye see,
beloved, that
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“protection
is afforded to those that are chastened of the Lord; for since God is
good,
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He corrects us, that we may be
admonished”
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by His holy
chastisement.
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Literally,
“there shall be to them a fruitful and perfect remembrance, with
compassions both towards God and the saints.”
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Or “they
unite.”
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Ps. cxviii. 18
.
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Prov. iii. 12; Heb. xii. 6
.
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I.
κύριος
(Lord).
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Ps. cxli. 5
.
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Literally,
“hand.”
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Literally,
“err” or “sin.”
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Job v. 17–26
.
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I.
βλέπετε
πόσος
(ye see how great).
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I. (
δεσπότου
)
πατὴρ
γὰρ ἀγαθὸς
ὤν
(being a good father).
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I.
ἐλεηθῆναι
(be
pitied).