The apostle Paul expects that every individual saint in the little assembly at Thessalonica will register a distinct disapproval of a persistent, disorderly course in one among them by his or her CONDUCT towards such an one: (2 Thessalonians 3:6-15.)
It is for the recovery, and therefore surely for the blessing, of the person; it is an individual responsibility as to what is becoming action toward that person, which not one among them dared to ignore or refuse to pay. The offender is not yet looked upon as a “wicked person,” and therefore is not put away from among them.
It is action which would have preserved Corinth from the growth of all that terrible moral evil which grew up, was allowed in one among them (1 Corinthians 5), but finally exposed by the same faithful apostle. Evil which, growing on and for long, bore its bitter fruit among them, and in other and further sorrows than this. (See 1 Corinthians 1:11; 3:3, 4; 4:8; 7:6; 11:18; 14:26, and so forth.) Sorrows and confusion and evil in which all were more or less involved. Disorderly courses, unfaithfully dealt with or allowed among the saints, will end in wickedness and open sin at last, since “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
And—mark it well, for there is no respect of persons with God—where there is not this upright action of the saints towards such a person (whoever he or she may be) there will sooner or later be demoralization and trouble and sorrow in that or in any such assembly.
H. C. A.