«　WEEK 1　DAY 5　»

　　2 Cor. 12:15 But I, I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent on behalf of your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved less?

　　7:3 …I have said before that you are in our hearts for our dying together and our living together.

　　If we have ability to carry on a work but lack an intimate concern, our work will be fruitless. What is needed to establish a good family life and church life is intimate concern. How fruitful we are, how much fruit we bear,…depends on whether or not we have an intimate concern.

　　As long as we have the proper concern for people, we are well on our way to be qualified to be used of God for their salvation. A very good testimony of this is in the book Seen and Heard. In that book, the writer, James M’Kendrick, tells us of standing in front of a group of unbelievers and weeping, without saying a word. Nevertheless, a number were saved, for he had a deep concern. Eloquence, gift, and power can never touch people as deeply as your concern for them. (Life-study of 2 Corinthians, pp. 382-383)

　　If we have an intimate concern, we shall be tender with others. A crude, insensitive person does not have an intimate concern. If a husband does not have a proper concern for his wife, he may be very strict and demanding of her. But having an intimate concern will cause him to be tender. Once we become tender, our way of speaking will be soft and sweet. (Life-study of 2 Corinthians, p. 389)

　　Second Corinthians 2:4 says, “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you through many tears, not that you would be made sorrowful but that you would know the love which I have more abundantly toward you.” We know that Paul wrote the first Epistle to the Corinthians when he heard from the household of Chloe about the condition of the Corinthian believers. Paul pointed out all their mistakes and rebuked them with the most severe and frank word. Now in the second Epistle he told them how he wrote the first Epistle. He said that he did it out of much affliction and anguish of heart and through many tears.

　　When you hear of a brother or a sister backsliding, would you weep like Paul did?…Brothers, do you have the strength to weep? You saw how severe Paul’s words to the Corinthians were; they were like sharp knives….One thing is sure: if you want your words to pierce others, they must first pierce you. If they have never pierced you, they can never pierce others. Paul was indeed such a person. While he was writing the strongest words in the first Epistle, he was doing it in tears. Before he spoke, and before others felt the pain, he felt the pain. Therefore, if you want others to feel the pain, you must first feel the pain. It will never work if you only want others to be sorrowful. For this reason, every worker of the Lord must be experienced in the matter of tears. In other words, all those who do not shed tears when they see their brothers falling and failing are not worthy to do the Lord’s work, and they are not qualified to rebuke or exhort others. If you want to rebuke a brother, or if you want to tell him about something that he has done wrong, you must first feel the pain and the sharpness of the words before you are qualified to rebuke. It is easy to point out others’ shortcomings, but it is difficult to say it with tears. However, only those who have tears are qualified to speak.

　　Thank the Lord that the blood of His Son was shed on earth and was not retracted. Man can receive salvation through this blood. Thank the Lord that the tears of His Son were also not retracted. They tell us that He is mindful of us, and they also induce us to shed tears before God and before men. May we imitate our Lord in our prayers and in our work, and may we shed more tears! (CWWN, vol. 19, pp. 496-497)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msgs. 44-45; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “A Word of Love to the Co-workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord,” ch. 2