ACC ~ 1 Timothy 5 v20

ACT FIRMLY. CHRYSOSTOM: Do not, he says, hastily cut them off, but carefully inquire into all the circumstances. When you have thoroughly informed yourself, then proceed against the offender with rigor, that others may take warning. For as it is wrong to condemn hastily and rashly, so not to punish manifest offenses is to open the way to others, and embolden them to offend. … Let us therefore love God with fear … as I have ever said, the threatenings of hell show the care of God for us no less than the promises of heaven. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 15.

A DILEMMA. AUGUSTINE: And here is a dilemma which often occurs: If you punish a man, you may ruin him. If you leave him unpunished, you may ruin another. I admit that I make mistakes in this matter every day. LETTERS 95.

THE HIRED HAND. AUGUSTINE: Who is the hired hand? One who sees the wolf coming and flees. One who seeks his own things, not those of Jesus Christ. He does not dare openly to accuse the sinner. Suppose someone has sinned, and sinned grievously. He ought to be reproached and perhaps excommunicated. But if he is excommunicated, you imagine, he will be an enemy, he will make plots, he will do harm when he can. Now consider one who seeks his own things, not those of Jesus Christ. He does not lose what he is pursuing, the advantage of a human friendship. He does not incur the distress of human enmities—he is quiet; he does not correct. Look, the wolf seizes the sheep’s throat. The devil has persuaded a believer to commit adultery. You are silent; you do not scold. O hired hand, you saw the wolf coming and you fled. TRACTATES ON JOHN 46.8.

FEIGNED KINDNESS IS BETRAYAL. BASIL THE GREAT: A feigned kindness to the wicked is a betrayal of the truth, an act of treachery to the community and a means of habituating oneself to indifference to evil. … “Them that sin, reprove before all,” says the apostle, and he immediately adds the reason, saying, “that the rest also may have fear.” THE LONG RULES, Q.28.R.

1 Tim