1 Thessalonians 2:11

11 As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,

Ver. 11. As a father ] Before, as a mother, 1 Thessalonians 2:7 , a nurse not mercenary, but natural, with greatest tenderness and indulgence. Here he tempers his mother-like meekness with the gravity and authority of a father. Ministers must turn themselves, as it were, into all shapes and fashions, both of speech and spirit, to win people to God.