1 Thessalonians 3:4

1 Thessalonians 3:4. We told you before. Paul had not sought to win adherents to the faith by veiling the hardships of the Christian life. It is better that beginners should count the cost and deliberately enter the Christian course, than that they should find themselves involved in difficulties they did not contemplate. As a kindly physician sometimes judges it prudent not only to promise to his patient ultimate restoration, but also to tell him the phases his disease will pass through previous to its removal, so that when he sees new symptoms arising, or feels his strength failing be may not be alarmed, but may recognise this as all foreseen as leading on towards health: thus Paul had dealt with the Thessalonians.