"Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him [Elymas the sorcerer] and said, 'O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?' "
Here is tact (above) for you! Sometimes, God's ministers have to lay-out some pretty tough words. You will recall how Jesus called the pharisees a bunch of less-than-diplomatic names, in Matt., ch. 23. The same could be said of John the Baptist, who called them a "brood of vipers," (in Matt. 3:7). The point is, that at certain times these rugged words need to be spoken.
Don't misunderstand: God's ministers are to be the paradigm of grace and winsomeness. But the reality is that they can only be this by operating on two poles: one, which is by far the majority of the time, as they deal gently with ordinary sinners; and two, on rarer occasions, as they must respond harshly with the devil's agents.
[Puritan quote of the day: "Feeling is not always a fit rule to judge our [spiritual] states by . . . " --Richard Sibbes, in, "The Soul's Conflict with Itself"]
