Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 17:3
Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
3. Take heed to yourselves ] The following lesson of forgiveness is added because the hard repellent spirit of aggressive Pharisaism and spiritual pride was of all others the most likely to cause offences. It broke up the bruised reed, and stamped on the smoking flax.
If thy brother trespass against thee ] Rather, If he sin, omitting “ against thee.” Comp. Mat 18:15-17; Mat 18:21-22.
rebuke him…forgive him ] The former duty had been fully recognised in the old dispensation (Lev 19:17; Pro 17:10); the latter far more distinctly and emphatically in the new (Mat 18:15). The former is only intended as a help to the latter, 1Th 5:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
See the notes at Mat 18:15, Mat 18:21-22. Trespass against thee. Sin against thee, or does anything that gives you an offence or does you an injury.
Rebuke – Reprove. Go and tell him his fault, and seek an explanation. Acquaint him with what has been the effect of his conduct, and the state of your feelings, that he may acknowledge his error and repent.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 3. – 4. If thy brother trespass] See the notes on Mt 18:21; Mt 18:22.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Matthew hath something of the same tendency in Mat 18:21,22, mentioning it as an answer to a question which Peter propounded to our Lord; but the circumstances of both relations are so different that I cannot think them the same, but do believe these words spoken at another time. This doctrine of the forgiveness of our offending brother is pressed upon us in several places in the gospel and New Testament, and that upon the gravest arguments imaginable, Mat 6:15; 18:35; Mar 11:26; Luk 6:37; Eph 4:32; from whence we may justly conclude it a duty of very high concernment for us both to understand and to live in the practice of. It signifies the laying aside of all thoughts or desire of revenge in our own cause. The precept is not exclusive of our duty in seeing the glory of God avenged upon murderers, &c.; nor yet of our seeking a just satisfaction, in a legal way, for wrongs done to us relating to our limbs or estate, so far as the person is able to do it; much less doth it require the making such a one as hath so injured us our intimate and bosom friend. That which it requireth is the laying aside all malice, or desire of revenge, upon our neighbour in a case wherein our own name or honour is concerned; and it is fitly joined to what went before, this malice, or desire of revenge, being the root of all the mischief that men voluntarily do one to another, especially of that which they do to the innocent servants of God.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3, 4. (See on Mt18:15-17; Mt 18:21, 22).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Take heed to yourselves….. Or to one another, that ye neither give, nor take offence. Take heed to your spirits, to your doctrines, walk, and conversation, that you give no offence to any, that you are not stumbled by what you shall see in, and meet with from others:
if thy brother trespass against thee; [See comments on Mt 18:15]
rebuke him; privately, and proceed according to the rules there directed to; lay his sin before him; endeavour not only to convince him of the fact, but of the evil of it; how contrary to the will of God; how unbecoming the Gospel of Christ, and the profession he makes; how hurtful to himself, as well as injurious to his brother; and how such evils give the enemy occasion to reproach the saints, to speak evil of the ways of God, and blaspheme the name and doctrines of Christ, and harden sinners in their sins, as well as stumble weak Christians, and sadden the hearts of the righteous.
And if he repent; if he is made sensible of his evil, and is truly sorry for it, and ingenuously acknowledges it:
forgive him; the injury committed against a man’s self; and pray to God for him, for an application of his pardoning grace and mercy to him; and comfort him with the hope of forgiveness with God, by the gracious promises and declarations of pardon made to such persons; drop all resentment and anger, and behave towards him with all sweetness of temper, and affability, and respect: and this is to be done immediately, as soon as a man repents: and so say the Jews p;
“says R. Chanina bar Papa, whoever commits a thing, and repents of it, they forgive him directly; as it is said, Mal 3:5 “and fear not me”: lo, they that fear me, forgive immediately:”
such were reckoned good men, men fearing God.
p T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 5. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
If thy brother sin ( ). Second aorist (ingressive) subjunctive in condition of third class.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Rebuke. See on straitly charged, ch. 9 21.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Take heed to yourselves:” (prosechete heautois) “You all take heed to yourselves,” to your conduct, your behavior. Keep your passions and tempers in control of the Spirit, 1Co 9:27; Gal 5:25-26. “Let your life and lips express, the holy gospel you profess.”
2) “If thy brother trespass against thee,” (ean hamatre ho adelphos sou) “if your brother sins,” acts in a morally or ethically bad way in offence against you, or you are knowledgeable of a wayward matter of his life, Mat 18:15-17; Mat 18:21-22.
3) “Rebuke him;” (epitimeson auto) “You all chide or rebuke him,” kindly, compassionately, reasonably, correct him, or remind him of the wrong, in a kind, compassionate manner, not in a condemnatory way, Gal 6:1-2; Eph 4:15; Pro 17:10; Lev 19:17.
4) “And if he repent, forgive him.” (kai ean metanoese aphes auto) “And if he repents forgive him,” as a brother, or put away the offence, lay it away, never bring it up again; As one would put away a polluted, corrupt thing. Hold no more malice or old grudge, Eph 4:30-32; 1Jn 1:8-9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(3) Take heed to yourselves.The position of the words is remarkable, and they have nothing corresponding to them in the parallel passage in Mat. 18:21, where see Note. It is as though our Lord saw in the disciples the tendency to sit in judgment on the sins of others, on such sins especially as He had just condemned, and checked it by the words take heed to yourselves. They were in danger of faults hardly less fatal to the spiritual life than selfish luxury, and one of those faults was the temper of hard and unforgiving judgment. When they saw a conspicuous instance of worldliness or other evil, they did as we so often dothey condemned, but did not rebuke. In practice, as He taught them by example as by precept, open friendly reproof, aiming at restoration, is the truest path to the forgiveness with which, in the careless estimate of most men, it seems to be incompatible.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Take heed to yourselves Ye, my little ones, take heed. Beware first of the offences, that is, the impediments and the temptations of apostacy flung in your way by these Pharisees. And, second, take heed among yourselves not to be led by a brother’s trespasses into resentment and sin.
Thy brother Thy fellow-believer. Rebuke him, in order, and if possible in such a way, as to make him come to an “I repent.” This for the purpose of securing thy own peace and the peace of the Church, and so far as he is concerned, to prevent his falling into deeper sin and apostacy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Need To Forgive Readily (17:3-4).
Jesus also stresses the need to forgive readily those who recognise their faults. Being unwilling readily to forgive could easily result in causing the weak who have sinned, and sense that they are unforgiven, to stumble and fall away. Such people often need to be made to feel welcome so as to help them to get over their weakness. In such cases being unforgiving can only cause hurt and resentment, and be a stumblingblock to the person who senses that he is not forgiven. And yet it is not always easy to forgive. That is why in the Lord’s prayer we are reminded that we should forgive, because we have been forgiven. This is a reminder that we too are weak. And if we consider how much has been forgiven to us, we will find forgiving far less difficult.
Analysis.
a Take heed to yourselves (Luk 17:3 a).
b If your brother sin, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him (Luk 17:3 b).
b And if he sin against you seven times in the day, and seven times turn again to you, saying, I repent (Luk 17:4 a).
a You shall forgive him (Luk 17:4 b).
In ‘a’ they are told to take heed to themselves, and in the parallel they are to forgive. In ‘b’ they are to rebuke a sin in a brother and if he repents to forgive him, and in the parallel the same is to be true if he sin seven times in a day.
Luk 17:3-4,
Take heed to yourselves,
If your brother sin, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him.
And if he sin against you seven times in the day, and seven times turn again to you, saying, I repent,
You shall forgive him.
‘Take heed to yourselves’ connects these verses directly to the idea in Luk 17:1-2. There is no more important attitude towards young believers than to be able to forgive them. That does not, however, mean dealing lightly with sin. If a brother or sister sins then their sin must be drawn to their attention, not in a hypercritical or censorious way, but gently and lovingly in the same way as we would want them to do it to us. Nevertheless they must be shown that it is wrong. Sin must not be condoned. The verb used can mean ‘To speak seriously about, or to warn in order to prevent an action, or in order to bring one to an end’. But then if they acknowledge their sin and change their heart and mind about it they are to be forgiven. Back biting or the nursing of grudges is thus forbidden. In Matthew Jesus amplifies the idea to include seeking the help of others where the person fails to repent (Mat 18:15-17).
And the same applies if they sin seven times in the day. This is not a number to be counted so that once we reach seven we can stop, it is really saying, ‘as often as it happens’. The point is that continual forgiveness must be available, just as we need continual forgiveness from God. Thereby they will be strengthened and raised to continue to go forward (instead of stumbling even more) and we will be blessed and forgiven for our own sins.
But to put others before ourselves by avoiding being a stumblingblock, and to forgive others continually for what they do against us, are not easy things to do. They require faith in the One Who holds all things in His hands. That is certainly how the Apostles saw it, for they then turned to Jesus and asked Him in the light of all this to increase their faith. Note the change from ‘disciples’ to ‘Apostles’. There were many disciples, only twelve Apostles. The Apostles rightly saw that they had a special responsibility for all the disciples who followed Jesus.
The Power of Little Faith Combined With A Great God Which Will Plant the Kingly Rule of God, And The Need For Humility In The Service Of One Who Gives Such Power (Luk 17:5-10).
What Jesus has just required of His disciples in Luk 17:1-4 has made the Apostles appreciate that spiritually they are lacking. So with absolute confidence in their Maser they ask Him to give them increased faith. He had previously given them faith to preach, heal and cast out evil spirits. Now they are asking for more faith so as to enable them to walk without causing others to stumble, and so as to enable them to continually forgive, to say nothing of the other attributes that they are going to need. They want to be men of such faith that they do not fail God.
Jesus therefore points out that what they need is not a greater faith, but faith in a greater God. If their recognition of the greatness of God is sufficient they will be able to do remarkable things, for they have been chosen for that very purpose.
But while guiding them in this Jesus recognises the dangers for them in what He now says of overweening pride, and thus seeks to bring home to them the need to recognise that they will only have the power that He is describing because they are doing what they are commanded to do, and that they do it as servants and not as masters.
Analysis.
a The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith” (Luk 17:5).
b And the Lord said, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this sycamine (mulberry) tree, ‘Be you rooted up, and be you planted in the sea, and it would obey you” (Luk 17:6).
c “But who is there of you, having a servant ploughing or keeping sheep, who will say to him, when he is come in from the field, ‘Come straightway and sit down to meat’,” (Luk 17:7).
d “And will not rather say to him, ‘Make ready that on which I may sup, and gird yourself, and serve me, until I have eaten and drunk, and afterwards you will eat and drink?’ ” (Luk 17:8).
c “Does he thank the servant because he did the things that were commanded?” (Luk 17:9).
b “Even so you also, when you shall have done all the things that are commanded you” (Luk 17:10 a).
a “Say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done that which it was our duty to do.’ ” (Luk 17:10 b).
The request for increased faith, if answered, may well open the gate to false pride. Thus in guiding them in the way of faith Jesus carefully reminds them that they are servants who are merely doing their duty. What they will be able to achieve they will be able to achieve because of that fact. They will therefore have nothing to boast about in it.
Note in ‘a’ that they request a greater gift of faith, and in the parallel they are to acknowledge that they are thereby only servants doing their duty. In ‘b’ they are promised that their faith will such that they will be able to command the sycamine tree to replant itself in the sea, and in the parallel He reminds them that they will only be able to do so because they themselves are under command. In ‘c’ he questions whether a servant expects his master to serve him, and in the parallel he questions whether a servant expects to be thanked. Central to all in ‘d’ is his responsibility to serve his master.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Concerning forgiveness:
v. 3. Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
v. 4. And if he trespass against thee seven times a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.
v. 5. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
v. 6. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you. The children of the world make it a point literally to scandalize, give offense with deliberate intent to hurt and to lead into sin. But among Christians it also happens, and frequently, that one brother offends the other, grieves him by some unpremeditated sin or in a moment of weakness. For that reason they should take heed, they should be on the lookout as regards themselves all the time, lest they themselves become guilty and scandalize a brother. And if a brother offends in any respect, the Christian that knows of the sin should earnestly admonish him, Mat 18:21-22. As soon as the brother thereupon repents of his sin, the Christian should forgive him, fully and freely, even though the same process be repeated seven times a day. The heart of the believers should partake of the nature of God’s and Christ’s, or God’s in Christ, which knows neither end nor limit. Whenever the confession comes: I am sorry, then should the assurance be given in return that the matter is forgiven. Such a. measure of love for the erring brother, it is true, requires an unusual amount of love, and therefore a corresponding amount of faith. The apostles were conscious of that fact; as matters stood then, they hardly believed themselves equal to the task proposed by Christ. And so, after mulling over the admonition for a while, they put the request to Him to add to their faith. This prayer is necessary for every Christian every day, if he wants his love to keep pace with the many demands that are placed upon it. Faith must grow at the same rate as love. A Christian will search ever more diligently, he will plunge ever more deeply into the depths of the love of God in Jesus the Savior. Only in that way will he be able to practice the forgiveness toward his brother which is demanded by the discipleship of Christ. The Lord took the occasion to enlarge upon one of His favorite topics, that of the strength of faith. If they had faith only as large as the seed of a mustard-plant or tree, they would have the power to say to the fig mulberry or sycamore fig-tree standing before them that it should tear itself out by the roots and plant itself in the sea, and it would obey without question. Note: To grow in faith, in the power of faith, must be the earnest ambition of every Christian. Sincere prayer to the Lord, unwavering trust in His promises, a constant contemplation of His Word: those are the methods by which growth in faith may be accomplished.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Luk 17:3-4. Take heed to yourselves: Our Lord speaks here concerning a quarrelsome temper in his servants, but especially in the ministers and teachers of religion;insinuating,thatmanygrievous temptations to sin arise thence; temptations both to the persons who are injured by that temper, because injuries beget injuries; and to those who are witnesses of the injury, as encouraging them to venture on the like evils. But he prescribes a seasonable and prudent reprehension of the fault, accompanied with forgiveness on the part of the person injured, as the best means of disarmingthetemptationswhichmay arise from such a disposition. Sentiments of this kind, delivered immediately after our Lord had been insulted by the falsest teachers, for inculcating the purest doctrine, proved how truly he forgave them all the personal injuries which they had committed against him, throw a beautiful light on the severe things which he had said of them in the course of his ministry, and are powerful recommendations of that most amiable of virtues, the forgiveness of injuries. See the note on Mat 5:44.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(3) Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. (4) And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. (5) And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. (6) And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
There is somewhat very striking in this prayer of the Apostles, and the suddenness of it, and the occasion upon which they so expressed themselves, is also striking. It should seem that they were astonished at the infinite benignity the Lord Jesus had just expressed on the subject of forgivenness; and in the moment, as if longing to be always in the exercise of it, they begged for an increase of faith, by which alone they knew they might practise it. Reader! let us daily do the same; and ask our dear and compassionate Jesus for larger tokens of this precious faith. 2Pe 1:1 ; that on the view of the divine mercy of the Lord Jesus to our daily offences, we may find grace to exercise bowels of mercy to the infirmities of our brethren. Read that sweet Scripture by way of strengthening this lovely grace. Col 3:12-13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
Ver. 3. See Trapp on “ Mat 18:15 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3, 4. ] See on Mat 18:15 ; Mat 18:21-22 .
The . here is to warn them not to be too readily dismayed at , nor to meet them in a brother with an unforgiving spirit.
. ] ‘ begins with ,’ Stier: who remarks, that in the Church, as in the world, the love of many waxing cold, not being strong or warm enough for this , is the cause why offences abound.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 17:3 . ., take heed to yourselves (lest ye offend), a reminiscence of the original occasion of the discourse: ambition revealing itself in the disciple-circle.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
If. Marking a possible contingency (App-118. b). Not the same condition as in Luk 17:6.
trespass = sin. Greek. hamartano. App-128. As the Pharisees did.
against. Greek. eis. App-104.
rebuke him. As the Lord had done (Luk 16:15-31).
repent. See App-111.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
3, 4.] See on Mat 18:15; Mat 18:21-22.
The . here is to warn them not to be too readily dismayed at , nor to meet them in a brother with an unforgiving spirit.
.] begins with , Stier:-who remarks, that in the Church, as in the world, the love of many waxing cold,-not being strong or warm enough for this ,-is the cause why offences abound.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 17:3. , take heed to yourselves) Not only do not give offence to others, Luk 17:1-2, or take offence from others who sin against you, Luk 17:3, but also take heed lest ye be an offence or stumbling-block to yourselves; Mat 18:8. Comp. Gal 6:1, at the end of the verse.-, forgive) So God deals with us.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
heed: Luk 21:34, Exo 34:12, Deu 4:9, Deu 4:15, Deu 4:23, 2Ch 19:6, 2Ch 19:7, Eph 5:15, Heb 12:15, 2Jo 1:8
If: Mat 18:15-17, Mat 18:21
rebuke: Lev 19:17, Psa 141:5, Pro 9:8, Pro 17:10, Pro 27:5, Gal 2:11-14, Jam 5:19
Reciprocal: Gen 50:17 – Forgive Exo 22:9 – for all manner of trespass Jdg 11:8 – the elders Mat 6:12 – as Luk 6:37 – forgive Col 3:13 – forgiving
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3
This verse corresponds in thought with Mat 18:15.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
[Rebuke him.] The Rabbins are not sparing in granting the lawfulness of repeating rebuke upon rebuke, but they are most sparing about forgiveness where any hath given an offence. They allow, from Lev 19:17; that a man may rebuke a hundred times if there be any need for it; nay, that it is the duty of a disciple to rebuke his master if occasion be. But as to forgiving him that offends, they abuse the words of the prophet, Amo 1:2; “for three transgressions”; and that of Job 33:29; “Lo, God worketh all these things three times with man”; and teach that a man is not bound to forgive a fourth trespass.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Luk 17:3. Take heed to yourselves. Precisely this class needed this caution. For as they had been so lately sinners they would be most likely to give occasion of stumbling; and as new converts of this class are enthusiastic, they would readily stumble themselves. See on Mat 18:15; Mat 18:21-22.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The doctrine of forgiving an offending brother, is pressed upon us with many forcible arguments in the New Testament, which speaks it to be a duty of indispensable necessity. This place is to understood of private offences, and personal wrongs and injuries done by one man to another; which we must first reprove, and then remit; and although it be said, If he repent, forgive him; that is not to be understood, as if we needed not to pardon our brother, if he neglects to repent and ask forgiveness; but whether he acknowledges his offence or not to us, our hearts must stand ready to forgive the wrong done to us, and to pray for forgiveness on his behalf at the hands of God; laying aside all thoughts and desires of revenge in our own cause, and standing ready to any office of love and service to our offending brother.
Learn hence,
1. That to fall often into the same offence against our brother is a great aggravation of our offences: If thy brother trespass against thee seven times in a day; that is, very often.
2. That as the multiplication of offences is a great aggravation of offences, so the multiplying of forgiveness is a great demonstration of a God-like temper in us: he that multiplies sin, does, like Satan, sin abundantly; and he that multiplies pardon, does, like God, pardon abundantly.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Luk 17:3-4. Take heed to yourselves That you may neither offend others, nor be offended by others, but that you may keep all your passions under proper regulation, and may be preserved from those resentments of injuries, real or supposed, which, if yielded to, might occasion much sin to yourselves or others. If thy brother trespass against thee, &c. But while our Lord cautioned them against all angry passions, and that quarrelsome temper which they naturally produce, he thus prescribed a seasonable and prudent reprehension of any fault that might be committed, accompanied with forgiveness on the part of the person injured, as the best means of disarming the temptations that might arise from such a disposition. See on Mat 18:21. And if he repent, forgive him Immediately, without insisting on any rigorous satisfaction. And if he trespass against thee seven times a day That is, very frequently; and seven times a day turn again, saying, I repent That is, if he give sufficient proof that he does really repent, after having sinned ever so often; thou shalt forgive him Shalt receive him just as if he had never sinned against thee. But this forgiveness is due only to real penitents. See on Mat 18:21-22. In a lower sense, we are to forgive all, penitent or impenitent, so as to bear them the sincerest goodwill, and to do them all the good we can; and that not seven times only, but seventy times seven.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vers. 3 and 4. The Pardon of Trespasses.If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. 4. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.
Holiness and love meet together in this precept: holiness begins with rebuking; then, when the rebuke has once been taken, love pardons. The pardon to be granted to our brethren has no other limit than their repenting, and the confession by which it is expressed.
Matthew (Mat 18:15-22) places this precept in the same discourse as the preceding; it probably referred also to the altercation which had taken place between the disciples on that occasion. But there what gives rise to it is a characteristic question of Peter, which Luke did not know; otherwise he would not have omitted it; comp. Luk 12:41, where he carefully mentions a similar question put by the same apostle. Mark omits this precept about pardon; but at the end of the same discourse we find this remarkable exhortation (Mar 9:50): Have salt in yourselves (use severity toward yourselves; comp. Luk 12:43-48), and have peace with one another,a saying which has substantially the same meaning as our precept on the subject of pardon. What a proof both of the radical authenticity of the sayings of Jesus and of the fragmentary manner in which tradition had preserved them, as well as of the diversity of the sources from which our evangelists derived them!
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
FORGIVENESS INDEFINITE
Luk 17:3-4. Take heed unto yourselves: If thy brother may sin, correct him: if he may repent, forgive him. And if he may sin against thee seven times a day, and turn unto thee, saying, I repent; you shall forgive him. This Scripture follows in immediate connection with the preceding on offenses. The rabbis taught that we should not forgive more than three times, as a rule; and in extreme cases, and under the most apologetical circumstances, not more than seven times. You see that our Savior makes the matter utterly indefinite, as seven times a day would actually run up to twenty-five hundred a year. Consequently there is to be no limitation whatever on this line. O how plain and unmistakable is the teaching of our Lord on every matter of duty and responsibility! It is utterly impossible to abide in Gods kingdom and knowingly disobey. Our only hope of heaven is to walk in all the light of Gods Word, Spirit, providence, and our own consciences.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 3
Rebuke him; that is, state your complaint frankly to him; and not, as is usual, go to others, when he is absent, with your censures and reproaches.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
17:3 {2} Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
(2) Our reprehensions must be just and proceed from love and charity.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus proceeded from warning against leading people into sin to the subject of helping those who do fall. The disciple’s responsibility in such cases is twofold: admonition of the sinner, and generous forgiveness of the penitent (cf. Mat 6:12; Mat 18:15; Mat 18:21-22).
"The saying implicitly forbids the nursing of grudges and criticism of the offender behind his back." [Note: Marshall, The Gospel . . ., p. 642.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
8-27
Chapter 22
THE ETHICS OF THE GOSPEL.
WHATEVER of truth there may be in the charge of “other-worldliness,” as brought against the modern exponents of Christianity, such a charge could not even be whispered against its Divine Founder. It is just possible that the Church had been gazing too steadfastly up into heaven, and that she had not been studying the science of the “Humanities” as zealously as she ought, and as she has done since; but Jesus did not allow even heavenly things to obliterate or to blur the lines of earthly duty. We might have supposed that coming down from heaven, and familiar with its secrets, He would have much to say about the New World, its position in space, its society and manner of life. But no; Jesus says little about the life which is to come; it is the life which now is that engrosses His attention, and almost monopolizes His speech. Life with Him was not in the future tense; it was one living present, real, earnest, but fugitive. Indeed, that future was but the present projected over into eternity. And so Jesus, founding the kingdom of God on earth, and summoning all men into it, if he did not bring commandments written and lithographed, like Moses, yet He did lay down principles and rules of conduct, marking out, in all departments of human life, the straight and white lines of duty, the eternal “ought.” It is true that Jesus Himself did not originate much in this department of Christian ethics, and probably for most of His sayings we can find a synonym struck from the pages of earlier, and perhaps heathen moralists; but in the wide realm of Right there can be no new law. Principles may be evolved, interpreted; they cannot be created. Right, like Truth, holds the “eternal years”; and through the millenniums before Christ, as through the millenniums after, Conscience, that “ethical intellect” which speaks to all men if they will but draw near to her Sinai and listen, spoke to some in clear, authoritative tones. But if Jesus did no more, He gathered up the “broken lights” of earth, the intermittent flashes which had played on the horizon before, into one steady electric beam, which lights up our human life outward to its farthest reach, and onward to its farthest goal.
In the mind of Jesus conduct was the outward and visible expression of some inner invisible force. As our earth moves round its elliptic in obedience to the subtle attractions of other outlying worlds, so the orbits of human lives, whether symmetrical or eccentric, are determined mainly by the two forces, Character and Circumstance. Conduct is character in motion; for men do what they themselves are, i.e. as far as circumstances will allow. And it is just at this point the ethical teaching of Jesus begins. He recognizes the imperium in imperio, that hidden world of thought, feeling, sentiment, and desire which, itself invisible, is the mould in which things visible are cast. And so Jesus, in His influence upon men, worked outward from within. He sought, not reform, but regeneration, molding the life by changing the character, for, to use His own figure, how could the thorn produce grapes, or the thistle figs?
And so when Jesus was asked, “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” He gave an answer which at first sight seemed to ignore the question entirely. He said no word about “doing,” but threw the questioner back upon “being,” asking what was written in the law: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself”. {Luk 10:27} And as Jesus here makes Love the condition of eternal life, its sine qua non, so He makes it the one all-embracing duty, the fulfilling of the law. If a man love God supremely, and his neighbor as himself, he cannot do more; for all other commandments are included in these, the subsections of the greater law. Jesus thus sought to create a new force, hiding it within the heart, as the mainspring of duty, providing for that duty both aim and inspiration. We call it a “new” force, and such it was practically; for though it was, in a way, embedded in their law, it was mainly as a dead letter, so much so that when Jesus bade His disciples to “love one another” He called it a “new commandment.” Here, then, we find what is at once the rule of conduct and its motive. In the new system of ethics, as taught and enforced by Jesus, and illustrated by His life, the Law of Love was to be supreme. It was to be to the moral world what gravitation is to the natural, a silent but mighty and all-pervasive force, throwing its spell upon the isolated actions of the common day, giving impulse and direction to the whole current of life, ruling alike the little eddies of thought and the wider sweeps of benevolent activities. To Jesus “the soul of improvement was the improvement of the soul.” He laid His hand upon the hearts innermost shrine, building up that unseen temple four-square, like the city of the Apocalypse, and lighting up all its windows with the warm, iridescent light of love.
With this, then, as the foundation-tone, running through all the spaces and along all the lines of life, the thoughts, desires, words, and acts must all harmonize with love; and if they do not, if they strike a note that is foreign to its key-note, it breaks the harmony at once, throwing jars and discords into the tousle. Such a breach of the harmonic law would be called a mistake, but when it is a breach of Christs moral law it is more than a mistake, it is a wrong.
Before passing to the outer life Jesus pauses, in this Gospel, to correct certain dissonances of mind and soul, of thought and feeling, which put us in a wrong attitude towards our fellows. First of all, He forbids us to sit in judgment upon others. He says, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: and condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned”. {Luk 6:37} This does not mean that we close our eyes with a voluntary blindness, working our way through life like moles; nor does it mean that we keep our opinions in a state of flux, not allowing them to crystallize into thought, or to harden into the leaden alphabets of human speech. There is within us all a moral sense, a miniature Sinai, and we can no more suppress its thunders or sheath its lightnings than we can hush the breakers of the shore into silence, or suppress the play of the Northern Lights. But in that unconscious judgment we pass upon the actions of others, with our condemnation of the wrong, we pass our sentence upon the wrong-doer, mentally ejecting him from the courtesies and sympathies of life, and if we allow him to live at all, compelling him to live apart, as a moral incurable. And so, with our hatred of the sin, we learn to hate the sinner, and calling from him both our charities and our hopes, we hurl him down into some little Gehenna of our own. But it is exactly this feeling, this kind of judgment, the Law of Love condemns. We may “hate the sin, and yet the sinner love,” keeping him still within the circle of our sympathies and our hopes. It is not meet that we should be merciless who have ourselves experienced so much mercy; nor is it for us to hale others off to prison, or ruthlessly to exact the uttermost farthing, when we ourselves at the very best are erring and unfaithful servants, standing so much and so often in need of forgiveness.
But there is another “judging” that the command of Christ condemns, and that is the hasty and the false judgments we pass on the motives and lives of others. How apt we are to depreciate the worth of others who do not happen to belong to our circle! We look so intently for their faults and foibles that we become blind to their excellences. We forget that there is some good in every person, some that we can see if we only look, and we may be always sure that there is some we cannot see. We should not prejudge. We should not form our opinion upon an ex parte statement. We should not leave the heart too open to the flying germs of rumor, and we should discount heavily any damaging, disparaging statement. We should not allow ourselves to draw too many inferences, for he who is given to drawing inferences draws largely on his imagination. We should think slowly in our judgment of others, for he who leaps to conclusions generally takes his leap in the dark. We should learn to wait for the second thoughts, for they are often truer than the first. Nor is it wise to use too much “the spur of the moment”; it is a sharp weapon, and is apt to cut both ways. We should not interpret others motives by our own feelings, nor should we “suppose” too much. Above all, we should be charitable, judging of others as we judge ourselves. Perhaps the beam that is in a brothers eye is but the magnified mote that is in our own. It is better to learn the art of appreciating than that of depreciating; for though the one is easy, and the other difficult, yet he who looks for the good, and exalts the good, will make the very wilderness to blossom and be glad; while he who depreciates everything outside his own little self impoverishes life, and makes the very garden of the Lord one arid, barren desert.
Again, Jesus condemns pride, as being a direct contravention of His Law of Love. Love rejoices in the possessions and gifts of others, nor would she care to add to her own if it must be at the cost of theirs. Love is an equalizer, leveling up the inequalities the accidents of life have made, and preferring to stand on some lower level with her fellows than to sit solitary on some lofty and cold Olympus. Pride, on the other hand, is a repelling, separating force. Scorning those who occupy the lower places, she is contented only on her Olympian summit, where she keeps herself warm with the fires of her self-adulation. The proud heart is the loveless heart, one huge inflation; if she carries others at all, it is only as a steadying ballast; she will not hesitate to throw them over and throw them down, as mere dust or sand, if their fall will help her to rise. Pride like the eagle, builds her nest on high, bringing forth whole broods of loveless, preying passions, hatreds, jealousies, and hypocrisies. Pride sees no brotherhood in man; humanity to her means no more than so many serfs to wait upon her pleasure, or so many victims for her sacrifice! And how Jesus loved to prick these bubbles of airy nothings, showing up these vanities as the very essence of selfishness! He did not spare His words, even though they stung, when “He marked how they chose out the chief seats” at the friendly supper; {Luk 14:7} and one of His bitter “woes” He hurled at the Pharisees just because “they loved the chief seats in the synagogues,” worshipping Self, when they pretended to worship God, so: making the house of God itself an arena for the sport and play of their proud ambitions. “He that is least among you all,” He said, when rebuking the disciples lust for preeminence, “the same is great.” And such is Heavens law: humility is the cardinal virtue, the “strait” and low gate which opens into the very heart of the kingdom. Humility is the one and the only way of heavenly preferments and eternal promotions; for in the life to come there will be strange contrasts and inversions, as he that exalted himself is now humbled, and he that humbled himself is now exalted. {Luk 14:11}
Tracing now the lines of duty as they run across the outer life, we find them following the same directions. As the golden-milestone of the Forum marked the center of the empire, towards which its roads converged, and from which all distances were measured, so in the Christian commonwealth Jesus makes Love the capital, the central, controlling power; while at the focal point of all the duties He sets up His Golden Rule, which gives direction to all the paths of human conduct: “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise”. {Luk 6:30} In this general law we have what we might call the ethical compass, for it embraces within its circle the “whole duty of man” towards his fellow; and it only needs an adjusted conscience, like the delicately poised needle, and the line of the “ought” can be read off at once, even in those uncertain latitudes where no specific law is found. Are we in doubt as to what course of conduct to pursue, as to the kind of treatment we should accord to our fellow? We can always find the via recta by a short mental transposition. We have only to put ourselves in his place, and to imagine our relative positions reversed, and from the “would” of our supposed desires and hopes we read the “ought” of present duty. The Golden Rule is thus a practical exposition of the Second Commandment, investing our neighbor with the same luminous Atmosphere we throw about ourselves, the atmosphere of a benevolent, beneficent love.
But beyond this general law Jesus gives us a prescript as to the treatment of enemies. He says, “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you. To him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other: and from him that taketh away thy cloak withhold not thy coat also”. {Luk 6:27-29} In considering these injunctions we must bear in mind that the word “enemy” in its New Testament meaning had not the wide and general signification it has today. It then stood in antithesis to the word “neighbor” as in Mat 5:43; and as the word “neighbor” to the Jew included those, and those only, who were of the Hebrew race and faith, the word “enemy” referred to those outside, who were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. To the Hebrew mind it stood as a synonym for “Gentile.” In these words, then, we find, not a general and universal law, but the special instructions as to their course of conduct in dealing with the Gentiles, to whom they would shortly be sent. No matter what their treatment, they must bear it with an uncomplaining patience. Stripped, beaten, they must not resist, much less retaliate; they must not allow any vindictive feelings to possess them, nor must they take in their own hot hand the sword of a “sweet revenge.” Nay, they must even bear a good-will towards their enemies, repaying their hate with love, their spite and enmity with prayers, and their curses with sincerest benedictions.
It will be observed that no mention is made of repentance or of restitution: without waiting for these, or even expecting them, they must be prepared to forgive and prepared to love their enemies, even while they are shamefully treating them. And what else, under the circumstances, could they have done? If they appealed to the secular power it would simply have been an appeal to a heathen court, from enemies to enemies. And as to waiting for repentance, their “enemies” are only treating them as enemies, aliens and foreigners, wronging them, it is true, but ignorantly, and not through any personal malice. They must forgive just for the same reason that Jesus forgave His Roman murderers, “for they know not what they do.”
We cannot, therefore, take these injunctions, which evidently had a special and temporary application, as the literal rule of conduct towards those who are unfriendly or hostile to us. This, however, is plain, that even our enemies, whose enmity is directly personal rather than sectional or racial, are not to be excluded from the Law of Love. We must bear them neither hatred nor resentment; we must guard our hearts sacredly from all malevolent, vindictive feelings. We must not be our own avenger, taking vengeance upon our adversaries, as we let loose the barking Cerberus to track and run them down. All such feelings are contrary to the Law of Love, and so are contraband, entirely foreign to the heart that calls itself Christian. But with all this we are not to meet all sorts of injuries and wrongs without protest or resistance. We cannot condone a wrong without being accomplices in the wrong. To defend our property and life is just as much our duty as it was the wisdom and the duty of those to whom Jesus spoke to offer an uncomplaining cheek to the Gentile smiter. Not to do this is to encourage crime, and to put a premium upon evil. Nor is it inconsistent with a true love to seek to punish, by lawful means, the wrong-doer. Justice here is the highest type of mercy, and pains and penalties have a remedial virtue, taming the passions which had grown too wild, or straightening the conscience that had become warped.
And so Jesus, speaking of the “offences,” the occasions of stumbling that would come, said, “If thy brother sin, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive.” {Luk 17:3} It is not the patient, silent acquiescence now. No, we must rebuke the brother who has sinned against us and wronged us. And if this is vain, we must tell it to the Church, as St. Matthew completes the injunction; {Mat 18:17} and if the offender will not hear the Church, he must be cast out, ejected from their fellowship, and becoming to their thought as a heathen or a publican. The wrong, though it is a brother who does it, must not be glossed over with the enamel of an euphemism; nor must it be hushed up, veiled by a guilty silence. It must be brought to the light of day, it must be rebuked and punished; nor must it be forgiven until it is repented of. Let there be, however, a genuine repentance, and there must be on our part the prompt and complete forgiveness of the wrong. We must set it back out of our sight, amongst the forgotten things. And if the wrong be repeated, if the repentance be repeated, the forgiveness must be repeated too, not only for seven times seven offenses, but for seventy times seven. Nor is it left to our option whether we forgive or no; it is a duty, absolute and imperative; we must forgive, as we ourselves hope to be forgiven.
Again, Jesus treats of the true use of wealth. He Himself assumed a voluntary poverty. Silver and gold had He none; indeed, the only coin that we read He handled was the borrowed Roman penny, with Caesars inscription upon it. But while Jesus Himself preferred poverty, choosing to live on the outflowing charities of those who felt it both a privilege and an honor to minister to Him of their substance, yet He did not condemn wealth. It was not a wrong per se. In the Old Testament it had been regarded as a sign of Heavens special favor, and amongst the rich Jesus Himself found some of His warmest, truest friends-friends who came nobly to the front when some who had made louder professions had ignominiously fled. Nor did Jesus require the renunciation of wealth as the condition of discipleship. He did not advocate that fictitious egalite of the Commune. He sought rather to level up than to level down. It is true He did say to the ruler, “Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor”; but this was an exceptional case, and probably it was put before him as a test command, like the command to Abraham that he should sacrifice his son-which was not intended to he carried out literally, but only as far as the intention, the will. There was no such demand made from Nicodemus, and when Zacchaeus testified that it had been his practice (the present tense would indicate a retrospective rather than a prospective rule) to give one-half of his income to the poor, Jesus does not find fault with his division, and demand the other half; He commends him, and passes him up, right over the excommunication of the rabbis, among the true sons of Abraham. Jesus did not pose as an assessor; He left men to divide their own inheritance. It was enough for Him if He could put within the soul this new force, the “moral dynamic” of love to God and man; then the outward relations would shape themselves, regulated as by some automatic action.
But with all this, Jesus recognized the peculiar temptations and dangers of wealth. He saw how riches tend to engross and monopolize the thought, diverting it from higher things, and so He classed riches with cares, pleasures, which choke the Word of life, and make it unfruitful. He saw how wealth tended to selfishness; that it acted as an astringent, closing up the valves of the heart, and thus shutting down the outflow of its sympathies. And so Jesus, whenever He spoke of wealth, spoke in words of warning: “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” He said, when He saw how the rich ruler set wealth before faith and hope. And singularly enough, the only times Jesus, in His parables, lifts up the curtain of doom it is to tell of “certain rich” men-the one, whose soul swung selfishly between his banquets and his barns, and who, alas! had laid up no treasures in heaven; and the other, who exchanged his purple and fine linen for the folds of enveloping flames, and the sumptuous fare of earth for eternal want, the eternal hunger and thirst of the after-retribution!
What, then, is the true use of wealth? And how may we so hold it that it shall prove a blessing, and not a bane? In the first place, we must hold it in our hand, and not lay it up in the heart. We must possess it; it must not possess us. We may give our thought, moderately, to it, but our affections must not be allowed to center upon it. We read that the Pharisees “were lovers of money,” {Luk 16:14} and that argentic passion was the root of all their evils. The love of money, like an opiate, little by little, steals over the whole frame, deadening the sensibility, perverting the judgment, and weakening the will, producing a kind of intoxication, in which the better reason is lost, and the confused speech can only articulate, with Shylock, “My ducats, my ducats!” the true way of holding wealth is to hold it in trust, recognizing Gods ownership and our stewardship. Bank it up, give it no outlet, and your wealth becomes a stagnant pool, breeding malaria and burning fevers; but open the channel, give it an outlet, and it will bring life and music to a thousand lower vales, increasing the happiness of others, and increasing your own the more. And so Jesus strikes in with His frequent imperative, “Give”-“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom”. {Luk 6:38} And this is the true use of wealth, its consecration to the needs of humanity. And may we not say that here is its truest pleasure? He who has learned the art of generous giving, who makes his life one large-hearted benevolence, living for others and not for himself, has acquired an art that is beautiful and Divine, an art that turns the deserts into gardens of the Lord and that peoples the sky overhead with unseen singing Ariels. Giving and living are heavenly synonyms, and tie who giveth most liveth best.
But not from the words of Jesus alone do we read off the lines of our duty. He is in His own Person a Polar Star, to whom all the meridians of our round life turn, and from whom they emanate. His life is thus our law, His example our pattern. Do we wish to learn what are the duties of children to their parents? The thirty silent years of Nazareth speak in answer. They show us how the Boy Jesus is in subjection to His parents, giving to them a perfect obedience, a perfect trust, and a perfect love. They show us the Divine Youth, still shut in within that narrow circle, ministering to that circle, by hard-manual toil becoming the stay of that fatherless home. Do we wish to learn our duties to the State? See how Jesus walked in a land across which the Roman eagle had cast its shadow! He did not preach a crusade against the barbarian invaders, tie recognized in their presence and power the ordination of God-that they had been sent to chastise a lapsed Israel. And so Jesus spoke no word of denunciation, no fiery word, which might have proved the spark of a revolution. He took Himself away from the multitudes when they would by force make Him King. He spoke in respectful terms of the powers that were; He even justified the payment of tribute to Caesar, acknowledging his lordship, while at the same time He spoke of the higher tribute to the great Over-Lord, even God. When upon His trial for life or death, before a Roman tribunal, He even stayed to apologize for Pilates weakness, casting the heavier sin back on the hierarchy that had bought Him and delivered Him up; while upon the cross, amid its untold agonies, though His lips were glued by a fearful thirst, He opened them to breathe a last prayer for His Roman executioners: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
But was Jesus, then, an alien from His kinsmen according to the flesh? Was patriotism to Him an unknown force? Did He know nothing of love of country, that inspiration which has turned common men into heroes and martyrs, that love which oceans cannot quench, nor distance weaken, which throws an auroral brightness around the most sterile shores, and which makes the emigrant sick with a strange “Heimweh?” Did the Son of man, the ideal Man, know nothing at all of this? He did know it, and know it well. He identified Himself thoroughly with His people; He placed Himself under the law, observing its rites and ceremonies. After the Childhood exile in Egypt, He scarcely passed out of the sacred bounds; no storms of rough persecution could dislodge the heavenly Dove, or send Him wheeling off from His native hills. And if He did not preach rebellion, He did preach that righteousness which gives to a nation its truest wealth and widest liberty. He did denounce the Pharisaic shams, the hollow hypocrisies, which had eaten away the nations heart and strength. And how He loved Jerusalem, forgetting His own triumph in the vision of her humiliation, and weeping for the desolations which were coming sure and fast! This, the Holy City, was the center to which He ever returned, and to which He gave His last bequest-His cross and His grave. Nay, when the cross is taken down, and the grave is vacant, He lingers to give His Apostles their commission; and when He bids them, “Go ye out into all the world,” He adds, “beginning at Jerusalem.” The Son of man is the Son of David still, and within His deep love for humanity at large was a peculiar love for His “own,” as the ark itself was enshrined within the Holy of Holies.
And so we might traverse the whole ethical domain, and we should find no duty which is not enforced or suggested by the words or the life of the great Teacher. As Dr. Dorner says, “There is only one morality; the original of it is in God; the copy of it is in the Man of God.” Happy is he who see this Polar Star, whose light shines clear and calm above the rush of human years and the ebbs and flows of human life! Happier still is he who shapes his course by it, who reads off all his bearings from its light! He who builds his life after the Divine model, reading the Christ-life into his own, will build up another city of God on earth, foursquare and compact together, a city of peace, because a city of righteousness and a city of love.