Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Trapp Complete Commentary - Leviticus 19:17 - 19:17
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Lev_19:17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
Ver. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother.] Most unkindnesses that fall out among friends grow upon mistakes and misunderstandings. Now, a friendly reasoning the case, or, if need be, a godly reproof, cures both the reprover and the reproved; whereas the neglect of this duty breeds dwelling suspicions; suspicions breed a very habit of misinterpretation; this breeds a loathness to come to the light, to show the reasons af our dislike; this loathness begets a very separation in heart, which at length turns to downright hatred in heart. All which might have been better prevented by a seasonable venting our minds in a reproof or admonition.
Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour.] Neither is this any argument of hatred, but an office of love. Friends, as bees, are killed with the honey of flattery, but quickened with the vinegar of reproof. The eagle, though she loveth her young ones dearly, yet she pricketh and beateth them out of the nest.
And not suffer sin upon him.] But save him "with fear, pulling him out of the fire." {Jdg_1:23} Out of the fire of hell, as Jerome {a} interprets it, which sin suffered will bring him unto. Others read it thus: Lest thou suffer for his sin; which, by not opposing, thou makest to become thine own. To withstand evil in thy brother, is the best way to do him good, and thyself too. Others render it thus: Thou shalt not lift up his sin over him, as an ensign, by babbling or blazing it abroad to his just grief and disgrace; but clap a plaster of reproof upon the sore, and then, as surgeons use to do, cover it with thy hand, that the world may be never the wiser.
{a} Ex igne gehennali. - Jer.