John Calvin Complete Commentary - Romans 12:13 - 12:13

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John Calvin Complete Commentary - Romans 12:13 - 12:13


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13.Communicating to the necessities, (394) etc. He returns to the duties of love; the chief of which is to do good to those from whom we expect the least recompense. As then it commonly happens, that they are especially despised who are more than others pressed down with want and stand in need of help, (for the benefits conferred on them are regarded as lost,) God recommends them to us in an especial manner. It is indeed then only that we prove our love to be genuine, when we relieve needy brethren, for no other reason but that of exercising our benevolence. Nowhospitality is not one of the least acts of love; that is, that kindness and liberality which are shown towards strangers, for they are for the most part destitute of all things, being far away from their friends: he therefore distinctly recommends this to us. We hence see, that the more neglected any one commonly is by men, the more attentive we ought to be to his wants.

Observe also the suitableness of the expression, when he says, that we are to communicate to the necessities of the saints; by which he implies, that we ought so to relieve the wants of the brethren, as though we were relieving our own selves. And he commands us to assist especially the saints: for though our love ought to extend itself to the whole race of man, yet it ought with peculiar feeling to embrace the household of faith, who are by a closer bond united to us.

(394) There is here an instance of the depravation of the text by some of the fathers, such as [Ambrose ], [Hilary ], [Pelagius ], [Optatus ], etc., who substituted μνείας monuments, for χρείας necessities, or wants: but though there are a few copies which have this reading, yet it has been discarded by most; it is not found in the Vulgate, nor approved by [Erasmus ] nor [Grotius ]. The word was introduced evidently, as [Whitby ] intimates, to countenance the superstition of the early Church respecting the monuments or sepulchres of martyrs and confessors. Thefact, that there were no monuments of martyrs at this time in Rome, was wholly overlooked. — Ed.