2. Men may sin and yet be brethren.—Charity, because she may err, nay, because she must err, looks upon every Christian as a brother. If he err, she is a guide to him; if he sin, she is a physician; if he fall, she strives to lift him up, being a light to the blind and a staff to the weak.

3. Men may injure each other and yet be brethren.—Socrates, being overcome in judgment, professed he had no reason to be angry with his enemies unless it were for this, that they conceived and believed they had hurt him. Indeed, no injury can be done by a brother to a brother. The injury is properly done to God, who reserves all power of revenge to Himself. “If a brother strike us,” said Chrysostom, “kiss his hand; if he would destroy us, our revenge should be to save him.” Nazianzen said to the young man who was suborned to kill him, “Christ forgive thee, who hath also forgiven me, and died to save me.”

Lessons.—1. Brotherly love is pleasant and delightful. 2. Profitable and advantageous. 3. So necessary that it had been better for us never to have been than not to love the brethren.—A. Farindon.

Vers. 13–15. Love for the Preacher—

  1. Notwithstanding the physical infirmity of the messenger (ver. 13).
  2. Generates the loftiest esteem for his character and abilities (ver. 14).
  3. Is often expressed in exaggerated terms (ver. 15).

Ver. 14. The Authority of the Messenger of God.

  1. He is to be heard even as Christ Himself, because in preaching he is the mouth of God.
  2. Here we see the goodness of God, who does not speak to us in His majesty, but appoints men in His stead, who are His ambassadors.
  3. There must be fidelity in teachers.—They stand in the stead of Christ, and must deliver only that which they know to be the will of Christ.
  4. They must have especial care of holiness of life.
  5. The people are to hear their teachers with reverence, as if they would hear the angels or Christ Himself.
  6. The comfort of the ministry is as sure as if an angel came down from heaven, or Christ Himself, to comfort us.—Perkins.

Ver. 16. The Right Mode of giving and receiving Reproof.—Should it be esteemed the part of a friend faithfully to tell men the truth? and should the suppression of truth and the substitution of its opposite be held to mark the character of an enemy? How often has the amicable state of feeling been broken up by telling the truth, even when done in a proper spirit and manner!

I. What would you wish your friend to be?—1. Sincere. 2. That he should take a very general interest in my welfare and be desirous to promote it. 3. A person of clear, sound, discriminating judgment, and with a decided preference in all things. 4. That he should not be a man full of self-complacency, a self-idolater, but observant and severe towards his own errors and defects. 5. A man who would include me expressly in his petitions, praying that I may be delivered from those evils which he perceives in me, and God far more clearly. 6. Such that, as the last result of my communications with him, a great deal of what may be defective and wrong in me shall have been disciplined away.

II. Why do we regard a friend as an enemy because he tells us the truth?—1. Because plain truth, by whatever voice, must say many things that are displeasing. 2. Because there is a want of the real earnest desire to be in all things set right. 3. Because there is pride, reacting against a fellow-mortal and fellow-sinner. 4. Because there is not seldom a real difference of judgment on the matters in question. 5. Because there is an unfavourable opinion or surmise as to the motives of the teller of truth.