Hebrews 13:3

Heb_13:3

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them

Sympathy

Reverence is the spirit of the Christian towards that which is above him, and sympathy is his spirit towards that which is about him.

That which is above is summed up in God; that which is about us is summed up in man. We speak of sympathy as a feeling for others, where it is in the fullest sense of the phrase a feeling with others. Sympathy is not from without, not from above, as of one who looks afar off upon some object which moves his pity, but it is from within, and reaches to our whole being. He who really sympathises has in the true language of the heart entered into the feelings of another and made them his own. That which moves him belongs not to a stranger but to himself; he has mastered so far the secret of a true communion of life. And then, for the most part, and very naturally, we understand by sympathy a fellowship in suffering. We are most conscious of our need in moments of sorrow, and in such moments we can most recognise how much we owe to those who help us. But sympathy does not find scope in suffering only or even chiefly. It is co-extensive with human emotion and human experience. No doubt the service of sympathy costs us something. We must bear and feel the burden which we remove. The wonders of Christs infinite compassion were indeed triumphs of human love rather than of Divine authority, and as we study them we dimly discern with something of trembling awe what is meant by the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings; how it is through pain and seeming loss and death that we gain, in Him, for others and for ourselves, the blessings of life. The service of sympathy does cost us something, but it brings abundant compensation. St. Paul has told us the secret of his unmatched influence: I became all things to all men. His influence flowed, that is, from his sympathy, and the transformation wrought in him by sympathy was a reality and not a superficial imitation. It is always so. Just as the great poet lives in the characters which he creates, so the great teacher makes himself the true fellow of his scholars; he regards things with their eyes, he reflects on them with their thoughts; he offers his lessons to them in the form which answers to their condition; he wins to them a larger knowledge because he enables them to see how the new grows from the old, guards their peculiar treasures, and makes these also tributary to the interpretation of his messages. As it is with the great teacher, so it is with the great leader. He who sways men must be one with them, however far removed by his personal gifts. For sympathy is not the communion of like with like, but the power of uniting things different in the embrace of a greater life. Sympathy, therefore, preserves these small differences answering to our individuality, on which the beauty of the whole order of things depends. It does not only give; it receives. He who enters into the feelings of others becomes partaker of their energy. It does not only offer; it claims. He who is seen to sacrifice himself freely for the service of another, can justly demand in return a service corresponding to his own. And both aspects of its working must be observed carefully. Till we have called out the response of action we have not attained the object of our efforts; till we have sunk ourselves in those we wish to help, we have not measured the full extent of our power, for all experience tends to show that self-surrender is the gauge of power. It cannot be otherwise, for self-surrender is the gauge of faith. It is the souls answer to the voice which calls us to become fellow-workers with God. That voice too often is unheard, and when we consider our worst failures and disappointments, we must confess that words which are constantly on our lips express most truly how they have been brought to pass. Even in our highest purposes we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have pursued our ends in our own manner, we have fashioned them according to our own fancies, we have placed our own things and not the things of others in the forefront, we have not used the way of sympathy. So we have gained no entrance to the hearts of those whom we sought, and we have been cast down by the conviction of our weakness. Perhaps during that conviction we have recognised what we needed and found encouragement. For sympathy, which is the source of influence, is also the source of strength. In isolation there can be no experience of the highest human forces. It is through contact with our fellows that we feel the majesty of truth and righteousness. As we move among men, we see that our own best thoughts are shared by others, and we are invigorated by their silent support. Thus common testimony tells us that God is on our side. He has not left us desolate. He Himself works among us by His gifts, and they who have them are said to be ministers of His loving wisdom, trusting not to their own power but to His, confident not in their own foresight but in His sovereign will. So it is that as soon as we see this social destination of our several endowments, sympathy enriches us with the manifold resources of all through whom God is working. We draw strength from the very burdens which we have to bear. (Bp. Westcott.)

Christian sympathy:

There are, as we think, two very different, but both highly important principles here asserted: the principle of fellowship, and the principle of forethought. That of fellowship, for we are to feel as though bound with them in bonds: that of forethought, for we are to remember that we ourselves are also in the body, and therefore exposed to the adversities which claim our sympathy in others. Or to expound our text by the motive rather than the principle it puts forth, there are here two reasons or inducements suggested by the apostle, why Christians should be earnest in works of Christian love; the one is derived from their intimate connection with the suffering, the other from their own liability to similar visitations.

I.

St. Paul may here be said to go even beyond what he has laid down in Rom_12:15. He requires something more than sympathy as commonly understood. One man is said to sympathise with another, who is pained when and because theft other is pained: and sympathy, as thus understood, is little more than pity or commiseration. But to suffer with another, which is actually to sympathise, goes much beyond the weeping with another; it is making the griefs of that other mine own, so that the wound is in my heart as well as in his. The members of one family actually sympathise and suffer themselves, when death has come in and snatched away one from their circle; the loss is a common loss, attecting all equally, and the sorrow of each is literally the sorrow of every other. According to the Scriptural idea Christians constitute but one body, the mystical body of Christ; and if this be the application of the acknowledged principle, that if one member suffer all the members suffer with it, it follows that every Christian, in the measure which he has attained towards perfection, would seem to bear in his own person the very sufferings, and to receive in his own person the very blessings allotted to those who have like precious faith with himself. And when we think how deficient we are even in such sympathy as is generally understood by the world, and which would result from universal brotherhood, we may well be staggered at finding, that the Christian standard is yet vastly higher, and that universal brotherhood would be but a stage towards universal membership. But what an image does it give us of the condition of the world, to suppose all men actuated by the consciousness of being members one of another. Beyond nature, we confess it, but not beyond grace; and the Christian is not to be content, until in relieving the distressed lie can feel that he acts on the great principle of membership. He must see to it, that he has part in the bearing, as well as in the relieving the calamity. His relieving is to be the result of his bearing; he is to relieve, that is, as one who is relieving himself, with all that activity and all that perseverance which our own personal interests are sure to elicit.

II.

St.

Paul descends to a lower and yet not wholly different ground: he descends from Christian membership, and takes his position on that of our own exposure to misfortunes.

As being yourselves also in the body! What an amount of motive is gathered into these simple words! It has been one of the natural, and, we might almost say, necessary consequences on the combination of men into societies, presenting almost every possible variety of condition and circumstances, that there has been a comparative losing sight of the equal liability of all, to the several ills to which flesh is heir.

It is very difficult not to fancy that the man of large ancestral revenues has an exemption from the contingencies and changes of want, which beset the poor peasant that tills one of its fields.

It might sound to him as a threat, whether of ignorance or insult, that it should thus be implied, that notwithstanding all his state, and all his abundance, he might come to want the morsel which we ask him to bestow. And, of course, it does need a very thorough and practical recognition of the truth, that The earth is the Lords, and the fulness thereof, to be able to put aside all the appearances of security and independence, which hoarded wealth furnishes, and to view in every man, whatsoever his circumstances, a pensioner on the bounty of that omnipotent Parent, who openeth His hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing. I would rather have the security against want, which the meanest of our villagers enjoys, whose daily bread is the subject of daily prayer and daily toil, than that of the foremost of our capitalists, who in any way gives indulgence to the sentiment of the rich man in the parable; Soul, thou hast goods laid up for many years. The one, indeed, has a security--the security of a prayerful dependence on God; whereas the other has no security whatever, but lies exposed to the peril of being punished for presumption. And it matters not to us, what may be the worhtly circumstances of any, nor how far they may seem to remove him from liability to poverty. If he be a man, he may come to be a starving man; and that, too, without any of those explicable occurrences and reverses, which seem to mark Gods special interference to bring round an unlooked-for catastrophe. There ought, therefore, to be to him as much cogency as to the man whose property seems jeopardised, in the motive of being himself in the body, when it is for the relief of the actually destitute that we appeal to his bounty. And this is, perhaps, the only case in which there is even the appearance of exemption from liability to the misfortunes with which we see others oppressed. It cannot be said that any one form of sorrow is appropriated to this class of men, and warded off from that; all are accessible through the same channels, and all are capable of the same ills. And is there not in consequence the greatest cogency, whosoever be the party addressed and whatsoever the affliction which asks to be remembered, in the motive of being in the body? It is the enlisting of selfishness on the side of the afflicted, and calling on us to be merciful if we would have mercy ourselves. Inexpressibly bitter would it be if living to be oppressed and deserted ourselves and to ask in vain for succour and for sympathy, we should have to remember how in our own sunshine we had cared nothing for those over whom darkness had gathered, and to feel that we were but reaping the harvest of which our own want of charity had sown all the seeds. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

The fellow of suffering:

We feel our own burdens distinctly enough and our own limitations and sorrows. Now if we felt those of other people a tenth part as distinctly, we could do almost anything with them and for them. To Christ other people were real: just as real as He. God was interested in men because to Him they were lovable. God so loved the world; that was where redemption began. And it was not a general, diffusive kind of thing, His love was not. It was not like some great sea of translucent fog which sometimes inundates our city of a warm morning, which only has a kind of general reference to everything and no particular reference to anything. His love was rather like a sunbeam, which drops down ninety million miles upon one specific grass-blade, into one particular birds eye. People, indeed, are interesting as soon as we get near enough to them to feel that they are people, not things, and as soon as we get far enough into the secret of their life to discover its workings, its difficulties, its disappointments, its ambitions, its defeats, its penitences, its remorses. I believe we would love everybody we came near to if we realised what a hard time they are having. No two people would ever quarrel if they could be each other for a little while. If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each mans life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. Then, besides that, if we could feel the sorrow and suffering that is in a mans life, no matter how wicked or degraded he might be, his degradation would be no barrier to kindly regard for him. If we came near enough to a bad mans history to understand it, to see how unfortunate influences tell upon him, what susceptibilities to evil were in him, entirely independent of any choice of his own in the matter, we should find that circumstances were what made a large:part of the mischief, and that the poor fellow has had just as hard and sad a time in keeping from being worse than he is, as we have had in keeping from being worse than we are. We are sometimes surprised that Christ, who as we are told knew what was in man, nevertheless was able to love man, to love all men. But that was exactly the reason why He was able. Tragedy is all about us--a good deal more tragedy than comedy; and any life becomes inter-resting as soon as, with a key wrought out of love, you unlock it and begin so to be yourself closeted on the inside of it as to feel yourself somehow involved in it, and all its difficulties to be your difficulties, and all its weaknesses and sins even to be so taken upon yourself that you commence to feel the burden of them as your burden. That is what Christ did. That is the meaning of His life; that is the distinctive quality in His redemptive work. He carried people. By becoming like them He helped them to become like Him. And as Christ can do this for each of us, because in His loving way He so perfectly understands all the ins and outs of each of us, so we, in order to make our own lives redemptive in anothers behalf, have to make a distinct and affectionate problem of his life, get on to the interior side of it, discover the impulses that play in it, the history that lies back of it, the circumstances that encompass and dominate it. These things quicken in interest as we go on. If you have commenced to read a book, and some one says to you, Do you like it? you will very probably answer, I can hardly say, for I have not yet got fairly into it. So the characters and lives of people only then begin to be interesting, when we have fairly got into them. They are then sure to be of interest, even when we treat them merely as problems to be mentally solved; how much more when we bring to them a heart fraught with personal regard and Christian sympathy. It is in this way, then, that people must be saved and lifted. I do not believe we are going to solve the problem of city and country evangelisation till we get over lumping people. When, at this season of the year, you look up into the sky of an evening, you discern a nebulous belt of light, an indiscriminate mass of stars, lying up and down the sky like a vast white cosmic rainbow. Now, telescopes, as they are directed to that great nebulae, are showing themselves competent to crumble up that mass of stellar uncertainty into myriads of little diamond-like stellar individualities, and as, year by year, the penetrating powers of telescopes are increased, this crumbling, individualising process goes steadily on, so that now we do not any longer think of the Milky Way as a mass of star stuff, but as a host of brilliant worlds, each as distinct from the rest, and as complete in itself as our own great sun, which is indeed thought to be one single flaming member of that superb host. Now, what lenses of enhanced power do for the human eye in the way of splitting up a world of filmy splendour into keen-edged points of individual light and lustre, the same thing love does for human discernment when exercised upon the mass of humanity by which, in a great city, we are environed. It crumbles the mass up into glittering individualities, each a little distinct personal world all in himself. When the sun melts the snow in the spring it tackles each little snow crystal by itself. Each sunbeam picks out its own crystal and turns it into a tear, and so is able to do a great deal in its little way and saves itself the embarrassment and weariness of thinking how many flakes there are that it can never reach; and the snow goes off. How much better that is than it would be for the sunbeams to spend all their time holding conventions in order to devise means for melting the masses of snow. The next thing, therefore, for you and me to do, is to go into the Snow-bank, if we have not already done so, and pick out our particular snow crystal, and commence melting it. (C. H.Parkhurst, D. D.)

Sympathy not scared by suffering

Sympathy for each other in suffering is not confined to mankind. There is one trait, says Mr. Jesse, in the character of rooks, which is, I believe, peculiar to that sort of bird, and which does them no little credit. It is the distress which they exhibit when one of them has been killed or wounded by a gun while they have been feeding in a field or flying over it. Instead of being scared away by the report of the gun, leaving their wounded or dead companion to his fate, they show the greatest anxiety or sympathy for him, uttering cries of distress, and plainly proving that they wish to render him assistance, by hovering over him, or sometimes making a dart from the air close up to him, apparently to try and find out the reason why he did not follow them

While circling round and round,

They call their lifeless comrade from the ground.

If he is wounded, and can flutter along the ground, the rooks appear to animate him to make fresh exertions by incessant cries, flying a little distance before him, and calling to him to follow them. (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.)

Remembering the needs of others:

In one of Dickenss letters referring to a notice of Tom Hoods book which he had written for the Examiner, he says: Rather poor, but I have not said so, because Hood is poor too, and ill besides. (H. O. Mackey.)

Value of sympathy:

Every man rejoices twice when he has a partner of his joy; a friend shares my sorrow and makes it but a moiety; but he swells my joy and makes it double. For so two channels divide the river and lessen it into rivulets, and make it fordable and apt to be drunk up by the first revels of the Syrian Star; but two torches do not divide but increase the flame; and though my tears are the sooner dried up, when they run on my friends cheeks in the furrows of compassion, yet when my flame hath killed his lamp, we unite the glories and make them radiant, like the golden candlesticks that burn before the throne of God, because they shine by numbers, by unions, and confederations of light and joy. (Bp. Taylor.)

Nature of sympathy:

It is by sympathy we enter into the concerns of ethers, that we are moved as they are moved, and are never suffered to be indifferent spectators of almost anything which men can do or suffer. For sympathy may be considered as a sort of substitution, by which we are put into the place of another man, and affected in many respects as he is affected. (E. Burke.)

Practical sympathy:

We must not make too much of sympathy, as mere feeling … We praise feeling and praise its possessor. But feeling is only a sickly exotic in itself--a passive quality, having in it nothing moral, no temptation, and no victory. A man is no more a good man for having feeling, than he is for having a delicate ear for music, or a far-seeing optic nerve. The Son of Man had feeling--He could be touched. The tear would start from His eyes at the sight of human sorrow. But that sympathy was no exotic in His soul, beautiful to look at, too delicate for use. Feeling with Him led to this, He went about doing good. Sympathy with Him was this, Grace to help in time of need. (F. W. Robertson.)

Helpful sympathy self-remunerative:

It is said of the saintly George Herbert, the quaint old English church poet, that once in a walk to Salisbury, to join a musical party, he saw a poor man with a poorer horse that was fallen under his load. They were both in distress and needed present help, which Mr. Herbert perceiving, put off his canonical coat, and helped the poor man to unload, and afterwards load his horse. The poor man blessed him for it and he blessed the poor man, and was so like the Good Samaritan, that he gave him money to refresh both himself and his horse. Thus he left the poor man; and at his coming to his musical friends at Salisbury, they began to wonder that Mr. Herbert, who used to be trim and clean, so soiled and discomposed. But he told them the occasion; and when one of the company told him he had disparaged himself by so dirty an employment, his answer was, that the thought of what he had done would prove music to him at midnight, and that the omission of it would have upbraided and made discord in his conscience whensoever he should pass by that place; for if I be bound to pray for all that be in distress, I am sure that I am bound, so far as it is in my power, to practise what I pray for; and let me tell you, I would not willingly pass one day of my life without comforting a sad soul, or showing mercy, and bless God for this occasion. Oh, how many might have anxious thoughts which often infest their midnight hours changed into sweet music, if they would only be more frequently seen with full hands and friendly words in the abodes of poverty and suffering! These are the places in which to attune ones conscience to midnight harmonies.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 13:3. Remember — In your prayers and by your help; them that are in bonds — Thrown into prison for the sake of Christ, as if you yourselves were bound with them — Seeing ye are members one of another; and them which suffer adversity — Των κακουχουμενων, who are ill-treated, or afflicted with evil; as being yourselves also in the body — And consequently liable to similar sufferings.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13:3 Remember those in prison: Prisoners often depended on family members and friends for their most basic needs. Christians were challenged to provide comfort, food, prayer, and other necessities for those imprisoned because of their faith (13:18-19; Matt 25:36; Col 4:18; 2 Tim 1:16).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heb 13:3. Μιμνήσκεσθε, remember) in your prayers and in your acts of kindness.—ὡς συνδεδεμένους, as bound with them) on account of the unity of the body under the one head, Christ.—ἐν σώματι, in the body) in the natural body, which is not yet withdrawn from adversities, and the dangers which have befallen them. One man experiences great adversity during the whole period of his life, as Jacob: another in youth, as Joseph: another in manhood, as Job: another, finally, in old age; and this admonition is of especial advantage against such an event.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb_13:3. Exhortation to have a care for the prisoners and distressed.

Μιμνήσκεσθε τῶν δεσμίων] Be mindful (sc. in order to aid them with ministering love) of the prisoners.

ὡς συνδεδεμένοι] as fellow-prisoners, i.e. with as much devotion to them as though the captivity had fallen upon yourselves. For the Christians are members of the same body; as in the prosperity, so also are they to share in the sufferings one of the other. Comp. 1Co_12:26. Böhme (in like manner Heinrichs too) explains: quippe ejus naturae et conditionis homines, qui ipsi quoque pro captivis sint, nimirum in ecclesia pressa degentes. Upon this interpretation, it is true, the twofold ὡς retains its full significance; but in order to represent the readers as in ecclesia pressa degentes, an addition to συνδεδεμένοι could not have been dispensed with.

τῶν κακουχουμένων] of those who suffer evil treatment. τῶν κακουχουμένων is the genus, under which the foregoing τῶν δεσμίων are ranged as a particular species.

ὡς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὄντες ἐν σώματι] as sojourning yourselves in a body, thus likewise still subjected to the earthly order of the world, and not secured against the like ill-treatment. According to Calvin and others, the sense is: since ye indeed are members of the same body (to wit, the church),which, however, must have been indicated by ὡς καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν τῷ σώματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὄντες. According to Beza: as though in your own person ye were κακουχούμενοι,a sense which can only with violence be put upon the words.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 13:3 . μιμνήσκεσθε (Heb 2:6 ) τῶν δεσμίων (Heb 10:34 ), “Be mindful of those in bonds” (Mat 25:36 ). This also they had already done (Heb 10:34 ). The motive now urged is contained in the words ὡς συνδεδεμένοι , “as having been bound with them,” as fellow-prisoners. The ὡς ἐν σώματι of the next clause might invite the interpretation, “for we also are bound as well as they,” and colour might be given to this by the Epistle to Diognetus, chap. 6. χριστιανοὶ κατέχονται μὲν ὡς ἐν φρουρᾷ τῷ κόσμῳ ; but more likely the expression is merely a strong way of saying that all the members of Christ’s body suffer with each, 1Co 12:26 . τῶν κακουχουμένων , “the maltreated,” cf. Heb 11:37 ; you must be mindful of these “as being yourselves also in the body,” i.e. , not emancipated spirits, and therefore liable to similar ill-usage and capable of sympathy. [A striking illustration of the manner in which the early Christians obeyed these admonitions may be found in the Apology of Aristides: ξένον ἐὰν ἴδωσιν , ὑπὸ στέγην εἰσάγουσι καὶ χαίρουσιν ἐπʼ αὐτῷ ὡς ἐπὶ ἀδελφῷ ἀληθινῷ · οὐ γὰρ κατὰ σάρκα ἀδελφοὺς ἑαυτοὺς καλοῦσιν , ἀλλὰ κατὰ ψυχήν . The Syriac Apology adds “If they hear that any of their number is imprisoned or oppressed for the name of their Messiah, all of them provide for his needs”. Accordingly in the Martyrdom of Perpetua we read that two deacons were appointed to visit her and relieve the severity of her imprisonment.] It is interesting to find that Philo claims for Moses a φιλαδεφία towards strangers, enjoining sympathy, ὡς ἐν διαιρετοῖς μέρεσιν ἕν ζῶον , as being all one living creature though in diverse parts; and in De Spec. Legg . 30 he has ὡς ἐν τοῖς ἑτέρων σώμασιν αὐτοὶ κακούμενοι . Westcott gives from early Christian documents a collection of interesting prayers for those suffering imprisonment.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be so much touched, as if their misery were yours.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Remember--in prayers and acts of kindness.

bound with them--by virtue of the unity of the members in the body under one Head, Christ (Co1 12:26).

suffer adversity--Greek, "are in evil state."

being yourselves also in the body--and so liable to the adversities incident to the natural body, which ought to dispose you the more to sympathize with them, not knowing how soon your own turn of suffering may come. "One experiences adversity almost his whole life, as Jacob; another in youth, as Joseph; another in manhood, as Job; another in old age" [BENGEL].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. Remember them that are in bonds] He appears to refer to those Christian's who were suffering imprisonment for the testimony of Jesus.

As bound with them] Feel for them as you would wish others to feel for you were you in their circumstances, knowing that, being in the body, you are liable to the same evils, and may be called to suffer in the same way for the same cause.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. Remember them that are in bonds, or, Be mindful of the bound, etc. There is nothing that can give us a more genuine feeling of compassion than to put ourselves in the place of those who are in distress; hence he says, that we ought to think of those in bonds as though we were bound with them. What follows the first clause, As being yourselves also in the body, is variously explained. Some take a general view thus, “Ye are also exposed to the same evils, according to the common lot of humanity;” but others give a more restricted sense, “As though ye were in their body.” Of neither can I approve, for I apply the words to the body of the Church, so that the meaning would be this, “Since ye are members of the same body, it behooves you to feel in common for each other’s evils, that there may be nothing disunited among you.”

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(3) As bound with them.—Either (1) “As if ye yourselves were in bonds” (see Heb_10:33-34; 1Co_12:26)—by true fellow-feeling make yourselves sharers in their lot; or, (2) “mindful that ye too are in bonds”—like them ye are Christ’s prisoners, and their bonds are but one of the tokens of that service in which all Christians are bound. (Comp. 1Co_7:22.)

As being yourselves also in the body.—“Mindful that you, like them, still dwell in a body liable to pain, and may therefore suffer ill-treatment in the cause of Christ.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. Remember them that are in bonds] Comp. Col_4:18.

as bound with them] Lit., “as having been bound with them.” In the perfectness of sympathy their bonds are your bonds (1Co_12:26), for you and they alike are Christ’s Slaves (1Co_7:22) and Christ’s Captives (2Co_2:14 in the Greek). Lucian’s tract (referred to in the previous note) dwells on the effusive kindness of Christians to their brethren who were imprisoned as confessors.

as being yourselves also in the body] And therefore as being yourselves liable to similar maltreatment. “In the body” does not mean “in the body of the Church,” but “human beings, born to suffer.” You must therefore “weep with them that weep” (Rom_12:15). The expressions of the verse (κακουχουμένων, ὡς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὄντες ἐν σώματι read like a reminiscence of Philo (De Spec. Legg. § 30) who says ὡς ἐν τοῖς ἑτέρων σώμασιν αὐτοὶ κακούμενοι “as being yourselves also afflicted in the bodies of others;” but if so the reminiscence is only verbal, and the application more simple. Incidentally the verse shews how much the Christians of that day were called upon to endure.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Remember them that are in bonds,.... Not for criminal actions, or for debt, though such should be remembered, and pity showed them, especially the latter; but such as are in bonds for the sake of Christ, and the Gospel. This has been often the lot of God's people, who should be remembered, by praying for them, sending comfortable letters to them, personally visiting them, and relieving them under their distresses:

as bound with them; as if it were so, as if in the same condition, and circumstances; by sympathizing with them; by considering themselves liable to the same bonds; by dealing with them as it would be desirable to be dealt with in the same case: and

them which suffer adversity; outward afflictions of body, distress for want of temporal mercies, food and raiment, and persecution by enemies; or spiritual adversity, as the prevailings of corruptions, and particularly unbelief, the hidings of God's face, and the temptations of Satan.

As being yourselves also in the body; as if in their bodies, enduring the same things; or as being afflicted in the body with diseases, necessities, and persecutions; or as being in the body, the church, of which these afflicted ones are a part, and therefore should have a fellow feeling with them; or rather as being in this world, in the flesh, or in a body and state subject to the like adversities, temporal and spiritual.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

Ver. 3. Remember them that, &c.] Learn hence, saith one, that it is no new thing for the world to put bonds on them, who seek to bring them out of bondage. It is very probable that Micaiah was that disguised prophet, who brought to Ahab the fearful message of displeasure and death for dismissing Benhadad, for which he ever after hated him, and held him in prison.

As being yourselves also in the body] Not the body of Christ, or the Church, as Calvin senseth it, but in the body of flesh and frailty, subject to like afflictions; so Erasmus, Beza, Pareus, and others. Now such as these must be remembered, so Heb 13:7; Heb 13:16. Hence this chapter is called by a divine, the Chapter of Remembrances, or the Remembrancer’s Chapter.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Remember them that are in bonds - All who are “bound;” whether prisoners of war; captives in dungeons; those detained in custody for trial; those who are imprisoned for righteousness’ sake, or those held in slavery. The word used here will include all instances where “bonds, shackles, chains were ever used.” Perhaps there is an immediate allusion to their fellow-Christians who were suffering imprisonment on account of their religion, of whom there were doubtless many at that time, but the “principle” will apply to every case of those who are imprisoned or oppressed. The word “remember” implies more than that we are merely to “think” of them; compare Exo 20:8; Ecc 12:1. It means that we are to remember them “with appropriate sympathy;” or as we should wish others to remember us if we were in their circumstances. That is, we are

(1)To feel deep compassion for them;

(2)We are to remember them in our prayers;

(3)We are to remember them, as far as practicable, with aid for their relief.

Christianity teaches us to sympathize with all the oppressed, the suffering, and the sad; and there are more of this class than we commonly suppose, and they have stronger claims on our sympathy than we commonly realize. In America there are not far from ten thousand confined in prison - the father separated from his children; the husband from his wife; the brother from his sister; and all cut off from the living world. Their fare is coarse, and their couches hard, and the ties which bound them to the living world are rudely snapped asunder. Many of them are in solitary dungeons; all of them are sad and melancholy men. True, they are there for crime; but they are men - they are our brothers. They have still the feelings of our common humanity, and many of them feel their separation from wife, and children, and home, as keenly as we would.

That God who has mercifully made our lot different from theirs, has commanded us to sympathize with them - and we should sympathize all the more when we remember that but for his restraining grace we should have been in the same condition. There are in this land of “liberty” also nearly three millions who are held in the hard bondage of slavery. There is the father, the mother, the child, the brother, the sister. They are held as property; liable to be sold; having no right to the avails of their own labor; exposed to the danger of having the tenderest ties sundered at the will of their master; shut out from the privilege of reading the Word of God; fed on coarse fare; living in wretched hovels; and often subjected to the painful inflictions of the lash at the caprice of a passionate driver. Wives and daughters are made the victims of degrading sensuality without the power of resistance or redress; the security of home is unknown; and they are dependent on the will of another man whether they shall or shall not worship their Creator. We should remember them, and sympathize with them as if they were our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, or sons and daughters.

Though of different colour, yet the same blood flows in their veins as in ours Act 17:26; they are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. By nature they have the same right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” which we and our children have, and to deprive them of that right is as unjust as it would be to deprive us and ours of it. They have a claim on our sympathy, for they are our brethren. They need it, for they are poor and helpless. They should have it, for the same God who has kept us from that hard lot has commanded us to remember them. That kind remembrance of them should be shown in every practicable way. By prayer; by plans contemplating their freedom; by efforts to send them the gospel; by diffusing abroad the principles of liberty and of the rights of man, by using our influence to arouse the public mind in their behalf, we should endeavor to relieve those who are in bonds, and to hasten the time when “the oppressed shall go free.” On this subject, see the notes on Isa 58:6.

As bound with them - There is great force and beauty in this expression. Religion teaches us to identify ourselves with all who are oppressed, and to feel what they suffer as if we endured it ourselves. Infidelity and atheism are cold and distant. They stand aloof from the oppressed and the sad. But Christianity unites all hearts in one; binds us to all the race, and reveals to us in the case of each one oppressed and injured, a brother.

And them which suffer adversity - The word used here refers properly to those who are maltreated, or who are injured by others. It does not properly refer to those who merely experience calamity.

As being ourselves also in the body - As being yourselves exposed to persecution and suffering, and liable to be injured. That is, do to them as you would wish them to do to you if you were the sufferer. When we see an oppressed and injured man, we should remember that it is possible that we may be in the same circumstances, and that then we shall need and desire the sympathy of others.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

As being yourselves also in the body. That is, liable to troubles and afflictions as long as you are in a mortal body. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them: a further duty of the subjects of Christ’s kingdom, is sympathy with their Christian brethren, to remember to pray for, visit, and minister all necessary refreshment to those in bonds, fettered, manacled, and imprisoned for Christ’s sake and the gospel; being straitened for them, and partaking of their bonds, bearing them with them, and seeking their deliverance out of them by all just means, Mat 25:36; Eph 6:19,20; Col 4:18; 2Ti 1:16-18.

And them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body; be mindful of those suffering any evil for Christ’s sake and the gospel, persecuted, oppressed, or afflicted, who have not deserved any of this from man, so as to carry it suitably to them in these conditions, Heb 11:36-38; so feelingly, as if we were the persons in their conditions; carefully, knowing we are in bodies capable and liable to the same, and are ignorant how soon it may be our own case; conscientiously, as knowing we are members in the same body of Christ with them, and of them in particular, 1Co 12:25-27.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. Remember them that are in bonds—From the travelling brother to be entertained, transition is easily made to the brethren in prison.

As bound with them—As if their bonds were your bonds, since ye are one in Christ, liable to the same persecutions.

Suffer—The common lot of all in the body, and so demanding a common sympathy between those in common lot. To learn from our own sufferings to sympathize with sufferers is a very valuable piece of education—an education of the heart.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. The Hebrew readers have been also specially commended for their past sympathy with their imprisoned and despoiled brethren, (Heb_10:33, etc.) having been themselves also at the same time persecuted. Whether or not sufferers themselves now, they must not be forgetful of those that are "As bound with them" seems best taken as expressing the sympathy of one member with another (cf. Heb_10:33, 34 and 1Co_12:26, "If one member suffer," etc.). "As being yourselves," etc., reminds them that they are still in the flesh, and so not only on this account bound to sympathize, but also liable themselves at any time to the like afflictions. Exhortations to personal purity and to contentedness follow next. Of the need, and prominence in the Epistles, of warnings against impurity see what was said on agiasmon . (Heb_12:14) St. Paul is given to couple covetousness "rod uncleanness together in his warnings, as cognate sins, and alike incompatible with the kingdom of God. (cf. 1Co_5:10, 11 6:9, etc.; Eph_5:3, 5 Col_3:5) Greediness, or inordinate desire (pleonexia), may be for sensual indulgence or for wealth the same word is used in both senses; and such pleonexia , whatever its object, is fatal to the spiritual life. So here, after a warning against impurity, comes a like one against covetousness.

Sufferers to be remembered.

I THOSE IN BONDS. Doubtless those in bonds for Christ and conscience sake. In the worst of persecuting times there seems to have been a body of Christians suffering nothing, or comparatively little. Some, in bonds, have preached all the more effectively; others have continued free to make known the gospel far and wide. This admonition becoming ever less needful so far as literal imprisonment for Christ"s sake is concerned. But still we must bear in mind the admonition, so far as the essence of it is concerned. For the persecuting spirit of the world remains; the world persecutes, not meaning to persecute; does not know all the suffering it inflicts. We must be quick to discover all sufferers for conscience" sake, and intercede for them. Then let the exhortation also include those in bonds as evildoers. Of such, alas! there is still abundance. Civilization is not able to do without the prison. Let us consider that in less favorable circumstances we also might have been criminals. Let Christians be forward in all that tries to prevent the child growing into a criminal manhood, and the liberated criminal lapsing again into evil ways. "Put yourself in his place," and so let your heart go out in pity and effort for the vilest of mankind.

II THEM WHICH SUFFER ADVERSITY. All that a man can suffer because he is in the body let that draw out your pity and help. Here, again, no doubt, the primary reference is to a state of things that has largely passed away. Christians had to suffer physical violence. This was a readier and cheaper way of venting hatred against them than putting them in prison. The fist and the cudgel are soon got in action. And here again, too, let the exhortation pass far beyond the limits of its first occasion. You are in the body, and can suffer pain through the senses; and what you can suffer, many actually do suffer.

III THE MEANING OF THE REMEMBRANCE. Merely to remember would do no good. The remembrance must be so constant, so burdensome, as to make you act. There is a kind of reproach in the word; it implies that we only too easily forget the prisoner and the oppressed. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Remember - In your prayers, and by your help. Them that are in bonds, as being bound with them - Seeing ye are members one of another. And them that suffer, as being yourselves in the body - And consequently liable to the same.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Hospitality towards strangers was expressed in the forgoing verse; here, compassion towards sufferers, such as are captives, prisoners in bonds, either upon a religious or civil account.

Here note, 1. That bodily bondage is a bitter bondage; captivity is a most grievous calamity.

2. That we are very prone to forget other’s captivity, when we ourselves are in prosperity.

3. That such as are in bonds for Christ’s sake especially, and his holy gospel, ought particularly to be remembered by us, they are and ought to be the peculiar objects of our compassion; although, considering the cause in which they suffer; it is better, and more honourable, to be in bonds for Christ, than to be at liberty with a raging persecuting world; for bonds and imprisonments for the truth, were consecrated to God, and made honourable by the bonds and imprisonment of Christ himself, and commended to the church in all ages, by the bonds and imprisonments of the apostles, and the primitive witnesses to Christianity.

Note farther, How we are to be mindful of them, and in what manner, by visiting of them, administering to them, sympathizing with them, praying for them, and all this as bound with them, which implies and act of union, as members of the same mystical body, and suffering in and for the same common cause; remember them that are in bonds, \as bound with them; it follows, and those that suffer adversity, as being in the body.

This implies, that there are many kinds of afflictions besides bonds; that we are prone to forget those who suffer lighter and lesser afflictions; if they be not in bonds, we are ready to forget them, thought they suffer much adversity; but the command is more general, to remember all that are in any kind of adversity, whether they suffer in body, name, or estate, by sickness, pain, losses, reproaches, or any kind of calamity; the professors of religion are exempted from no sorts of adversity, and under ever kind of it we must remember them, and sympathize with them, because we ourselves are in the body with them; that is, say some, we are members of the same mystical body with them, and therefore when one member suffers, all the members are to suffer with it. Yourselves are in the body; that is say others, in the same state of natural life, subject and obnoxious to the same sufferings, and within the reach of the same adversities.

Learn hence, That a sense of our own being continually obnoxious unto sufferings during this life, ought to incline our minds to a diligent consideration of others in their sufferings, so as to discharge all duties of love and helpfulness towards them, as an evidence of our interest in the same mystical body with them, and as a ground of just expectation of the like relief and compassion from them; Remember them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. Remember them that are in bonds. Another manifestation of brotherly love. The prisoners referred to are those imprisoned for Christ's sake. The Christian must enter into full sympathy with all his suffering brethren.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

as if you were bound with them

This can be stated in active form. AT: "as if you were tied up along with them" or "as if you were in prison with them" (See: Active or Passive)

who are mistreated

This can be stated in active form. AT: "whom others are mistreating" or "who are suffering" (See: Active or Passive)

as if you also were them in the body

This phrase encourages believers to think about other people's suffering as they would think about their own suffering. AT: "as if you were the one suffering" (See: Active or Passive)

Let marriage be respected by everyone

This can be stated in active form. AT: "Men and women who are married to each other must respect each other" (See: Active or Passive)

Let the marriage bed be pure

This refers to the act of sexual union as if it were only the bed of a married couple. AT: "Let husbands and wives honor their marriage relationship to one another and not sleep with other people" (See: Euphemism and Metonymy)

translationWords

prison

bind

pure

judge

sexual immorality

adultery

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

3. τῶν δεσμίων. Comp. Col 4:18.

ὡς συνδεδεμένοι. Lit., “as having been bound with them.” In the perfectness of sympathy their bonds are your bonds (1Co 12:26), for you and they alike are Christ’s slaves (1Co 7:22) and Christ’s captives (2Co 2:14 in the Greek). This seems to be the meaning rather than that the Hebrew Christians too have had their own personal experience of imprisonment for the faith. Lucian’s tract (referred to in the previous note) dwells on the effusive kindness of Christians to their brethren who were imprisoned as confessors.

ἐν σώματι. And therefore as being yourselves liable to similar maltreatment. “In the body” does not mean “in the body of the Church,” but “human beings, born to suffer.” You must therefore “weep with them that weep” (Rom 12:15). The expressions of the verse (κακουχουμένων, ὡς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὄντες ἐν σώματι) read like a reminiscence of Philo (De Spec. Legg. § 30) who says ὡς ἐν τοῖς ἑτέρων σώμασιν αὐτοὶ κακούμενοι, “as being yourselves also afflicted in the bodies of others”; but if so the reminiscence is only verbal, and the application more simple. Incidentally the verse shews how much the Christians of that day were called upon to endure.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3.] φιλαδελφία is now specifically urged in two of its departments, hospitality, and care of prisoners.

3.] Remember (cf. ch. 2:6) them that are in bonds, as if bound with them (cf. 1Co 12:26: as fully sympathizing with them in their captivity: not, as Böhme, al., “quippe ejus naturæ et conditionis homines, qui ipsi quoque pro captivis sint, nimirum in ecclesia pressa degentes,” which is travelling too far from the context): those in distress (κακουχουμένων is the general idea, including captives and any other classes of distressed persons: as Œc. and Thl., ἢ ἐν φυλακαῖς ἢ ἐν λιμῷ ἢ ἐν ἑτέρᾳ θλίψει), as also yourselves being in the body (i. e. as in reff., bound up with a body which has the same capacity of suffering. The words have been differently rendered. Calvin says, “Refero ad ecclesiæ corpus, ut sit sensus, Quandoquidem estis ejusdem corporis membra, communiter vos affici decet alios aliorum malis:” and so Braun, al. But this cannot be extracted from the words ἐν σώματι, without the article. Beza renders, “ac si ipsi quoque corpore adflicti essetis:” and says, “ἐν σώματι prorsus videtur illud declarare quod in vernaculo sermone dicimus en personne:” in other words, says Bleek, as Philo expresses it, De Spec. Legg. ad 6. 7, § 30, vol. ii. p. 326, ὡς ἐν τοῖς ἑτέρων σώμασιν αὐτοὶ κακούμενοι. But this is equally out of the question: and there can be no doubt that the simple meaning is the true one. So Œc. (εἰ γάρ τις ἀναλογίσαιτο, ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸς περίκειται ὁμοιοπαθὲς ἐκείνοις σῶμα, ἐλεήσει μᾶλλον αὐτοὺς διά τε τὴν συμπάθειαν καὶ διὰ τὸν φόβον μὴ τὰ ὅμοια ἐκ τῆς ἀπανθρωπίας πάθῃ), Thl., and most Commentators).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Them that are in bonds [των δεσμιων] . See on ch. Heb 10:34. As bound with them [ως συνδεδεμενοι] . N. T. o. As if you were fellow - prisoners. Comp. 1Co 12:14 - 26; 2Co 11:29. Public intercession for prisoners has formed a part of the service of the church from the earliest times. See the prayer at the close of Clem. Rom Ad Corinth. 59. It also occurs in the daily morning service of the synagogue.

Which suffer adversity [κακουχουμενων] . Rend. are evil entreated. See on ch. Heb 11:37.

As being yourselves also in the body [ως και αυτοι οντες εν σωματι] . As subject like them to bodily sufferings. Not in the body - the church, which would require the article. The expression ejn swmati in the sense of being still alive, only in 2Co 12:2

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.