Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
Ver. 14. Warn them that are unruly] Cry Cave miser, Beware the wretch, stop them in their cursed career, tell them that hell gapes for them, and is but a little before them; snatch them out of the fire, saving them with fear,Judges 1:23. Neglect of private admonition, how it stings the consciences of the best at death, see Mr Hiron's Life prefixed to the second part of his worthy works. See also Mr Baxter's Saint's Everlasting Rest, p. 497.
Comfort the feeble minded] The dispirited, faint hearted, sick, and sinking under the sense of sin and fear of wrath. A Christian should have feeding lips and a healing tongue. The contrary whereunto is deeply detested,Ezekiel 34:4 .
Support the weak] Set to your shoulder and shore them up, αστεχεσθε. Deal not as the herd of deer do with the wounded deer, forsake and push it away from them. Christ gathereth his lambs with his arm, and bears them in his bosom, Isaiah 40:11. He had a great care of his weaker tribes when they marched through the wilderness, for in their several brigades he put a strong tribe to two weak tribes, as Judah to Issachar and Zabulon, &c. The Greek word here rendered support, signifieth sublevare alioqui ruituros, saith Beza, to keep up those that would else go to the ground.