I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.
Ver. 8. To prove the sincerity] Gr. το γνησιον, the germanity, the naturalness, legitimateness opposed to bastardliness. This age aboundeth with mouth mercy, which is good cheap, and therefore like refuse fruit is found growing in every hedge. But a little handful were worth a great many such mouthfuls, Isaiah 58:13. Complaint is made that there is not any one that taketh Sion by the hand. St James tells of some in his time that would feed their poor brethren with good words and good wishes, James 2:15,16, as if they had been of the chameleon kind, to live with Ephraim upon wind, Hosea 12:1. But what said the poor man to the cardinal who denied him a penny which he begged, and offered him his blessing, which he begged not? If thy blessing had been worth a penny, I should not have had it: keep it therefore to thyself. (Carle.)