Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
Ver. 1. Now we beseech you, brethren] Christ's spokesmen must be fair spoken, so wooing for him that they may win upon men's hearts, leading by the hand those that are willing, and drawing after a sort those that are less willing, that they may present them as a chaste virgin to Christ, 2 Corinthians 11:2. This earnest obtestation imports that it is both easy and dangerous to be carried away by seducers; for the Scripture doth not use to "cleave straws with beetles" to be so serious in a slight matter. "We beseech you," of all loves, ερωτωμεν (from ερως, love). Brethren, womb brethren, as near in nature as is possible. a "By the coming of our Lord Jesus," whom you love, look and long for; "and by your gathering together," επισυναγωγη, as ever you desire and hope to hover under his wings, as the chickens under the hen's, that the infernal kites catch you not at that day.
By the coming of our Lord] He draweth an argument from the matter underhand wherewith their hearts were now heated beforehand. It must be an elaborate speech that shall work upon the heart.
And by our gathering together unto him] In that last and great day, when all the eagles shall be gathered to that once dead, but now all-quickening carcase, Matthew 24:28; when the sign of the Son of man shall be lifted up as an ensign, and all the saints shall repair to it, as the soldiers do to their colours, Ephesians 1:10 .
a Αδελφος, from α and δελφυς uterus: fratres uterini.