For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
For - The motive to 'holding our profession' (Hebrews 4:14); namely, the sympathy and help we may expect from our High Priest. Though "great" (Hebrews 4:14), He is not above caring for us; nay, being in all points one with us as to manhood, sin only excepted, He sympathizes with us in every temptation. Though exalted to the highest heavens, He has changed His place, not His nature and office, toward us; His condition, not His affection. Compare Matthew 26:38, "watch with me," showing His desire in His day of suffering for the sympathy of those whom He loved: so He now gives His suffering people His sympathy. Compare Aaron, bearing the names of the twelve tribes in the breastplate of judgment on his heart, when he entered into the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually (Exodus 28:29).
Cannot be touched with the feeling of, х sumpatheesai (G4834)] - 'cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,' physical and moral; not sin, but liability to its assaults. He, though sinless, can sympathize with sinners; His understanding more acutely perceived the forms of temptation than we; His will repelled them as instantaneously as fire does water cast into it. He experimentally knew what power was needed to overcome. He is capable of sympathizing, for He was at the same time tempted without sin, and yet truly tempted (Bengel). In Him alone is an example suited to men of every character and under all circumstances. In sympathy he adapts Himself to each, as if He had not merely taken man's nature in general, but the special nature of that single individual.
Like as we are, х kath' (G2596) homoioteeta (G3665)] - 'according to (our) similitude.'
Without sin, х chooris (G5565)] - 'separate from sin' (Hebrews 7:26). [If aneu (G427) had been used, sin would have been regarded as the object absent from Christ, the subject; but chooris (G5565) implies that Christ, the subject, is regarded separate from sin, the object (Tittmann).] Throughout his temptations, in their origin, process, and result, sin had nothing in Him (Alford).