And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Save with fear. A B 'Aleph ('), Vulgate, have, after 'snatching them out of the fire' (with which cf. Amos 4:11; Zechariah 3:2; 1 Corinthians 3:15: a most narrow escape), a THIRD class, 'and others compassionate (not in C) with (IN) fear.' Three kinds of patients require three kinds of treatment. Ministers and Christians "save" those whom they are the instruments of saving. х Soozete (G4982), "save," is present; therefore meaning, 'try to save.'] Jude already (Jude 1:9) referred to the passage, Zechariah 3:1-3. The three classes are:
(1) those who contend with you (accusative in oldest Manuscripts.), whom convict;
(2) those as brands already in the fire, of which hell fire is the consummation: these try to save by snatching out;
(3) those who are objects of compassion, whom accordingly compassionate and help, but let not pity degenerate into connivance at their error. Your "compassion" is to be accompanied "with fear" of being defiled by them.
Hating. Hatred has its legitimate field of exercise. Sin is the only thing which God hates; so ought we.
Even the garment - proverbial: avoiding the least contact with sin; hating that which borders on it. As garments of the apostles wrought good in healing (Acts 19:12: cf. the woman with an issue of blood, Matthew 9:20-21), so the garment of sinners metaphorically; i:e., anything brought into contact with their pollution is to be avoided. Compare as to leprosy and other defilements, Leviticus 13:52-57; Leviticus 15:4-17. Anyone touching the garments of those so defiled was excluded, until purified, from religious and civil communion with the sanctified people of Israel. Christians who received at baptism the white garment, in token of purity, are not to defile it by any approach to defiled things.