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Selected Verse: Hebrews 13:3 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Heb 13:3 |
King James |
Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
Remember--in prayers and acts of kindness.
bound with them--by virtue of the unity of the members in the body under one Head, Christ (Co1 12:26).
suffer adversity--Greek, "are in evil state."
being yourselves also in the body--and so liable to the adversities incident to the natural body, which ought to dispose you the more to sympathize with them, not knowing how soon your own turn of suffering may come. "One experiences adversity almost his whole life, as Jacob; another in youth, as Joseph; another in manhood, as Job; another in old age" [BENGEL]. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Remember them that are in bonds - All who are "bound;" whether prisoners of war; captives in dungeons; those detained in custody for trial; those who are imprisoned for righteousness' sake, or those held in slavery. The word used here will include all instances where "bonds, shackles, chains were ever used." Perhaps there is an immediate allusion to their fellow-Christians who were suffering imprisonment on account of their religion, of whom there were doubtless many at that time, but the "principle" will apply to every case of those who are imprisoned or oppressed. The word "remember" implies more than that we are merely to "think" of them; compare Exo 20:8; Ecc 12:1. It means that we are to remember them "with appropriate sympathy;" or as we should wish others to remember us if we were in their circumstances. That is, we are
(1) to feel deep compassion for them;
(2) we are to remember them in our prayers;
(3) we are to remember them, as far as practicable, with aid for their relief.
Christianity teaches us to sympathize with all the oppressed, the suffering, and the sad; and there are more of this class than we commonly suppose, and they have stronger claims on our sympathy than we commonly realize. In America there are not far from ten thousand confined in prison - the father separated from his children; the husband from his wife; the brother from his sister; and all cut off from the living world. Their fare is coarse, and their couches hard, and the ties which bound them to the living world are rudely snapped asunder. Many of them are in solitary dungeons; all of them are sad and melancholy men. True, they are there for crime; but they are men - they are our brothers. They have still the feelings of our common humanity, and many of them feel their separation from wife, and children, and home, as keenly as we would.
That God who has mercifully made our lot different from theirs, has commanded us to sympathize with them - and we should sympathize all the more when we remember that but for his restraining grace we should have been in the same condition. There are in this land of "liberty" also nearly three millions who are held in the hard bondage of slavery. There is the father, the mother, the child, the brother, the sister. They are held as property; liable to be sold; having no right to the avails of their own labor; exposed to the danger of having the tenderest ties sundered at the will of their master; shut out from the privilege of reading the Word of God; fed on coarse fare; living in wretched hovels; and often subjected to the painful inflictions of the lash at the caprice of a passionate driver. Wives and daughters are made the victims of degrading sensuality without the power of resistance or redress; the security of home is unknown; and they are dependent on the will of another man whether they shall or shall not worship their Creator. We should remember them, and sympathize with them as if they were our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, or sons and daughters.
Though of different colour, yet the same blood flows in their veins as in ours Act 17:26; they are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. By nature they have the same right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" which we and our children have, and to deprive them of that right is as unjust as it would be to deprive us and ours of it. They have a claim on our sympathy, for they are our brethren. They need it, for they are poor and helpless. They should have it, for the same God who has kept us from that hard lot has commanded us to remember them. That kind remembrance of them should be shown in every practicable way. By prayer; by plans contemplating their freedom; by efforts to send them the gospel; by diffusing abroad the principles of liberty and of the rights of man, by using our influence to arouse the public mind in their behalf, we should endeavor to relieve those who are in bonds, and to hasten the time when "the oppressed shall go free." On this subject, see the notes on Isa 58:6.
As bound with them - There is great force and beauty in this expression. Religion teaches us to identify ourselves with all who are oppressed, and to feel what they suffer as if we endured it ourselves. Infidelity and atheism are cold and distant. They stand aloof from the oppressed and the sad. But Christianity unites all hearts in one; binds us to all the race, and reveals to us in the case of each one oppressed and injured, a brother.
And them which suffer adversity - The word used here refers properly to those who are maltreated, or who are injured by others. It does not properly refer to those who merely experience calamity.
As being ourselves also in the body - As being yourselves exposed to persecution and suffering, and liable to be injured. That is, do to them as you would wish them to do to you if you were the sufferer. When we see an oppressed and injured man, we should remember that it is possible that we may be in the same circumstances, and that then we shall need and desire the sympathy of others. |
| Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886] |
Them that are in bonds (τῶν δεσμίων)
See on Heb 10:34.
As bound with them (ὡς συνδεδεμένοι)
N.T.o. As if you were fellow-prisoners. Comp. Co1 12:14-26; Co2 11:29. Public intercession for prisoners has formed a part of the service of the church from the earliest times. See the prayer at the close of Clem. Rom Ad Corinth. lix. It also occurs in the daily morning service of the synagogue.
Which suffer adversity (κακουχουμένων)
Rend. are evil entreated. See on Heb 11:37.
As being yourselves also in the body (ὡς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὄντες ἐν σώματι)
As subject like them to bodily sufferings. Not in the body - the church, which would require the article. The expression ἐν σώματι in the sense of being still alive, only in Co2 12:2. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Remember - In your prayers, and by your help. Them that are in bonds, as being bound with them - Seeing ye are members one of another. And them that suffer, as being yourselves in the body - And consequently liable to the same. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Remember them that are in bonds - He appears to refer to those Christian's who were suffering imprisonment for the testimony of Jesus.
As bound with them - Feel for them as you would wish others to feel for you were you in their circumstances, knowing that, being in the body, you are liable to the same evils, and may be called to suffer in the same way for the same cause. |
26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
14 For the body is not one member, but many.
15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.
21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:
25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.