2 Thessalonians 3:15

Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) Yet.—The original is simply And, which is much more beautiful, implying that this very withdrawal from brotherly intercourse was an act of brotherly kindness.

An enemy.—In the private, not the public, sense. “Do not think of him as one with whom you must be at feud, to be thwarted and humbled on every occasion.” St. Chrysostom exclaims, “How soon the father’s-heart breaks down!”

Admonish him as a brother.—How was this to be done without “having company” with him? Perhaps the presbyters, to whom the work of “admonishing,” or “warning,” specially belonged (see 1Thessalonians 5:12; 1Thessalonians 5:14), were to visit them in private with that object. Or possibly, the admonition was to consist in the act of separation, and not in verbal reproof at all.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:6-15 Those who have received the gospel, are to live according to the gospel. Such as could work, and would not, were not to be maintained in idleness. Christianity is not to countenance slothfulness, which would consume what is meant to encourage the industrious, and to support the sick and afflicted. Industry in our callings as men, is a duty required by our calling as Christians. But some expected to be maintained in idleness, and indulged a curious and conceited temper. They meddled with the concerns of others, and did much harm. It is a great error and abuse of religion, to make it a cloak for idleness or any other sin. The servant who waits for the coming of his Lord aright, must be working as his Lord has commanded. If we are idle, the devil and a corrupt heart will soon find us somewhat to do. The mind of man is a busy thing; if it is not employed in doing good, it will be doing evil. It is an excellent, but rare union, to be active in our own business, yet quiet as to other people's. If any refused to labour with quietness, they were to note him with censure, and to separate from his company, yet they were to seek his good by loving admonitions. The Lords is with you while you are with him. Hold on your way, and hold on to the end. We must never give over, or tire in our work. It will be time enough to rest when we come to heaven.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother - This shows the true spirit in which discipline is to be administered in the Christian church. We are not to deal with a man as an adversary over whom we are to seek to gain a victory, but as an erring brother - a brother still, though he errs. There was necessity for this caution. There is great danger that when we undertake the work of discipline we shall forget that he who is the subject of it is a brother, and that we shall regard and treat him as an enemy. Such is human nature. We set ourselves in array against him. We cut him off as one who is unworthy to walk with us. We triumph over him, and consider him at once as an enemy of the church, and as having lost all claim to its sympathies. We abandon him to the tender mercies of a cold and unfeeling world, and let him take his course. Perhaps we follow him with anathemas, and hold him up as unworthy the confidence of mankind. Now all this is entirely unlike the method and aim of discipline as the New Testament requires. There all is kind, and gentle, though firm; the offender is a man and a brother still; he is to be followed with tender sympathy and prayer, and the hearts and the arms of the Christian brotherhood are to be open to receive him again when he gives any evidence of repenting.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. admonish him as a brother—not yet excommunicated (compare Le 19:17). Do not shun him in contemptuous silence, but tell him why he is so avoided (Mt 18:15; 1Th 5:14).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They having thus proceeded against the disorderly and disobedient, the apostle directs them about their after-carriage, which either respects their inward opinion of the mind, or outward action.

Yet count him not as an enemy; they should not count him an enemy, putting a great difference between an offending brother and a professed enemy. They ought not to hate him as an enemy, nor look upon him as upon such who out of enmity to the gospel persecute Christianity, nor to have an unreconcilable mind towards him.

But admonish him as a brother; and as to outward action, should admonish him as a brother. It is either private or public, ministerial or fraternal, gentle or severe, joined with commination. The Greeks express it in the degrees of it by three words, nouyesia, epitimea, epiplhxiv. The word in the text signifies a putting in mind: they were to put the offender in mind of his sin, and in mind of his duty. Though they were to have no company with him in a way of familiarity, yet to be in his company so as to admonish him; and the admonition here meant is either public, in the church, or private; or first private, then public, as our Saviour gives the rule, Matthew 18:15-17. So that his repentance is to be endeavoured not only by abstaining his company, but by admonition. And it is to be performed to him as a brother, which either respects the state of the person admonished: he is not an enemy, or pagan, or one out of the visible church, but a brother, whereby some conceive that the apostle had not before spoken of his excommunication. Or it respects the way of admonition: it is to be performed with love, tenderness, and compassion, as to a brother, not to upbraid him, but to gain him; as Matthew 18:15: If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. And for that end great prudence is to be used. The temper of the offenders, the quality of the sin, their outward condition in the world, their age, yea, the circumstances of time and place, are to be considered.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Yet count him not as an enemy,.... As an enemy of Christ, and the Christian religion, as the Jews and Pagans were; or as an enemy of all righteousness, as Elymas the sorcerer was; as one that has an implacable hatred to good men, and a persecutor of them, and has an utter aversion to them and their principles; nor deal with him in an hostile, fierce, furious, and passionate manner, as if you were seeking his destruction, and not his restoration. This seems to be levelled against the Jews, who allowed of hatred to incorrigible persons: they say (t),

"an hater that is spoken of in the law, is not of the nations of the world, but of Israel; but how shall an Israelite hate an Israelite? does not the Scripture say, "thou shall not hate thy brother in thine heart?" the wise men say, when a man sees him alone, who has committed a transgression, and he admonishes him, and he does not return, lo, it is , "a commandment to hate him" until he repents and turns from his wickedness.''

But admonish, or "reprove" him

as a brother; as one that has been called a brother, and a member of the church, and who, though criminal, has no bitterness in him against the church, or against the name of Christ, and the doctrines of Christ; and therefore should not be treated in a virulent manner, but with a brotherly affection, meekness, compassion, and tenderness; and who indeed is to be reckoned as a brother, while the censure is passing, and the sentence of excommunication is executing on him; for till it is finished he stands in such a relation: though this also may have respect, as to the manner of excommunicating persons, so to the conduct of the church to such afterwards; who are not to neglect them, and much less to treat them as enemies, in a cruel and uncompassionate manner; but should inquire, and diligently observe, what effect the ordinance of excommunication has upon them, and renew their admonitions and friendly reproofs, if possible, to recover them.

(t) Maimon. Hilchot Rotzeach, c. 13. sect. 14.

Geneva Study Bible

{14} Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

(14) We must avoid familiarity with the one who has been excommunicated in such a way, that we diligently seek every occasion and means that may be, to bring them again into the right way.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

2 Thessalonians 3:15. But no hostile feeling against the erring was to be conjoined with this avoidance of social intercourse; on the contrary, as he is a Christian brother, advice and admonition are not to be omitted in order to convert him from his error by convincing reasons.

ὡς] united with ἡγεῖσθαι, otherwise unusual, brings still more prominently forward the subjective notion or representation implied in the verb. In a corresponding manner ὥσπερ occurs with ἡγεῖσθαι in the LXX. Comp. Job 19:11; Job 33:10.

Expositor's Greek Testament

2 Thessalonians 3:15. Disapproval, as a means of moral discipline, loses all its effect if the offender does not realise its object and reason (νουθετεῖτε), or if it is tainted with personal hostility.—ὡς ἀδελφόν. Compare the fine saying of Rabbi Chanina ben Gamaliel on Deuteronomy 25:3, that after the punishment the offender is expressly called brother, not sinner.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother] Lit., And do not regard him as an enemy, &c. The R.V. retains “yet” in italics (“And yet”); but the contrast thus implied is not in St Paul’s thought, any more than in his language. The measure which he directs to be taken in 2 Thessalonians 3:14 is a saving measure, designed to bring the intractable man to a better mind—“that be may be ashamed.” Hence there must be no unkind feeling towards him, no bitter expression. This would provoke him to sullenness instead of shame, defeating the Apostle’s purpose. In its sympathy with St Paul the assembly might easily be stirred, on reading this letter, to some hostile demonstration that would cause a decisive rupture; this he deprecates.

The instruction of 2 Thessalonians 3:6 was general in its terms, and would apply to any sort of disorder; so the direction of 1 Thessalonians 5:14, “Admonish the unruly.” Those two injunctions are here combined, and enforced in this specific instance. For in such a case the disorder takes the form of open and avowed disobedience to the Apostle, such as the Church is bound to deal with publicly and to put an end to. But even now expulsion is not so much as named.

Bengel's Gnomen

2 Thessalonians 3:15. Καὶ μὴ, and yet do not) Caution is given us on all sides, lest we fall into extremes.—νουθετεῖτε, admonish) It is not enough not to keep company with a person: 2 Thessalonians 3:14; the man ought to know [ought to be made sensible] why it is so done.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - Yet; or as it is in the original, and; a purely connective particle. Count him not as an enemy; an entire outcast. But admonish him as a brother; a Christian brother. No hostile feeling was to be united with this avoidance of intercourse with the erring, but rather loving admonition, inasmuch as he was still a Christian brother. 2 Thessalonians 3:15

Vincent's Word Studies

Admonish (νουθετεῖτε)

See on Acts 20:31, and see on Ephesians 6:4.