Luke 17:3

Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Take heed to yourselves.—The position of the words is remarkable, and they have nothing corresponding to them in the parallel passage in Matthew 18:21, where see Note. It is as though our Lord saw in the disciples the tendency to sit in judgment on the sins of others, on such sins especially as He had just condemned, and checked it by the words “take heed to yourselves.” They were in danger of faults hardly less fatal to the spiritual life than selfish luxury, and one of those faults was the temper of hard and unforgiving judgment. When they saw a conspicuous instance of worldliness or other evil, they did as we so often do—they condemned, but did not “rebuke.” In practice, as He taught them by example as by precept, open friendly reproof, aiming at restoration, is the truest path to the forgiveness with which, in the careless estimate of most men, it seems to be incompatible.

Benson Commentary

Luke 17:3-4. Take heed to yourselves — That you may neither offend others, nor be offended by others, but that you may keep all your passions under proper regulation, and may be preserved from those resentments of injuries, real or supposed, which, if yielded to, might occasion much sin to yourselves or others. If thy brother trespass against thee, &c. — But while our Lord cautioned them against all angry passions, and that quarrelsome temper which they naturally produce, he thus prescribed a seasonable and prudent reprehension of any fault that might be committed, accompanied with forgiveness on the part of the person injured, as the best means of disarming the temptations that might arise from such a disposition. See on Matthew 18:21. And if he repent, forgive him — Immediately, without insisting on any rigorous satisfaction. And if he trespass against thee seven times a day — That is, very frequently; and seven times a day turn again, saying, I repent — That is, if he give sufficient proof that he does really repent, after having sinned ever so often; thou shalt forgive him — Shalt receive him just as if he had never sinned against thee. But this forgiveness is due only to real penitents. See on Matthew 18:21-22. In a lower sense, we are to forgive all, penitent or impenitent, so as to bear them the sincerest goodwill, and to do them all the good we can; and that not seven times only, but seventy times seven.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:1-10 It is no abatement of their guilt by whom an offence comes, nor will it lessen their punishment that offences will come. Faith in God's pardoning mercy, will enable us to get over the greatest difficulties in the way of forgiving our brethren. As with God nothing is impossible, so all things are possible to him that can believe. Our Lord showed his disciples their need of deep humility. The Lord has such a property in every creature, as no man can have in another; he cannot be in debt to them for their services, nor do they deserve any return from him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 18:15, Matthew 18:21-22. "Trespass against thee." Sin against thee, or does anything that gives you an offence or does you an injury.

Rebuke - Reprove. Go and tell him his fault, and seek an explanation. Acquaint him with what has been the effect of his conduct, and the state of your feelings, that he may acknowledge his error and repent.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3, 4. (See on [1681]Mt 18:15-17; [1682]Mt 18:21, 22).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 3,4. Matthew hath something of the same tendency in Matthew 18:21,22, mentioning it as an answer to a question which Peter propounded to our Lord; but the circumstances of both relations are so different that I cannot think them the same, but do believe these words spoken at another time. This doctrine of the forgiveness of our offending brother is pressed upon us in several places in the gospel and New Testament, and that upon the gravest arguments imaginable, Matthew 6:15 18:35 Mark 11:26 Luke 6:37 Ephesians 4:32; from whence we may justly conclude it a duty of very high concernment for us both to understand and to live in the practice of. It signifies the laying aside of all thoughts or desire of revenge in our own cause. The precept is not exclusive of our duty in seeing the glory of God avenged upon murderers, &c.; nor yet of our seeking a just satisfaction, in a legal way, for wrongs done to us relating to our limbs or estate, so far as the person is able to do it; much less doth it require the making such a one as hath so injured us our intimate and bosom friend. That which it requireth is the laying aside all malice, or desire of revenge, upon our neighbour in a case wherein our own name or honour is concerned; and it is fitly joined to what went before, this malice, or desire of revenge, being the root of all the mischief that men voluntarily do one to another, especially of that which they do to the innocent servants of God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Take heed to yourselves..... Or to one another, that ye neither give, nor take offence. Take heed to your spirits, to your doctrines, walk, and conversation, that you give no offence to any, that you are not stumbled by what you shall see in, and meet with from others:

if thy brother trespass against thee; See Gill on Matthew 18:15.

rebuke him; privately, and proceed according to the rules there directed to; lay his sin before him; endeavour not only to convince him of the fact, but of the evil of it; how contrary to the will of God; how unbecoming the Gospel of Christ, and the profession he makes; how hurtful to himself, as well as injurious to his brother; and how such evils give the enemy occasion to reproach the saints, to speak evil of the ways of God, and blaspheme the name and doctrines of Christ, and harden sinners in their sins, as well as stumble weak Christians, and sadden the hearts of the righteous.

And if he repent; if he is made sensible of his evil, and is truly sorry for it, and ingenuously acknowledges it:

forgive him; the injury committed against a man's self; and pray to God for him, for an application of his pardoning grace and mercy to him; and comfort him with the hope of forgiveness with God, by the gracious promises and declarations of pardon made to such persons; drop all resentment and anger, and behave towards him with all sweetness of temper, and affability, and respect: and this is to be done immediately, as soon as a man repents: and so say the Jews (p);

"says R. Chanina bar Papa, whoever commits a thing, and repents of it, they forgive him directly; as it is said, Malachi 3:5 "and fear not me": lo, they that fear me, forgive immediately:''

such were reckoned good men, men fearing God.

(p) T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 5. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

{2} Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.

(2) Our reprehensions must be just and proceed from love and charity.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 17:3. προσέχετε ἑ., take heed to yourselves (lest ye offend), a reminiscence of the original occasion of the discourse: ambition revealing itself in the disciple-circle.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. Take heed to yourselves] The following lesson of forgiveness is added because the hard repellent spirit of aggressive Pharisaism and spiritual pride was of all others the most likely to cause offences. It broke up the bruised reed, and stamped on the smoking flax.

If thy brother trespass against thee] Rather, If he sin, omitting “against thee.” Comp. Matthew 18:15-17; Mat 18:21-22.

rebuke him...forgive him] The former duty had been fully recognised in the old dispensation (Leviticus 19:17; Proverbs 17:10); the latter far more distinctly and emphatically in the new (Matthew 18:15). The former is only intended as a help to the latter, 1 Thessalonians 5:14.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 17:3. Προσέχετε ἑαυτοῖς, take heed to yourselves) Not only do not give offence to others, Luke 17:1-2, or take offence from others who sin against you, Luke 17:3, but also take heed lest ye be an offence or stumbling-block to yourselves; Matthew 18:8. Comp. Galatians 6:1, at the end of the verse.—ἄφες, forgive) So God deals with us.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Take heed to yourselves: If thy Brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. "But do you take heed," the Lord went on to say, "my disciples; you too are in danger of committing deadly sin yourselves, and of doing my cause irreparable injury. Soft living m selfish luxury, about which I have been speaking lately, is not the only wrong you can commit; there is sore danger that men placed as you are will judge others harshly, even cruelly, and so offend in another way 'the little ones ' pressing into the kingdom: this is your especial snare." Things Jesus had noticed, perhaps congratulatory, self-sufficient comments he had heard them make on the occasion of the lately spoken parable of Dives, very likely had suggested this grave warning. So here he tells them, the future teachers of his Church, how they must act: while ever the bold, untiring, fearless rebukers of all vice, of every phase of selfishness, they must be never tired of exercising forgiveness the moment the offender is sorry. The repentant sinner must never be repelled by them. Luke 17:3

Vincent's Word Studies

Rebuke

See on straitly charged, Luke 9:21.