Philemon 1:5 Hearing of your love and faith, which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; Philemon's love extended itself to the saints, as is here avouched of him; yet it was not cooped up within the pen of the saints: the saints must have the prime place in our love, but not the whole. "Do good to all men, chiefly to them of the household of faith": chiefly, but not wholly. Aristotle gave an alms to an unworthy man: one reproved him for it. Says he, I gave it to the nature of the man, not to the man; the nature is God's, and must be sustained: the vice is his own and the devil's, and must be reformed. (W. Jones, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; |