I would love to share with you this exquisite commentary by John Gill on this beloved verse. It is truly humbling and sobering to see how true love is displayed by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
"A true, hearty, faithful friend, loves in times of adversity as well as in times of prosperity: there are many that are friends to persons, whilst they are in affluent circumstances; but when there is a change in their condition, and they are stripped of all riches and substance; then their friends forsake them, and stand at a distance from them: as was the case of Job, chapter 29 verse 14, it is a very rare thing to find a friend that is a constant lover, such an one as here described. And a brother is born for adversity; for a time of adversity, as Jarchi: he is born into the world for this purpose; to sympathize with his brother in distress, to relieve him, comfort and support him; and if he does not do this, when it is in his power to do it, he does not answer the end of his being born into the world. The Jewish writers understand this as showing the difference between a friend and a brother: a cordial friend loves at all times, prosperous and adverse; but a brother loves when adversity is born, or is, so Aben Ezra; he loves when he is forced to it; when the distress of his brother, who is his flesh and bone, as Gersom observes, obliges him to it: but this may be understood of the same person who is the friend; he is a brother, and acts part of one in a time of adversity, for which he is born and brought in to the world; it being so ordered by divine Providence, that a man should have a friend born against the time he stands in need of him. To no one person can all this be applied with so much truth and exactness as to our Lord Jesus Christ; he is a friend, not of angels only, but of men, more especially of his church and people; of sinful men, of publicans and sinners; as appears by his calling them to repentance, by his recieving them, and by his coming into the world to save them: he loves them, and loves them constantly; he loved them before time; so early were they on his heart and in his book of life; so early was he the surety of them, and the covenant of grace made with them; and their persons and grace put into his hands, which he took the care of: he loved them in time, and before time began with them; thus they were preserved in him, when they fell in Adam; were redeemed by his precious blood, when as yet they were not in being, at least many of them: he loves them as soon as time begins with them, as soon as born; though impure by their first birth, transgressors from the womb, enemies and enmity itself unto him; he waits to be gracious to them, and sends his Gospel and his Spirit to find them out and call them: and he continues to love them after conversion; in times of backsliding, in times of desertion, in times of temptation, and in times of affliction: he loves indeed to the end of time, and to all eternity; nor is there a moment of time to be fixed upon, in which he does not love them. And he is a brother to his people; through his incarnation, he is a partaker of the same flesh and blood with them; and through their adoption, they having one and the same father; nor is he ashamed to own the relation; and he has all the freedom, affection, compassion, and condescension, of a brother in him: and now he is a brother born;see Isaiah 9:6, born of a woman, a virgin, at Bethlehem, in the fulness of time, for and on the behalf of his people; even for adversity; to bear and endure adversity himself, which he did, by coming into a state of meanness and poverty; through the reproaches and persecutions of his own disciples, the desertion of his father, the strokes of justice, and the sufferings of death; also for the adversity of his people, to sympathize with them, bear them up under it, and deliver them out of it."
What a friend we have in Jesus! I pray He shines His light and love through me, to display forth his glory and greatness. O, Lord, forgive me for not loving You as You love me, and for not loving my neighbor as myself. This is a weakness of mine, but as Jesus said, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9
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