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Better is open rebuke Than hidden love.
Verse Takeaways
1
Active Love Corrects
Commentators agree that "love that is hidden" refers to affection that stays silent when a friend needs correction. True love is active and willing to offer a frank and honest "open rebuke." This act is considered superior because it seeks the friend's well-being over the comfort of silence, which can allow sin to continue harming them.
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5
18th Century
Presbyterian
Secret love—Better, love that is hidden; that is, love which never shows itself in this one way of rebuking faults. Rebuke, whether fr…
19th Century
Anglican
Secret love— i.e., that never discloses itself in acts of kindness, not even in “open rebuke” when such is needed.
Baptist
That I should love my fellow-man is a good thing; but to have enough love to openly rebuke his faults is a very strong proof of affection, and far …
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17th Century
Reformed Baptist
Open rebuke [is] better than secret love.
This is to be understood, not of rebuke publicly given; though Aben Ezra thinks pu…
Plain and faithful rebukes are better, not only than secret hatred, but than love which flatters in sin, to the hurt of the soul.
