Remember them that are in bonds
Not for criminal actions, or for debt, though such should be
remembered, and pity showed them, especially the latter; but such
as are in bonds for the sake of Christ, and the Gospel. This has
been often the lot of God's people, who should be remembered, by
praying for them, sending comfortable letters to them, personally
visiting them, and relieving them under their distresses:
as bound with them;
as if it were so, as if in the same condition, and circumstances;
by sympathizing with them; by considering themselves liable to
the same bonds; by dealing with them as it would be desirable to
be dealt with in the same case: and
them which suffer adversity;
outward afflictions of body, distress for want of temporal
mercies, food and raiment, and persecution by enemies; or
spiritual adversity, as the prevailings of corruptions, and
particularly unbelief, the hidings of God's face, and the
temptations of Satan.
As being yourselves also in the body;
as if in their bodies, enduring the same things; or as being
afflicted in the body with diseases, necessities, and
persecutions; or as being in the body, the church, of which these
afflicted ones are a part, and therefore should have a fellow
feeling with them; or rather as being in this world, in the
flesh, or in a body and state subject to the like adversities,
temporal and spiritual.