Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
If a man think himself to be something - i.e. To be a proper Christian man; when he is nothing; being destitute of that charity which beareth, hopeth, and endureth all things. See I Corinthians 13:1, etc. Those who suppose themselves to excel all others in piety, understanding, etc., while they are harsh, censorious, and overbearing, Proverbs that they have not the charity that thinketh no evil; and in the sight of God are only as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. There are no people more censorious or uncharitable than those among some religious people who pretend to more light and a deeper communion with God. They are generally carried away with a sort of sublime, high sounding phraseology, which seems to argue a wonderfully deep acquaintance with Divine things; stripped of this, many of them are like Samson without his hair.
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