Leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
All Commentaries on Matthew 5:24 Go To Matthew 5
Hilary of Poitiers
AD 368
He bids us when peace with our fellow-men is restored, then to return to peace with God, passing from the love of men to the love of God; “Then go and offerthy gift. "Wherefore we must embrace an inward, spiritual sense of the whole, if we would understand it without involving any absurdity. The gift which we offer to God, whether learning, or speech, or whatever it be, cannot be accepted of God unless it be supported by faith. If then we have in aught harmeda brother, we must go and be reconciled with him, not with the bodily feet, but in thoughts of the heart, when in humble contrition you may cast yourself at your brother’s feet in sight of Him whose offering you are about to offer. For thus in the same manner as though He were present, you may with unfeigned heart seek His forgiveness; and returning thence, that is, bringing back again your thoughts to what you had first begun to do, may make your offering.
