Context No. 2438 of 4322 · Romans
Context · Reflection
Romans 15:1-6: in context
1Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up. 3For even Christ didn’t please himself. But, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” 4For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5Now the God of perseverance and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul turns from doctrine to how the strong and the weak live together. Those who are strong, he says, ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not simply please themselves. Each of us should aim to build up our neighbor. And he grounds it in the one place it cannot be argued away: even Christ did not please himself, but took on the reproaches meant for others.
The logic is disarmingly simple. If Christ, who had every right to please himself, instead bore what was not his to bear, then strength among his people is not for self-service but for carrying others. To be strong is to be able to absorb someone else's weakness without resentment, to spend my steadiness on building them up rather than on getting my own way. Paul adds that the Scriptures were written to give us endurance and hope for exactly this patient, unglamorous work of bearing with one another.
Do I use whatever strength I have to please myself, or to bear with and build up the people around me?
Sources
- Romans 15:1: Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
- Romans 15:3: For even Christ didn't please himself. But, as it is written, The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.
- Romans 15:4: whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.