Let Each of Us Please His Neighbor
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Romans 15:1
Romans 15:1–6 – Romans: The Righteousness of God
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost – November 12, 2023 (am)
We have a very interesting, helpful, needful passage before us this morning as Paul continues his teaching on how the strong and the weak should relate within the body of Christ. Not unlike what we saw in the middle of c.13 where an exception (13:8) was introduced into Paul’s seemingly unconditional instruction to [submit] to governing authorities (13:1-7), here we see a deeper word, a more explicit expression, a pointedly intentional aim introduced into the loving disposition of the strong toward the weak that I’d say broadens significantly our understanding of the range of application in this teaching.
Let’s get right into it, since I’ve lost my lengthy-Introduction privileges after last Sunday! We see two parts to this passage.
Christ as Our Model for Building Up Our Neighbor – 1-4
The bottom line is given in the opening words. But that’s also where we get our first hint that Paul is beginning a new section of teaching on the same topic he initiated in 14:1. We see it with his switch from second person to first. We see it with his first explicit mention of the strong. But along with these, we also see that he may’ve been setting us up for this new section since the middle of c.14. He begins: 1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak….
This word obligation is the same one translated owe back in 13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. That instruction, then, is continuing on here in cc.14-15. There’s a debt to pay.
The love we owe one another now calls us to bear with the failings of the weak, except that this translation could be misleading. Better would be bear the failings of the weak or, more literally, we the strong should bear the spiritual short-comings of the not-strong (cf. YLT; Moo 2018 881-882). This action of bearing recalls Isa.53:4 (modeled by Jesus [Mat.8:17]) (Moo 2018 882; Schreiner 721): surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Beyond mere loving, welcoming endurance (toleration) of the weak (14:1-3), then, Paul is now using the same language he used over in Gal.6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. … 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Moo 2018 882; Schreiner 721). [Pick it up]!
And we do this 1 … not to please ourselves, which means we do it in the same spirit as Gal.6 and Rom.12-14 prescribe: with [humble], gentle, genuine, welcoming love.
So, in this way: 2 Let each of us please his neighbor, act for his good, in accord with his best interest, to build him up, to [edify] him. So, it’s active, aimed at his good (cf. Stott 369). We heard this language back in c.14, where Paul introduced this idea. 14:19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. We’re not just enduring everyone’s weakness. At least with some we’re also bearing [their shortcomings], [shouldering their] failings with them—perhaps even on their behalf.
Now, this could refer to that welcoming disposition we’re called to display toward those whose consciences won’t allow them to eat meat or drink wine, just as in c.14.
But this new language and syntax that begins in our c.15 seems to be adding a nuance, something akin to Paul’s instruction in Gal.6 where some expression of loving action is called for, something that’s pleasing and [edifying] to our neighbor. And it fits quite nicely with both these passages if this building up keeps in view that 14:10 … we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
If this is what Paul is doing here—if he’s adding an action step that we might need to express toward some who display the characteristics of the weak but whose failings require a bit stronger, more direct challenge (thus the first-person charge), making our engagement with them an obligation (1)—then what sort of behavior does he have in mind?
It sounds to me like Paul is giving just the sort of direction we need to handle a category of professing Christians that he met in almost every city he visited and we still see today, namely, those who behave like the weak but want to speak and act like the strong, wielding that sort of influence.
This is a very dangerous game, but it’s all too familiar throughout church history. We call it legalism. It arose as Jews began receiving Jesus as Messiah then wrestling with how OT Law fit in with the gospel. Paul has had that issue in mind throughout this letter, those who insisted that some form of adherence to the Law was necessary for salvation in Christ. That’s the core problem Paul was addressing in his letter to the Galatians. But over the centuries many other types of requirements have seeped in at different times and in different places, quite often still related to eating and drinking, but also other types of expressions in areas like clothing or recreation or even what translation of the Bible we should favor.
Details aside at the moment, though, legalism is a dangerous game because, as Paul wrote to the Galatians, it creates a different gospel, it distorts the gospel (Gal.1:6-7) by requiring something (anything!) more than the finished work of Christ (some work of their own) for sinners to be reconciled to God.
Now, if this is the kind of thing Paul had in mind here in Rom.15, we might expect that the next thing he’d do here is remind us of the finished work of Christ, of what He’s done to reconcile sinners to God. And that’s just what he does. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”
Paul is quoting Psa.69:9. The psalm relates how David as a righteous sufferer was forsaken by his friends and attacked by his foes. Paul lifts out [verse 9], stating that reproaches directed against God have fallen on… Christ (Schreiner 722). Now, it’s not hard to see how the strong should imitate Christ, here, not pleasing [themselves] in their expression toward the weak just as Jesus did not please himself in His expression toward sinners, but laid down His life for them, saving them from sin, yes, but, in accord with Psa.69, also from shame and disgrace (cf. Schreiner 722).
But honestly, that’s not a very good use of Psa.69:9. Moo says it clearly. Why Paul uses this particular quotation is not clear since we have no reason to think that the strong were enduring “reproaches” (Moo 2018 884). Turn that around and we would say: Quoting Psa.69:9 here would make most sense if the strong are somehow enduring reproaches because their expressions toward the weak. And if the weak who are being discussed here in c.15 are in fact legalists, then reproach is just the response we’d expect to see toward them, toward the freedoms embraced by the strong. Reproach is precisely what legalists feel toward freedom!
Rather than just enduring the weakness of those whose consciences are too sensitive to embrace the fullness of their freedom in Christ, then, the strong are also called to bear the failings of the weak here in Rom.15—quite possibly of legalists who want to enforce their favorite restrictions among the whole church—and to bear them just as [those] who are spiritual do with the burdens of anyone who is caught in any transgression in Gal.6:1-2.
I believe this makes best sense of Paul’s quotation of Psa.69. The strong, in imitation of Christ, don’t seek to please [themselves] but [humbly] and gently, in genuine love, seek to restore those trapped in the [spiritual shortcomings] of legalism, even though it means they’ll likely have to endure the reproaches of those who reproach [God] in this gospel-distorting way. And even if it’s not legalism, I think it’s something like that which calls for loving action from the strong that brings them reproach from the weak.
Paul then offers a quick, parenthetic affirmation (4) that this is precisely the way we should use the OT, namely, 4 … for our instruction, so that through endurance urged by the Scriptures and through the encouragement [supplied by] the Scriptures, we might have hope. We might have a resilient and joyful assurance that the promises in God’s Word are both true and reliable. As we engage them, they strengthen us!
Christ as Our Motivation for Unity in the Church – 5-6
The remainder of today’s text (5-6) is a prayer-wish (Moo 2018 887). Tying in the explicit blessings of the Scriptures (4) with God Himself here (5), we recognize God as the Source of our endurance and encouragement and His Word (by the power of [His] Holy Spirit [13]) as the instrument for it (Calvin in Moo 2018 887). But that just lays the foundation of Paul’s thought here. The finished structure of this self-denying yet welcoming forbearance and expressive love between strong and weak that’s described in 14:1-15:4 is a body of believers that exhibit the very qualities Jesus prayed for before going to the cross (Joh.17:20-26), namely, [unity] and love. And Jesus Himself stands at the center of it all, as the Point of reference, yes, but ultimately as the Facilitator, as the One who makes it all possible. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus….
And the net result of it all is that the very purpose of our existence as image-bearing creatures, the appointed aim and end of the church, is realized in Him—6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our purpose is realized as the ultimate outcome of pursuing the genuine love described in Rom.12-15 which is enabled only by the pure gospel described in Rom.1-11.
Conclusion
So, this is the deeper word, the more explicit expression, the pointedly intentional aim introduced into the loving interaction between the strong and the weak that I believe Paul wanted his readers to hear in today’s passage.
The only alternative I see to this reading—an active expression of [edifying] love—is that he’s saying once again here, and this time in a rather awkward way, precisely the same thing he already said quite fully and richly in c.14.
But I just don’t believe that’s what he’s doing. I believe he’s brought us to the place where the strong in faith are ministering mercifully and selflessly to the weak—weak in ways that have been on his mind throughout this letter—aiming toward the outcome of a mature and unified church that magnifies the glory of God by caring well for one another even when it costs us something.
Heavenly Father, make us such a church.
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Resources
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NEXT SUNDAY: That the Gentiles May Glorify God, Romans 15:7–13