Please one another for Christ

Romans 15:1-7

Please one another for Christ

Romans 15:1-7, We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbour for his good, leading to edification. ³ For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” ⁴ For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. ⁵ Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

The Unity of Strong and Weak Believers. There are two believers focuses on: the weak and the strong.

• The strong believer tends to just live his liberty to the fullest.
• The weak believer tends to be extremely confined.

• The weak believer looks at the strong believer and accuses him of being abusive of freedom.
• The strong believer looks at the weak believer and accuses him of being too narrow and not understanding what Christ has really provided.

There is a potential conflict. Paul writes this section Romans 14:1-15:13. Paul gives some principles. Receive one another with understanding. (Romans 14:1-12) Build up one another without offending, Romans 14:13-23. Please one another as Christ did, Romans 15:1-7.

Rejoice with one another in God's plan, Romans 15:8-13. Discord strikes a deadly blow at the work of God in the church. Chaos, confusion, strife, envy, jealousy, anger, bitterness, dissension, fighting, hatred, indifference to the needs of others, selfishness, a lack of sacrificial love, all these things violate the unity of the church.

Therefore, they violate the will of God and His testimony in the world. The loving harmony and unity of the church is of grave concern to God.

Paul realizes that one of the great dangers to unity in the church is the potential discord between strong and weak Christians. Unity is of such grave concern to him. Unity among the believers is the passionate desire of the heart of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Since this unity is so essential to God, Paul also finds it essential to teach the matter of unity. One of the great potential problems in the church is conflict between weak and strong Christians who can disrupt the unity of the church.

Romans 14:1-15:13, that entire section is all devoted to a discussion of the relationship between strong and weak Christians. Please one another with Christ as your example. Receive one another or build up one another and please one another.

It is obvious in the church that we must be concerned with pleasing others, not ourselves, to make this unity a reality, If everybody is desiring his life and then his attitudes, actions, and responses only to please himself, we end up having chaos.

It is mandatory upon the strong believer to adjust himself to the weak that he may seek to please him rather than to please himself. That's bottom line. To do this, to please others instead of ourselves, requires several high spiritual motives.

Spiritual motives. 1. Consideration of others, 2. Disregard self, 3. Conformity to Christ. 4. Submission to Scripture. 5. Dependence on divine power. 6. Glorify God. 1. Consideration of others. Seeking to serve others with love rather than attack them with criticism.

We know that. This is by way of reminder. Paul is mentioning to them that I know you have forgotten it because I hear things that there are very inconsiderate things said. I know there are people who seek not to serve others with love but to attack them with criticism.

V 1, We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. The statement here is made to those that are strong. Paul summarizes everything he has been saying in Romans 14:1-12. ➢ Because the Lord receives each, ➢ Because the Lord sustains each, ➢ Because the Lord is sovereign over each, and ➢ Because the Lord will judge each.

So, you need to receive each.

Romans 14:13-23, to build up one another without offending. ➢ Don't cause them to stumble, ➢ Don't grieve them, ➢ Don't devastate them, ➢ Don't cause the witness of Christ to be forfeited, ➢ Don't pull down the work of God and ➢ Don't flaunt your liberty. Summary in verse 1, then we that are strong ought to bear with the weaknesses of the weak.

Who is Paul talking about when he talks about weak and strong? A strong believer is a believer who understands his liberty. He understands what he is free to do. For example, in that culture he understands he is free to eat pork, even though the Mosaic law forbid it because in Christ that law is set aside.

He is free to do whatever he wants to do any day of the week. He isn't bound by Sabbath law. He no longer must be controlled, and all his life charted by the course of the tradition of the Jews, or by the Old Testament ritual and ceremonies.

He no longer must observe feasts, new moons, Sabbaths, dietary laws, clothing laws, and all those external things. They are all gone. If the person is a Gentile, he knows that it doesn't matter if he eats meat that was once offered to an idol because an idol is nothing anyway.

Anything that is a thing, he is free to use, he is free to be blessed by. Things are not a problem. There is nothing forbidden anymore in that sense.

A weak believer is one who, having come out of those kinds of backgrounds, doesn't yet feel the liberty to do that. He may be a Jew who doesn't feel the liberty to violate the Sabbath. He doesn't feel the liberty to eat certain meats.

He doesn't feel the liberty to break some festival or feast day. If he is a Gentile who doesn't feel the liberty to eat meat that was once offered to an idol and is now sold in the marketplace. He can't handle that because it conjures up all the past.

He doesn't understand that liberty. The problem in the church comes when the strong believers who understand their freedom flaunt that freedom to the abuse of a weak believer who does not yet understand that freedom. Consequently, we devastate them, we grieve them, we make them stumble, we forfeit our witness, we pull down the work of God because they go backwards not forward in their spiritual growth when we flaunt our liberty.

So, the injunction comes to the strong believer to set aside his liberty and bear with the weakness of the weak. To do so with love as a privilege.

We don't have to pay any attention to old religious ceremonies. But some people are still bound by that. We need to be patient until they can grow away from those taboos. This is the attitude of consideration of others. This is the first attitude that we must have if we are going to please someone else. We consider them before ourselves.

Philippians 2:3, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let us be preoccupied with those things which would distress others.

When someone struggles with something that you feel is right, but they feel is wrong unless they are violating a biblical truth. Don't let anybody bind on you something that is forbidden in the Scripture. If it's a neutral thing, be patient that they might grow to understand their freedom.

The word "ought"here is a very strong word. It means to be a debtor. We have a debt.

Our debt is to bear. Bastaz Greek word is used 25 times in the New Testament. Means we will be bearing along with someone's infirmity. It is the word which means to get under and carry the load. It is used of carrying something, shouldering a burden.

To shoulder a burden. You don't just bear with them in some sort of intolerant tolerance, but you get under the load.

• I will come right under there with you.
• I will come right under your weakness.
• I will walk along with you in this weakness until you grow to understand your freedom.
• I will not abuse you.
• I will consider you.
• I will get under your weakness and
• I will carry it with you.

The prejudices, the errors of certain people, we need to carry. We need to come alongside and nurture them along.

1 Corinthians 9:19-22, For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; 20 and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I

might win those who are under the law; ²¹ to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; ²² to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

If we are going to gain the weak it is by getting under their load. I will live under that load with you, and we will carry it together until you are free to drop that burden.

Romans 13:8, Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

The debt of love is never paid. A debt you will never fully pay because you will always owe it no matter how much you pay on it. Does this mean we are to be men pleasers?

Galatians 1:10, For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. A man pleaser is one who adjusts the gospel to fit what people want, one who backs away from the sinfulness of sin so as not to offend.

We are not talking about compromise. We are not talking about Absalom in 2 Samuel 15. What Absalom did, it serves as a good illustration.

2 Samuel 15:2-6, Now Absalom would rise early and stand beside the way to the gate. So it was, whenever anyone who had a lawsuit came to the king for a decision, that Absalom would call to him and say, “What city are you from?” And he would say, “Your servant is from such and such a tribe of Israel.” ³ Then Absalom would say to him, “Look, your case is good and right; but there is no [c]deputy of the king to hear you.” ⁴ Moreover Absalom would say, “Oh, that I were made judge in the land, and everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me; then I would give him justice.” ⁵ And so it was, whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, that he would put out his hand and take him and kiss him. ⁶ In this manner Absalom acted toward all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

These people with their grievances to the king. He stops them in the gate, pulls them over and, of course, he's the king's son. Who wouldn't want to get an audience with the king's son as access to the king? Absolom had an ulterior motive. He was a men pleaser for his own gains. That's not what we are talking about.

We are not talking about pleasing men by adjusting the gospel so that they want to hear it. We are not talking about pleasing men by ignoring their sin. We are talking about pleasing them in the sense of helping them carry a load of bondage they do not yet feel free to unload until we can walk long enough with them to convince them they ought to dump the pack.

We are talking about non-essentials, taboos, scruples, and preferences that are not necessary. 2. Disregard for self. V 1, We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. We don't use our liberty because it pleases us.

I am free to do this, I will do exactly what I want to do. I will flaunt that liberty. The criterion for what we do is not our own pleasure. That's not a spiritual approach.

Philippians 2:19-21, But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state. ²⁰ For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely

care for your state. ²¹ For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. That is a sad commentary. What an aching heart Paul must have had to realize that people in whom he had made such a great investment were now out seeking their own and not the things of Christ. That's not what God desires.

I don't seek to use my liberty. I don't seek to flaunt my liberty. I don't seek to please myself though I may have a right to do that. I may be free to do many things, but I won't do them if they will cause you to be offended and stumble and be made weak.

V 2, Let each of us please his neighbour for his good, leading to edification. Again, we can see that he is picking up some of the same concepts that he had in chapter 14. Without exception. Let every one of us please his neighbour.

For his edification. That is the goal to build him up.

Romans 14:19, Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.

The obligation in the church is for the strong to understand their liberty to come in and get underneath the load of the weak. Help to strengthen them. To help to build them up. We are responsible, who are strong, for the spiritual growth of the weak.

We are not sacrificing God's truth for the sake of harmony. If you flaunt your liberty, the weaker ones will run the other way. The offense will drive them deeper into their own little ceremonial taboos. To bring them out of that, we need to be sure that we carefully and cautiously do what pleases them.

1 Corinthians 10:23, All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Same principle. Apparently, some of the Philippians needed exhortation along this line.

Philippians 2:1-4, Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, ² fulfil my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. ³ Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. ⁴ Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Paul describes Christ as the illustration. Have the mind of Christ who though equal with God with liberties and freedoms that are inconceivable to us set them aside, became a man that He might gain men. 3. Conformity to Christ. Seeking to be like the Lord rather than demanding that others be like me. V 3, For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” Christ did not please Himself. Christ took the reproach of God. Christ suffered. Christ did not please Himself.

Christ is the example. Christ was not in the world to please Himself. If He had really wanted to please Himself, He would have stayed in glory and never showed up down here.

John 17:5, And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. Christ did not come to please Himself.

John 4:34, Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. He came not to please Himself but to please His Father.

John 5:30, I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

John 8:25-28, Then they said to Him, “Who are You?” And Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. ²⁶ I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.” 27 They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father. 28 Then Jesus said to

them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. Christ in His life did the things that pleased the Father. Christ did not please Himself.

John 14:31, But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here. I do what the Father told Me that the world may know I love Him. He came to do the Father's pleasure.

Hebrews 3:2, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.

Hebrews 5:7-8, who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, ⁸ though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Christ called out to the Father, cried out for deliverance, cried out that the Father might remove the cup from Him.

The Father chose not to do that. Christ was perfectly content to resign to the Father's will.

Luke 22:42, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” ✓ He came not to please Himself but to please His Father. ✓ He is our pattern. ✓ He bore so much for the sake of the Father. ✓ He bore so much for the sake even of the elect. ✓ He also claimed to have come that ultimately in pleasing the Father He would also please us and bless us. No one compelled Jesus.

John 10:17-18, “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

We have as Christians in this matter of maintaining the unity of the church is that each of us is to be concerned with conformity to Christ. Conformity to Christ means we seek to be like Him rather than to make everyone be like us.

Being like Christ means that we do not do that which pleases us, but rather we do that which pleases others.

Psalm 69:9, Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. A Messianic Psalm. In pleasing the Father, Christ receives reproach. False accusation. To suffer insults. Christ suffered the same insults God suffered because He represented God. Because men hate God, they hated the one who revealed God. Because they hated the holiness of God, they hated the holiness of Jesus Christ.

This willingness to please God even though it meant reproach, suffering, insult, slander, and death is the key to the Christian's attitude. Christ was willing to endure all of this, even the reproaches that fell on God Himself.

Christ bore those reproaches for the sake of doing the Father's will. ✓ He was indifferent to His own deprivation. ✓ He was indifferent to His own pain. ✓ He was indifferent to His own agony. ✓ He who bears all this pain for the sake of pleasing the Father is our example.

Rather than running out to please ourselves, we should follow the pattern of Christ and be willing to suffer anything in pleasing another. Christ set aside all His divine rights to be subject to the Father and to suffer for the sake of sinners to bring us to God.

Can we do less for a fellow Christian?

1 John 2:6, "If we say we abide in Him, we ought to walk as He walked." If you say you're a Christian, you ought to have the attitude Christ had.

4. Submission to Scripture. V 4, For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Paul makes an interesting transition here. Quoting Psalm 69 he then sort of justifies that quote.

We are to be seeking to find fulfilment in the Word of God rather than personal aims. We ought to conform to what the Word of God teaches. In this brief justification for using the Old Testament Psalm, Paul gives the value of the Scripture.

Whatever things were written in earlier times is a reference to the Old Testament.

2 Peter 1:20-21, knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, ²¹ for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Whatever was written in the Old Testament was written for our learning.

Old Testament scripture was written for New Testament people. It is not a dead book. It is a book that is written for our learning.

1 Corinthians 10:6-11, Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. ⁷ And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” ⁸ Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; ⁹ nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; ¹⁰ nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. ¹¹ Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

The Old Testament is profitable, it is for our learning.

What does it teach us? We through endurance and encouragement from the Scriptures might have Hope. Man needs hope more than he needs anything else. The goal of the Scripture is to give,

➢ hope for the future, ➢ hope for life eternal, ➢ hope for forgiveness from sin, ➢ Hope for meaning to life.

Jeremiah 14:8, O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble, Why should You be like a stranger in the land, And like a traveller who turns aside to tarry for a night?

God is the giver of hope.

Psalm 119:43,And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, For I have hoped in Your ordinances.

Psalms 119:74, Those who fear You will be glad when they see me, Because I have hoped in Your word.

Psalms 119:81, My soul faints for Your salvation, But I hope in Your word.

Psalms 119:114, You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word.

Psalms 119:147, I rise before the dawning of the morning, And cry for help; I hope in Your word.

Psalm 130:5, I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope.

The reason we have hope is because of what the Bible reveals. Would you have hope in life to come if you had never read the Scripture? No hope at all. Ephesians 4 it says the Gentiles who have not the Scripture are without hope in the world.

Hope comes from the Word of God. Without it we have no hope. We don't know about heaven. We don't know about Christ and His Kingdom. We don't know about the glorious reward that lies ahead. We don't know that without the Scripture.

There is no revelation of that apart from Scripture. But Scripture gives us hope. This hope comes to us through two great spiritual realities, endurance, and encouragement.

Scripture tells us that we can endure any trial, that we can make it through any difficulty, any vicissitude, any struggle, any anxiety.

James 5:7-11, Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. ⁸ You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. ⁹ Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! ¹⁰ My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. ¹¹ Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. Scripture tells us that we have a hope and that we have the power to endure. The teaching of the Word of God allows us to patiently endure in this life, waiting for the hope that is set before us.

We could not patiently endure the trials of life if we had no word from God about how to endure, about how to be secure.

If we didn't know that we were secure, every time a trouble came along, we might think we were thrown out of God's kingdom. But Scripture tells us we are secure. Scripture tells us we have the power to endure. Scripture tells us why we are to endure, to be strengthened, to develop patience so that patience can have a perfecting work so that we can be more useful to God and more effective in winning others.

Scripture gives us endurance to the hope. Along the way also encouragement, which is paraclete, one who comes alongside to encourage. It is the Word of God that not only tells us how to endure but encourages us in the process.

So, the Scripture teaches endurance, and the Scripture teaches patience. Those two things lead us to hold fast the hope that is in God and in Christ. We have that hope and that hope is anchored in the Word of God.

Paul's point here is simply that we need to learn from the Scriptures. We need to know that everything written in the Scripture is written for our learning. It's all part of teaching us endurance and encouragement. One part of learning patience and encouragement is learning to tolerate weaker brothers. Those words are chosen carefully.

We learn through that to be patient. We learn through that the encouragement of one who must wait. That is what the Word of God provides. 5. Dependence on divine power. V 5, Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, The God who teaches you thew patience, because He is the source of patience, The God who teaches you encouragement, because He is the source of encouragement, May He grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus.

You must do this in the power of God.

May God grant you this because you can't do it on your own. If the prior point has to do with studying the Word of God, then this has to do with its companion, prayer. Seeking the strength of God rather than human resources, dependence on God.

How are we going to be what we ought to be to a weaker brother? How are we going to build the unity of the church? How are we going to bear one another's burdens?

How are we going to please each other? If we depend on human resources, we will be impatient. If we depend on human resources, we are going to find ourselves too weak, and so in prayer we depend on God. The God of endurance and the God of encouragement will allow us to endure those deprivations of our liberty and will encourage us even in the process.

May He grant you to be like-minded toward one another. Literally it says to mind the same thing among one another, to be concerned about each other. This is harmony and this is love and this is care and this brings unity.

The issue here is not doctrinal unity. That's not the issue in this whole passage. We assume that we have disagreement on doctrines. Some think this is wrong, and some know it isn't. Paul is not asking here for a uniform belief because he knows that's the problem. There is not uniform belief.

Where there is discord at the level of doctrine, then the strong need to come alongside and in patience and endurance given them from the Word of God. Sustained and operated in them through the power of God can bring unity even where there is difference of opinion.

Only God can produce that. The apostles gave themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. It wasn't because they weren't sophisticated enough to know anything else to do, it was because those are the things that have always been the most essential things.

What about your prayer life? When did you last pray for the unity of the church? When did you last pray that God would make you to be one who as a strong believer could sustain the weak?

It's a matter of prayer and submission to the Word and conformity to Christ and disregard of self and concern for others. 6. God to be glorified. V 6, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We should be controlled by a consuming desire that God be glorified. You may glorify God corporately, both inwardly and outwardly. Jesus, every time He spoke to the God, He called Him Father except on the cross He called Him God.

When Jesus was separated and said, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Every time He spoke to God, He called Him Father. The Bible about God as Father, sometimes, but it is the minority, sometimes it is referring to Him as our Father.

Most of times that God is called Father, He is not our Father, He is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The reason that is used to refer to God is to point up the nature of Jesus Christ. When he says, Paul does, "God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,"he is linking Christ in essential nature to God, therefore proclaiming the deity of Jesus Christ, the deity of Jesus Christ.

Jesus repeatedly in John's gospel refers to His Father, refers over and over to His Father. When Christ talked about God as His Father and He as the Son, He was saying we have the same essence. Whenever we have reference to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is a statement emphasizing that God, the true God, is the God who is one with His Son, Jesus Christ. That is to say no man comes unto God but by Christ.

Ephesians 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Ephesians 1:17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

2 Corinthians 1, "Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." God is the God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God and Christ are one. The only true God is the God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no worship of God unless there is also a worship of the God who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The purpose of all of this is your unity so that with one mind, that's internally, and one mouth, that's externally, you would glorify God.

Conclusion

V 7, Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

Why? To the glory of God.

Why did Christ receive you? Because He knew when we were redeemed it would be to the glory of God. As Christ received us, so are we to receive each other.

He received us to the glory of God. We receive each other to the glory of God.

Shall we not follow His example?