Loving the Weak

 

“We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

(Romans 15:1 ESV)

 

Our tendency, as human beings, is to look first and foremost to our own interests. Our tendency is to satisfy our own desires. Our tendency is to put our own welfare and our own wants ahead of all else.

 

This is true of us not only as people. It’s true of us also as Christians. It’s true of us because we continue to bear our sinful nature.

 

Paul, however, turns this on its head. He tells us, in the passage above, that those who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak. And they have an obligation not to please themselves.

 

As we break this down, we first have to identify the strong and the weak. And this isn’t always as easy as it seems. Those who seem to be strong are often the weakest among us.

 

The strong are those who know the freedom they have in Christ and who are able to live in it. The weak are those who struggle with this freedom. They are those who are bound by their conscience to laws and regulations that are unnecessary.

 

Yet, even though the strong know the freedom they have in Christ, and even though they are able to live in it without guilt, their freedom is not to be their primary concern. Maintaining their freedom is not to be their primary concern. Their focus is to be upon the weak.

 

They are to bear with the failings of the weak. In fact, they are obligated to do so. Their primary concern is to be their brother in Christ.

 

Paul goes on to explain that we’re each to please our neighbor for his good. We’re to please our neighbor to build him up. And he points us to Christ as the ultimate example of this.

 

Christ, he says, did not please himself. Instead, he took upon himself our sin. He took upon himself our guilt and shame.

 

In this way, he reminds us of what Jesus did upon the cross. He didn’t come into this world for his sake, but for ours. And he died upon the cross not for any guilt of his own, but for that we have incurred.

 

In the same way, then, we must consider our brother in our midst. We must do nothing that will harm him in terms of his faith or salvation. We must put no stumbling block before him. We’re, rather, to do all that we can to build him up. And we’re to do so even if it means sacrificing for a time the freedom we enjoy.