Biblion Bible Commentary
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Bear the Weaknesses of the Weak
Romans 15:1-7
1 Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves. · WEB
Strength is defined as load-bearing, Christ is the precedent who did not please himself, and the section closes on mutual welcome to God's glory.
Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Paul finally locates himself — we who are strong — and in the same clause redefines the word. Strength in this dispute is not the freer conscience; it is load capacity: to bear the weaknesses of the weak, the carrying verb, shouldering another's burden as one's own Galatians 6:2. The strong exist in the church the way load-bearing walls exist in a house. And the negative names strength's standing temptation: not to please ourselves — liberty curved inward, the strong pleasing the strong.
Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up Romans 15:2 — with both qualifiers doing work: for the good, toward building; neighbor-pleasing is not applause-seeking Galatians 1:10 but construction.
Then the precedent that ends all argument: for even Christ didn't please himself. But, as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me" Romans 15:3.
The citation is from the psalm of the righteous sufferer — the psalm of the vinegar — and its logic is the incarnation compressed: the one person entitled to please himself absorbed instead the reproaches aimed at God. Set beside that, the strong believer's sacrifice of a menu is not heroism; it is the family resemblance Romans 8:29.
Verse 4 pauses over its own method, and the sentence is the charter for reading Scripture at all: for whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. The old texts were written for us Romans 4:23–24 — and their assigned products are the letter's own triad: perseverance, encouragement, hope.
Then the prayer, and its address is built from the verse before: now the God of perseverance and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Romans 15:5–6.
One accord, one mouth — the divided tables of chapter 14 singing a single doxology, which is what the unity is for: not uniformity of menu but harmony of praise.
And the section's summary command mirrors its opening Romans 14:1 with the measure now attached: therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God Romans 15:7. The welcome each believer received is the welcome each owes — that wide, that early, that undeserved.
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