Christ Did Not Please Himself

Romans 14:1,21-15:3 - As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions…It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

1 Thessalonians 5:14 - And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

2 Corinthians 8:9 - For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Psalm 69:9 - For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

Mark 10:45 - For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Philippians 2:5-7 - Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Application:

·         Whose faith is weak was probably Jewish Christians at Rome who were unwilling to give up the observance of certain requirements of the law, such as dietary restrictions and the keeping of the Sabbath and other special days. The Judaizers thought they could put God in their debt by works of righteousness and were trying to force this heretical teaching on the Galatian churches, but the weak Roman Christians did neither.

·         The timid and the weak are to be helped, not rejected, by the strong.

·         The eternal Son, in His incarnation and His atoning death in our place on the cross, emptied Himself of His riches.

·         Those who mock God also mock His servant who trusts in Him—as Christ also experienced.

·         Jesus gave His life to release us from bondage to sin and death.

·         In spite of all that is unique and radically different about the person and work of Christ, I am to have His attitude of self-sacrificing humility and love for others.

·         Made Himself nothing literally means emptied Himself. Another view is that He emptied Himself, not of deity itself, but of its prerogatives—the high position and glory of deity.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV