Romans 15:1-6

1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 We should all please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." [a] 4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.


Dig Deeper
Marriage is one of the most wonderful things that God has given to human beings. Yet it can be easy for a marriage that began in love to spiral into in-fighting, disagreements, and disunity. The simple reason for that is because you have two people who usually think quite differently about things trying to work together as a union of one. That can sound simple but the actual reality of it can be quite difficult. A husband and wife can see differently on everything from how to discipline their children to how neatly the walk-in closet should be kept. When a young couple gets married, you suddenly have two people who have usually learned pretty well what they like, how they like things done, and how they want to do things, that are called to work together and be in close proximity constantly. I have seen many young couples who quickly fall into a routine of disagreeing with one another about virtually every issue which causes them to get into a rut of arguing and conflict that they just cannot seem to work their way out of. They see the issues that they are having in their marriage so passionately and so differently and it quickly becomes close to impossible for them to take a step back and view things from the other’s point of view. The question becomes, “how can people who think so differently actually come together and live as one flesh”? How can two people that find themselves thinking very differently on so many issues work past that and realistically work towards a common goal?

Paul is not dealing directly with the issue of marriage here, but there are some similarities. He is helping the church in Rome, and all subsequent churches that read this letter, figure out how to work together. There are, in fact, so many similarities that what Paul says to the church in Rome here can be quite helpful to a married couple who finds themselves in a position similar to the one described above. When individuals choose to respond to the gospel in belief and lay down their life in order to enter into the life of the Messiah and his body, which is the church, we find that we no longer belong to ourselves but to one another (Rom. 12:5). This, as Paul is well aware, can create some real difficulties when you have groups of people who are called to live in unity and harmony with one another but when they can have such different convictions and viewpoints in areas that seem and feel vitally important to one side or the other. How can they actually live and worship and carry on the gospel together? Is the only realistic solution for them to divide and worship apart from one another? For Paul that is absolutely not an option. In fact that sort of thinking would stand diametrically opposed to the one family that has been created by the gospel. Denominationalism may seem like a simple solution to difficult problems but it is not a solution that is in keeping with the heart of the gospel.

No, the answer is not to divide. Nor is it to just suck it up and pretend like there are not very real differences between Christians. In the previous chapter Paul has called for unity and self-sacrificing love for one another in the very midst of incredible and challenging diversity. True unity can only be had through diversity. If everyone thinks alike, then you have uniformity, which is convenient, but doesn’t really demonstrate the incredible power of the gospel to bring together groups of people who, if they were to conform to the patterns of the world, would simply not live together in unity. To have true unity, you must have a diverse group of people that have agreed to work through their differences and still come to be unified around the one thing that they do have in common. For believers, our faith in Jesus Christ is that commonality that we share. But simply saying that we all share faith n the life of Christ does not bring us unity. It is not just the faith in that life, as Paul is about to show us, but what we find when we turn to that life. When we look at the life that Jesus lived, we will find the answer to what can truly bring unity through immense diversity.

To really get where he is leading, though, we have to keep in mind that Paul has demanded that we no longer conform to the patterns of the world but that we are to be transformed by renewing our mind and the way we think about the world. Our world constantly talks about the importance of diversity and how it strengthens society. They are on the right track but the reality demonstrates that true unity through diversity has eluded the world like a greased pig. The more the United States speaks of strength through diversity, the more separated the country has become. I believe the reason for this is because, as we proclaim diversity, we encourage one another to assert their rights, their backgrounds, their customs, their identify, and their beliefs and to demand that all of those things be respected and never infringed upon. Thus, we create a hyper-diversity but one that actually tears down the society slowly because while we are encouraging more and more diversity, we are quickly eroding the very thing that might bring unity (not to mention the fact that true unity will never come outside of Christ, but we don’t even need to bring that into it to make the point). You simply cannot gain unity through diversity by encouraging everyone to assert their rights. So what is the thing that brings true unity? We’ll get to that in a moment.

The strong, those who have more deeply explored the depths of the life of Christ and have quite arguably come to a more fuller understanding of how that life works out in the real world, should use their strength not to look down on those who are weak. To do so would be to act in a self-pleasing way that might display more diversity but actually harm others. The controlling ethic for the Christian community is to put the interests of others ahead of our own and work for their good. Building up the faith of others is far more important than exercising your freedom and diversity.

But why do this? Because this is the example that Jesus set. It is, after all, his life to which we are all trying to attain and grasp and live as our own. Paul writes, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen me,” a quotation that comes from Psalm 69:9. Psalm 69 is a poem that describes the suffering of Israel’s representative, the Messiah. The role of the Messiah was not to please himself but to take the insults on to himself that people were hurling at the God of Israel. He endures “scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face” (Ps. 69:7). This is the Jesus we see pictured in Philippians 2:6-7 who though “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Jesus did not go after his own kingly rights, but submitted himself to God’s saving plan. This is the Christ to which Christians look for their example.

But before we can consider the full implications of that, we have to consider that verse 5 says something shocking that seems to contradict everything Paul has said in chapter 14 about being diverse, bearing with one another, and allowing room for others who think differently. After all that, how can he now say that they should “have one mind and once voice.” Isn’t this exactly what Paul has not called them to do in chapter 14? This is where the example of Christ comes in. It is not realistic or even desirable that all Christians (or two married people for that matter) think alike on everything, so what does Paul mean? He means that they should be of one mind and one voice when it comes to the attitude of submission and self-sacrifice that Jesus had. Paul is urging them to have the same mutual submission that the Messiah demonstrated throughout his life. It is only through this kind of submission that true unity can be had. When a group of people that are truly diverse respect that diversity but recognize that this diversity does not demand that I assert my own rights and diversity but that I submit to the other person so that they have room to express their diversity, only then can true unity come about. It is only this sort of self-sacrifice amidst diversity that will bring true unity.

Paul’s complete point, then, is that the path that Jesus laid out for those who would enter into his life was submission and the willingness to renounce our rights for the benefit of others. This is the path that we are called to walk (cf. 1 Jn. 2:6). The fact is that in a Christian community we will live alongside people who think differently and are quite diverse from us but the Christian life is characterized by by the mutual submission that the Messiah demonstrated for us. When a genuinely diverse group of believers from different ethnic groups, different backgrounds, different socio-economic statuses, and so on, come together and live in true unity, that is when God is truly glorified. God is glorified when people who have no good reason for living together as a family, do so in humble submission to one another because of their loyalty to the Messiah. It is only then that true unity through diversity can be achieved.


Devotional Thought
When it comes to living within your Christian family are you more concerned with your rights or with sacrificing your rights in order to live the self-sacrificial life that Christ has called us to in order to be part of his family? Do you spend more time thinking of how you can love or serve others or do you spend more time thinking of and complaining about what they haven’t done for you?