The Bible Study Podcast, episode 68. This is the 17th episode in a series on the Book of Romans. I'm

titling Christianity 101. Welcome to the Bible study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. Today we continue on our study of the book of Romans in Romans 15, where Paul writes,

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself, as it is written, the insults of those who insult

you have fallen on me, for everything that was written in the past was written to teach us,

so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

This is a similar theme to what we talked about in Romans 14,

where Paul was saying on the issue of eating meat or not eating meat, that what was important

was our neighbor, our brother and sister. And we should at sometimes be willing not to be right,

but to be thinking of their own good ahead of ours.

So Paul continues that theme here in Chapter 15, although in this case it's a little more general.

But it says basically that even Christ didn't just do what he wanted, didn't just try and

please himself.

And Paul here is quoting from part of a verse from Psalm 69, verse 9,

for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

And he is using that as an analogy here of showing that as Christ was putting the will of the

father ahead of his own. We saw that most clearly in the

Garden of Gassimony, where Jesus is literally sweating blood and saying, I would just as soon not do

this, but your will be done. And so Paul is encouraging us to take Jesus' example at that point

and to put one another ahead of ourselves to try and build up one

another to try and encourage one another for the good of our brothers and our sisters for everything

that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the

encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

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