The Strong and the Weak Again
Romans 15:1-3 · Mike Doyle · Jun 8, 2025
Romans (2022-25), No. 126
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261939421906

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Interesting, I don't know about you, but these verses from all the way from chapter 14 through the first three verses in 15, if you really spend a lot of time with them, they can be intimidating. Because everybody just assumes that when he's talking about strong and weak believers, that you're the strong one. And then you find out through study that you're probably not the strong one. And so you learn what it's like to be a weak one, which is a good thing.

So today, I was going to, you know, two weeks ago, I said there were nine admonitions that Paul put in these verses. And so two weeks, we only did seven. Well, we'll get the other two today. You know, we talked about verse 13a, stop judging one another about indifferent things, things that don't matter. Don't put a stumbling block or a trigger in your brother's way. So the mousetrap was a trigger.

15, verse 15, walk according to love. That in itself could be a three hour sermon. Do not destroy with your food or anything else, as a strong believer, him for whom Christ died. Verse 16, therefore, do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken evil of, because you use your good thing, which was all right for you, but you caused your weaker brother to trip over it. Verse 19 says, let us pursue, and we talked about that word, pursue is an aggressive word. Get with it, pursue. The things which make for peace and the building up of one another. And then seven, do not destroy the work of God by your freedom. So, here's the last two.

Verse 15.1 tells us, We then who are strong ought to bear the scruples of the weak. And I'm gonna define that a little later on. And then verse two says, let each of one please his neighbor for his good, the neighbor's good, to his edification.

Now most of you who are strong believers, which is most of you, say, no problem, I got this. So if I have presented my body, as Romans 8 tells me, a living sacrifice to God, I think I'm prepared to surrender a little bit of my freedom for other believers.

The things in relation to which we have freedom or liberty, but which are unimportant, really unimportant, compared with righteousness and peace and the joy of the Holy Spirit, compared with the works of God. I'm not to use my liberty, however much God has given me, in things which hinder of what is supremely important. In other words, does it matter if you eat fish on Friday or don't? Does it matter if you wear a head covering or not? Does it matter all of the little things that people seem to think that if I do that I'll somehow be more favorable to God, when in fact they really are unimportant. when it comes to righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Those are the important things. Peace and edification are to be pursued, focused on, building up of weak souls in the knowledge of God.

I don't know if you ever sit down and even think about that. You start studying these verses, and then you do start thinking about it, and you think, wow, I've been very good at that. Charles Coates says, how many go on with things which they do not feel happy about? Things regarding liberty, which our conscience convicts them.

There's a mystery going on in these things that one cannot do because of his faith. It should be an exercise in all things to be conscious of God's approval. He talked about that verse that Jim read, have your faith before God. It's you and him, that's what matters. So chapter 15, then we see Paul identifying himself with the stronger believers. And he had no trouble regarding any creatures of God. He was comfortable in that position.

So how is the knowledge, the knowledge of believer a hindrance to others? Let's say that you're a, I don't know, a super scholar. How about that term, super scholar? You guys reading The Hungry Heart this morning? It was really interesting. I think this says it. The written word is meant to reveal the living word, not to hide him. Many know prophecy better than they know the prophet. You get that?

That's what chapter 15 starts to talk about. We've seen Paul identify himself with the strong, had no trouble, but the knowledgeable believer can be a hindrance to others because his focus is on the knowledge rather than the person. Because really, what do we do in our Christian lives? What are we supposed to be doing under grace? I said it last week, we're gonna be doing this. Remember what that was about? It's not about you, it's about Christ. And our job is to point people to Christ, Him. So I can be very scholarly.

Second Corinthians 8.11 says, through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined. The brother for whose sake Christ died, You think about that. Your knowledge, if you're espousing things that you know and have freedom about with a believer who doesn't understand and isn't where you are, you really do harm them. You wouldn't think that that would be a big deal, but it is, especially when it comes to edification. In John 15, when the Lord was about to go away, what did he tell his disciples?

Love one another as I have loved you. This is one simple, simple direction. Love each other the way I love you. So it's the beginning and it's the maintenance of this start that put them in their true place here on the earth in the absence of their Lord. That's the one thing that was to continue with them that the Lord always demonstrated. It's the one grand occupation everybody in this room has, is to love one another as he loved us. We have that obligation, even unto death. And they would be his friends. They would understand him. They would be like him. He'd been their greatest friend, and now he shows them how they could be friends to him. It gets changed now from him loving them.

So let me show you how this works, he says to them, in dying for him as he had done for them, but in dying for one another. Christ doesn't expect you to go around and demonstrate how you're dying for him, he already knows about you, but how you can die or, better put, set aside you for your brother.

The sphere of this interest was the sphere in their interest, sad deficiency, if it's otherwise. If we don't love each other, what are we doing? We're the Kiwanis Club. We're the fraternity, we're in a college, or I don't know, we're all, Boy Scouts, you know, pick one. The effect is it would be a world would hate them as he hated them. Think about this. The Lord Jesus is a lover, and because he's a lover, how does the world react to him? They hated him. Why would they hate him? Because they're not lovers. They're not lovers. All men would know, though, that they were his disciples.

How? Because they loved one another. That's how they'd find out. They'd see it. This devotedness of interest for one another unto death is so novel, it's so different, and unaccountable, a thing here would awaken and capture the attention and chagrin of the selfish world that we live in in a remarkable way. People see, non-believers see, that you really do love one another. It makes a huge difference and has an impact on them. So it was the center from which all of the strength of the Lord Jesus and his testimony would flow, love one another.

If the heart is to be in tune, And power there will be strength throughout the structure. In other words, if the core is strong, so are the extremities. Maybe an engineer wouldn't say it that way. So we go back now to the very first verse that Jim read.

Have faith, have it to one another. and have it personally with the Lord. It's personal in a wonderful way. It's always depending on God and on nothing else. Like I said on Wednesday, I found this from, I don't know who it was from. It said, oh, it was Merriman. He said, when trouble happens, do you go to the phone or go to the throne? Such a great line.

The Lord Jesus has all power and still he is ever the one on earth, the dependent man. He was dependent, absolutely dependent. He even said, I don't ever do anything of myself. I only do what I see my father doing. Well, that's because we have his life for the same way.

We have a serving faith which contemplates as true the fact of divinely bestowed gifts And all the details respecting divine appointments for service were servants. The Lord Jesus was a servant. Everybody knew he was a servant, because that's all that he did. This faith with its personal characteristics may be kept intact.

And Paul wrote in 1422, the faith which you have, have it as your own conviction before God. It's him and you. And then there's the sanctifying or sustaining face which lays hold of the power of God for one's daily life. And it seems like every study I've been in the last couple weeks, this subject has been involved to one way or another.

We are told in Romans 6, 4 that we were resurrected to newness of life. And that's always been one of my favorite verses because we think that the, Noun here is life. The noun here is newness. Newness. What is that? It's the kind of life that only one person ever had was the Lord Jesus.

And because we were united with him in his death, burial, and resurrection, when we rose, we rose into that life. We have that life. We have it. So the justified one, having become what he is by faith, must go on living on the same principle of what? Tell me what to do and I'll do it? No, utter dependence on God. Because you can't reason your way to or obey your way to newness of life.

It's a gift. It's a gift. That was kind of tricky, wasn't it? So chapter 15, verse one. Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just to please ourselves. If there's ever been an intimidating verse in the Bible, this is it. Because this says, you know that self thing that you're, it's out. We ought to bear the weakness of those without strength, not to please ourselves. Verse two will say, let each of us please his neighbor for his good to his edification. And verse three says, for even Christ did not please himself. But as it is written, the reproaches of the ones reproaching you fell on me.

Interesting, all the translations had reproaching, reproached, E-D, but it's an active verb. It means it's going on all the time. Reproaching, reproaching, reproaching. So, and here's the other thing, if you've, and I know you probably have done this, you've read through the verses, right?

Well, then you noticed that even though chapter 14 ended and we started a new chapter in 15, the thought didn't change. So I don't think that the chapter division is in the right spot. It either should be at the end of three or the end of seven, because it's the same content going down. Maybe the guy ran out of paper, I don't know. So the subject of a stronger and weaker Christian and the scruples of the latter and the correct attitude of the former towards the latter just continues on when you go into 15.

So, verse one, now those who are strong ought to. I have this, my own saying that I made up, I didn't copy it from anybody. I call it the tyranny of the oughts. I ought to be doing this, and I ought to be doing that, and I ought to not be doing that, is legalism. But notice what it says here. Now we who are strong ought. So let's study that word ought for a minute.

In Romans 13, eight, it says, owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. Guess what o and ot are? They're the same Greek word. The same Greek word. The word here translated ot or o is used for forbidding a Christian to be in debt to others except to love them. It's the word, ofilio, I think, to be a debtor, to be under an obligation, to be bound by a duty, to do what? I'm bound by a duty, I'm under debt, I have an obligation to bear the weakness for those who are without strength. It's not a suggestion.

See that? So, He's addressing the strong believer, and he's including himself in this strong believer, which company we may also be discovered, hopefully. Those who are spiritual, who can show love to one another. You're studying Galatians, right, in the other, in the junior Sunday school? I had to throw that in. the weak believers.

Galatians 6.1 says, Brethren, if a man is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself lest you be tempted. That's an example of an obligation that a strong believer has, restoration. Note carefully that Paul is not bearing with infirmities of others that Paul is speaking of. What is he talking about?

This is a great, this came from, I think Charles Coates, he said, this lady said, I always get a lot out of the help out of the Bible verse that says, grin and bear it. Yeah, 1st Californians 5. And the little girl was heard singing, when all my neighbors and trials are over.

So what's the point here? The point is, when we're talking about issues of a weak believer, we're not talking about the fact that they fell down and bruised their elbow, although you pray about that. But it's more than that. We're talking about, we think that others' weaknesses and firmities and burdens we must put up with for the Lord's sake as our particular cross for the present. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a husband or a wife say, well, she's my cross, he's my cross to bear.

That's not what he's talking about here. The strong here are believers who have an understanding of the word, frees them from religious scruples. They're fine, you know. But the weak believer is one whose understanding of the word is so limited that they consider some things which are right in themselves to be wrong. These false notions are included in the infirmities you're spoken of.

So, I don't know, pick something. Courtney talked a lot about in the Brethren Church head coverings. Do head coverings really matter? Do they really matter? No, they don't. But what if someone in your, let's say Marilyn comes in with a head cover and she believes that that, well, Courtney's gonna run over and say, take that thing off your head. No, he's not gonna do that. He's not gonna do that.

That's where this great phrase is, come beside somebody and walk with them and show them the freedom that they have. but don't flaunt it. Instead, God's word here teaches us gladly to bear, to take over as our own, our brother's infirmities, spiritual infirmities, all kinds of infirmities.

What do you think we're doing as a church with Tom Mallinson? We have taken it upon ourselves to take over his infirmities and to see if we can't make his life better. Bear one another's burdens unless you fulfill the law of Christ. Bear one another means pay attention to our blessed Lord as he bore the infirmities of his disciples. Did he? Look what he had to put up with.

Their ignorance. They barely believed that he might be the Messiah. Their unbelief. You know, they'd spout off, and one day, and the next day, they would be unbelieving. Their self-confidence, like Peter pulling out his sword and cutting off the guy's ear, and then the next, you know, within 24 hours, he's telling somebody, a woman at the door, that he doesn't even know who Jesus is. Jealousy among themselves.

So until all believers come into a condition of a loving trust, not in each other, in the Lord. Trust the Lord for this. Our risen Lord set the example again of bearing for even after they had forsaken him at Gethsemane. What does he do? When he meets them in the upper room and he comes through the wall, he says, peace be to you, and he never mentions their failure.

So. Bear is the word pastazo, to bear what is burdensome. Infirmities is, I can't say that word, is used of physical and mental weaknesses. But this statement I got from, I think Merriman, when an informed, strong believer foregoes an action which he knows is right, but which a weaker Christian thinks is to be wrong, and does it for the sake of not offending that weaker Christian. He curtails his own freedom of action. He denies himself something that is legitimately his, and this is a burden to himself. If you forego a liberty that you have because of your brother, it's a burden that you're bearing. But, I couldn't pass this up, in themselves strong and free, and strong because of the servants of weak, free and the strong become the servants of the weak, as Paul, the servant of all.

It's very easy for self-pleasing and mere willfulness To shelter themselves or ourselves under the disguise of Christian principle, but there's only one Christian principle which has no qualifications, it's love. Denny. Pleasing ourselves is the exact thing each of us will do unless we present ourselves to pursue and follow after love.

And when I saw this t-shirt on the web, I thought, well that says it all. I can't but I know a guy. And that guy is Jesus Christ. So, verse two. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to his edification. Paul doesn't mean here to exhort us to man-pleasing in the way of selfishly seeking man's favor. Back in the day, the term I had for this was brown-nosing. Everybody knows what that means.

He himself says in Galatians 1, am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still a pleasing man, I should not be a servant of Christ. So this isn't a 60-40, 30-70 deal. It's either or. There is a man-pleasing spirit that are very obnoxious to God. We all know people like that. I've been guilty of that. We may be nice to people for our own selfish benefits, I'd go to lunch with Bob, but I know he wouldn't pay. But if I knew he was gonna pay, I might be nice to him. But remembering that this exhortation to please our neighbor for his benefit unto edifying indicates a studied care of others' needs. What are their needs? Pay attention.

So it also doesn't mean that we are to compromise with any evil our neighbor may be doing by having fellowship with him in a worldly path in order to win him. It's like if you look at a lot of the evangelistic efforts today are, well, I'm gonna go be like them. so that I can maybe win a couple and bring them out. No, we stand out here in Christ and we invite them to come to us. We're the ones on the good ground. They're not. We have a life that's visible and observable by them, and the invitation is always there.

The expression for his good, 1 Corinthians 10 says, give no offense, whether to Jews or Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men and all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved. The Lord Jesus never compromised with the world ever. And neither did the Apostle Paul most of the time. We were talking about, he took a vow in Acts, we're talking about Bob's study, so.

And then Paul says, be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ. And imitation here doesn't mean, you know, teach the seal tricks. That's not how it is. The imitation is the imitation of life. If I know the Lord Jesus Christ and you know the Lord Jesus Christ, then we're doing the same thing. That's the imitation.

In pleasing one's weaker believer in this context refers to the act of a believer foregoing a legitimate act because that weaker Christian thinks it's wrong. It pleases the strong, now this is an interesting paragraph. It pleases the strong believer because it removes a source of temptation to him to do that thing and makes his attempt to live a life pleasing to God easier You see that? You see how it makes it easier? If I'm willing to forego my freedom for you, then I have a much less problem with whatever your hangup is than I had before.

Let each of us please his neighbor. Let's talk about please. It means to render service, is really what it means. Doing so evilly as one is doing it for your own interest. And I must say, we do a lot of that, I do a lot of that. I catch myself all the time, why am I doing, oh yeah, I'm trying to enhance my own interest rather than that person. Which Christ did not, or unselfishly in 15.3. First Corinthians 10 says, just as I have pleased all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many that they may be saved.

Thessalonians says, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. Think about that. You've been approved by God, you passed the test, so you're entrusted with the gospel. And with that gospel, you can speak not as pleasing men, but pleasing God who examines our hearts. Last verse, and even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of the ones reproaching you fell upon me. Sometimes I read the word and I think, how could he endure knowing what was at the end of the line? The whole world knows Christ never looked after himself. All you have to do is read the gospels. He never did anything after himself.

I mean, sometimes he would fall asleep because he was so exhausted he couldn't stay awake. The foxes have holes. The birds of heaven have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. You'd think he'd have got a condo someplace. Yet his whole life, from early morning to late at night, and often into the night, was occupied with what?

Ministry to others. That's what he did. So the multitudes found out with joy that here was one whose whole business was Going about and doing good. How cool would it be if someone said of you, oh, it's cool that you always are going about doing good. How cool would that be? We've got the life for it.

The constraint. Growing on the Lord Jesus by the multitudes around him. on his time, his love, his teaching, his healing, was a marvelous proof that they could count on the absolute absence of self-pleasing in him. We're studying Acts now, Friday night, next week. It's interesting, or I'll take it back. We're studying Tuesday, we're studying Mark. And we were talking about the Lord Jesus leaving a crowd of people that was so impacting him that his mother and his brothers came to rescue him out of that and it was so compact they couldn't get him out. So they leave. And he's been doing this for days. And so they go to the shore and they get on a boat and he falls asleep. And that's when the big storm comes up and they wake him up.

I find it interesting that he's just going about pleasing others and not pleasing yourself is exhaustive work, especially if it's 24-7 like with him. And Paul was so much like that. The stronger Christian is to do this in the instance where the weaker Christian would be edified or built up in a Christian life. If God sends a weaker believer into your life, you're with him maybe for the rest of his life or your life, whichever comes first.

It isn't drop in and drop out. They show up there permanently. You walk beside them. And first Peter, and while being reviled, he didn't revile in return. And while suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. So, I want to talk about reproaches now.

What an interesting word this is. I hope you can see that, it's kind of small. The Greek word means to defame. It means to cast in teeth, suffer, revile, upbraid. The dictionary said reproach means reproach. So I couldn't do that knowing you were here. You can't define a word with a word.

But if you take a look at Psalm 69, which was really a cool psalm when it comes to the Lord Jesus. Verse seven says, for thy sake I have borne reproach. Verse nine says, the reproaches of them that reproached thee have fallen on me. Verse 10 says, when I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that was my reproach. Or in verse 19, he says, thou knowest my reproach and my shame and my dishonor. Verse 20 says also, reproach hath broken my heart. Psalm 69, this is what's going through the Lord's heart when he's here.

So, our Lord upon the cross cries out that he is the reproach of men. Psalm 31 says, as we find so carried out in the gospels, I am become a reproach, yes, unto my neighbors exceedingly and a fear of mine acquaintances. Psalm 109 says, poor and needy, heart wounded, gone like a shadow, tossed up and down, weak through fasting, his flesh failing, a reproach unto them. This is the description of the Lord Jesus Christ going to the cross. It's always for your sake I've borne reproach. That's why I did it for you. The reproaches that fell upon God, they not only fell upon the Lord Jesus, but they also fell on the Father. Did you ever think about that?

Whose will and works Christ was doing, but he was being reproached or rejected too. And whom a man was leaning, was learning the more to hate as the beauty of Jehovah was manifest more and more in him. That's the marvelous thing when you read the gospels is how much hate there is against him. And he was a server of men and a lover. That's what he was. And they hated him for it. So don't be surprised if you're functioning like a believer that there's a lot of hate around for you.

So Hebrews 12.2, fixing your eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, reproach, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Probably one of the coolest things about this verse, if you understand what we call positional truth of Romans 6, if he sat down at the right hand of God, where are you? What's your position? Right there, the right hand of God.

Now, Newell ends up by saying, if we were so with Christ, whose goodness was constantly reproached, Shall we complain or stumble if even our good be evil spoken of? But Christ dwell in us, as the Father dwelt in Christ, and let us cease from self-pleasing. Anything harder than that? To cease from self-pleasing. Let's close.

Father, how marvelous we are, marvelous you are, and how marvel we are that your son lived this kind of life in the world that he was in, that we're in. And for us to see how it goes together and how we are to observe and learn and grow and be conformed to him, that conformity shows out in giving up some of my freedom for the benefit of my brother. Father, my prayer today is that we all would come to a more intimate, personal, face-to-face relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and be conformed to His image. I pray in His name, amen.