Selflessness Is Love

Selflessness Is Love

SELFLESSNESS

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Romans 15:1

When was the last time you saw a commercial or advertisement expressing this idea: “You should not try to just please yourself, but should be concerned for the welfare and care of others?”

No, we are usually bombarded with messages that encourage us to get the latest gadget, or enjoy a vacation spot, or purchase a vehicle for ourselves because “you deserve it; you owe it to yourself.”

But Paul tells us, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that the debt you ought to be concerned about is the debt you have to others. God has entrusted you with health, with money, with time, or with resources that others may not have; but these gifts are not meant to pool up in the reservoir of yourself. You have an obligation to God, as a steward of the blessings with which He has entrusted you, to be a conduit, a tributary of blessing to others.

A few verses later Paul tells us why this is so: “For even Christ pleased not himself…” (15:3). That is a big “even”, because Christ (unlike us) had every right to please Himself. And, yet, He was concerned rather to serve and to bear the infirmities and afflictions of the weak with them. We then that are strong, Paul says, ought to be doing the same.

What burdens have you helped bear today? What resources have you shared with others? Don’t seek to please yourself; seek to please the Lord by caring for others.

Prayer: Lord, give me the desire to lighten the burden of those around me.

Scriptural Reading: Romans 15:1-13

1 We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.

3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”

4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,

6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Glorify God Together

7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,

9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written:

” For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, And sing to Your name.”

10 And again he says:

“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!”

11 And again: “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!”

12 And again, Isaiah says:

“There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope.”

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Selflessness Is Love