What it meant then
Paul is writing to the believers in Rome, Jews and Gentiles who did not agree on everything. In chapter 14 he has dealt with their disputes over food and special days: some ate anything, others only vegetables; some honored one day above others, others treated every day alike (Romans 14:1–6). Paul calls the more cautious the weak and the freer the strong, and counts himself among the strong (15:1). Yet the strong are not told to win the argument. They are told to carry the weak, following Christ, and to accept one another as Christ accepted them (15:7).
For today
In Paul’s world, as in ours, being strong usually meant getting your way. Paul turns that around. If you are the one who is more secure, more free, more sure of what you believe, your strength is not a trophy. It is an obligation: you “ought to bear with” the people who are not there yet.
Notice what this does not mean. It is not people-pleasing. Paul says to please your neighbor “for his good, to build him up” (15:2), which is not the same as keeping everyone comfortable or never saying a hard word. Nor does he pretend the strong are wrong; he is one of them. The question is not who wins the argument but who gets carried. Christ himself did not please himself; he took on himself the insults aimed at God (15:3).
Think of moving a sofa up a narrow staircase. The stronger friend takes the heavy end, walks backwards and goes at the other person’s pace. Nobody calls that weakness. Today someone near you is struggling to hold up their end of something: a new believer full of questions, a tired parent, a colleague who keeps falling behind. Whatever strength you have was given for them too.
Pray
God of endurance and encouragement, you have been patient with me when I was the weak one. Forgive me for using what I know to win arguments instead of carrying people. Make me strong the way Christ was strong, willing to take the heavier end and to walk at someone else’s pace. Build up the people around me through me, and give us one heart with one another. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Try this today
Think of one person who is struggling to keep up, at home, at work or at church. Ask them today what kind of help would actually be useful, and then do that one thing.
Think about it
When you are the “strong” one, what is harder for you to give up: your freedom, or being right?
Answer it honestly, in your notebook or with a friend today.