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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Romans 15:3 - 15:3
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For even Christ pleased not himself: he backs his exhortation in Rom_14:1, with an argument taken from the practice of our Lord himself, who is our perfect pattern, and hath left us an example, that we should follow his steps: see Joh_13:15,34 1Pe_2:21 1Jo_2:6 4:17. By Christ’s not pleasing himself, is meant his not indulging or sparing himself; he did not seek his own ease, nor to satisfy inclination of the human nature, which abhorreth pain, and the destruction of itself. He took such a course all along as sufficiently demonstrated that he respected our benefit, and not his own.
But; here is an ellipsis, something must he supplied to fill up the sense: either the meaning is, he pleased not himself, but others; or, he pleased not himself, but bore our infirmities and reproaches: or else, he pleased not himself, but it happened to him; or he so carried himself that it might be truly applied to him, which is written, &c.
As it is written; viz. in Psa_69:9. That David uttered these words in the person of Christ, or as a type of him, may appear from Joh_2:17. Interpreters are divided about accommodating this testimony to the occasion for which it is brought. Either the meaning is, that Christ did willingly expose himself to all the reproaches and contumelies of men, in obedience to his Father’s will; or else, that he and the same concernments with God the Father, so that what befell God did also befall him; he was as tender of the Father’s honour as of his own: or else, that the sins of men, which are things that cast reproach upon God, were taken by Christ upon himself, and he bore them in his body upon a tree. Seeing then that Christ hath done so much for our sakes, and hath not sought his own ease and benefit, we ought also to seek the good of others, and to deny ourselves: see Phi_2:6-8.