CHAPTER 15
436
Romans 15:1-3
- Debemus autem nos qui potentes sumus,
infirmitates impotentium portare, et non placere
nobis ipsis: - We then that are strong ought to bear the
infirmities of the weak, and not to please
ourselves. - Unusquisque enim nostrum proximo
placeat in bonum, ad aedificationem. - Let every one of us please his neighbour
for his good to edification. - Etenim Christus non placuit sibi ipsi; sed
quemadmodum scriptum est, Opprobria
exprobrantium tibi, ceciderunt super me. - For even Christ pleased not himself; but,
as it is written, The reproaches of them that
reproached thee fell on me.
1.We then who are strong, etc. Lest they who had made more advances than others in the
knowledge of God should think it unreasonable, that more burden was to be laid on them than on
others, he shows for what purpose this strength, by which they excelled others, was bestowed on
them, even that they might so sustain the weak as to prevent them to fall. For as God has destined
those to whom he has granted superior knowledge to convey instruction to the ignorant, so to those
whom he makes strong he commits the duty of supporting the weak by their strength; thus ought
all gifts to be communicated among all the members of Christ. The stronger then any one is in
Christ, the more bound he is to bear with the weak.^437
By saying that a Christian ought not to please himself, he intimates, that he ought not to be bent
on satisfying himself, as they are wont to be, who are content with their own judgment, and
heedlessly neglect others: and this is indeed an admonition most suitable on the present subject;
for nothing impedes and checks acts of kindness more than when any one is too much swallowed
up with himself, so that he has no care for others, and follows only his own counsels and feelings. - Let indeed^438 every one of us, etc. He teaches us here, that we are under obligations to others,
and that it is therefore our duty to please and to serve them, and that there is no exception in which
we ought not to accommodate ourselves to our brethren when we can do so, according to God’s
word, to their edification.
There are here two things laid down, — that we are not to be content with our own judgment,
nor acquiesce in our own desires, but ought to strive and labor at all times to please our brethren,
(^436) Introduced here, as the conclusion of the last chapter, by Griesbach and other collators of MSS., are the three last verses of
the Epistle, 25-27. It appears that the largest number of copies is in favor of this arrangement, countenanced by the Greek fathers,
and the Syriac and Arabic versions. In favor of the present order, as in our version, there are some good MSS., the Latin fathers,
and the Vulgate, etc. What strongly favors and decidedly confirms the order which we have, is the evident connection as to
matter between this and the last chapter, which shows the impropriety of having those verses intervening between them. — Ed.
(^437) The word for “strong” is , “able,” which Calvin renders potentes, powerful, or able. They were the more advanced in
knowledge and in piety. They were to “bear,” , in the sense of carrying or sustaining the infirmities of the weak, impotentium,
“the unable,” , such as were unable to carry their own burdens. The duty is not merely to bear with or tolerate weaknesses,
(for this is not the meaning of the verb,) but to help and assist the weak and the feeble to carry them. The most literal rendering
is —
“We then who are able ought to bear (or carry)
the infirmities of the unable.” — Ed.
(^438) The in this verse is considered by Griesbach as wholly spurious; and Beza has left it out. — Ed.