build them up

I wonder what Jesus would have done if he’d lived his life for himself. Maybe all the same things, since he was still God while he was here, but a side comment of Paul’s in Romans 15:3 (“For even Christ did not please himself . . . .) makes me think that sometimes he may have wanted one thing but done another. So I wonder if sometimes he wished he could go be with the snooty rich people and have a little luxury, or maybe take some time off from preaching to go sightseeing in Egypt.

Idle speculation, really, because that phrase is connected with this, from Romans 15:1-3: “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself . . . .”

Christ put himself last when it came to the push and pull of being in community. It’s as we try to fit into a town or workforce or church or any other group that we find what others are doing impinges on what we would prefer. And in that context we’re told that Jesus looked to other people first.

Paul makes a winning argument here, in his assumption that his readers are as strong as he is. Once he makes the tension about strong, selfless people and weak, self-centered people, of course we all know which group we see ourselves in.

Then why, though, do I so often assert my own desires? Why am I so grumbly about my neighbors’ noisy activities at 9:30 at night? Why am I so short-tempered in lines or in traffic? Could I be one of those weak people that Paul is writing about, not to?

There’s a purpose to Paul’s instruction: that we build our neighbors up. Encourage them. Help them become more than they are, more of what they want, not us. What’s important is not that we have a pleasant life, but that everyone has a chance to grow.

Not a bad instruction for our snarky age, when the most admired skill is the art of the put-down. Christianity is truly counter-cultural. Here’s the revolution we all need, folks.