We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.
—Romans 15:1-2
I heard about a church in California back in the 1970s that decided to open its doors on Friday nights to the young people of the area. And in they came, the street kids, the beach kids, the hippies, many of them barefoot, many of them dirty. But something wonderful was happening: as they came in, many of them were encountering Christ in powerful, life-changing ways.
That was all fine and good… until the church installed brand-new baby-blue carpet in the sanctuary. And as you can imagine, it wasn’t long before those dirty, bare feet were tracking across that beautiful new carpet, staining it. So in a deacons’ meeting one afternoon, the leaders came to the pastor and said, “Pastor, we’ve got to do something about these kids. They’re ruining our baby-blue carpet!”
So, the next Saturday the pastor walked into the sanctuary and started ripping the carpet up himself. Someone caught him and said, “What in the world are you doing?” And he answered, “We don’t need this carpet — but we must reach those kids!”
That pastor understood exactly what Paul is teaching here. “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” The strong believer doesn’t use his strength, his preferences, or his comforts as a reason to look down on others or push them away. He lays those things down for the sake of people who need Christ.
And look at the goal Paul sets: “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” This isn’t people-pleasing in the shallow sense of just keeping everyone happy. It’s a deliberate, loving choice to set aside my own preferences so that my neighbor is built up and, ultimately, drawn closer to Christ. The aim is his good and his growth, not my comfort.
Here’s the question this puts to every one of us, and to every church. What are we holding onto, what comforts, what preferences, what “baby-blue carpet”, that’s getting in the way of reaching people for Jesus? Because a church’s programs and preferences and traditions were never meant to exist for the comfort of the already-comfortable. The church exists to bring people to Jesus Christ. That’s why it’s here.
We who are strong owe it to the weak. Use your strength not to please yourself, but to bear with others, build them up, and bring them to Jesus.
DON’T LET YOUR COMFORTS HINDER OTHERS FROM COMING TO CHRIST, USE YOUR STRENGTH TO BEAR WITH THE WEAK AND BUILD THEM UP.
