Paul doesn’t often appeal to the teachings of Jesus. Sometimes Paul simply takes a big global snapshot of Jesus — like one of those pictures from the space rockets of planet earth. In Romans 15:3, Paul says “For Christ did not please himself.” We learn plenty here:
\nFirst, we learn what Paul means by “pleasing oneself.” It means self-preservation at the expense of building others up.
\nSecond, it sure seems to me that Paul is referring to Mark 10:45 — the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. The OT support, drawn from Psalm 69:9, speaks of the righteous Israelite whose zeal for the house of the Lord drew opposition and was met by endurance to the bitter end — as it was also enveloped by confidence of vindication.
\nThird, this leads Paul to a reflection: the ancient Scriptures were written then but are valuable for us now in order to generate hope in us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paul doesn’t often appeal to the teachings of Jesus. Sometimes Paul simply takes a big global snapshot of Jesus — like one of those pictures from the space rockets of planet earth. In Romans 15:3, Paul says “For Christ did not please himself.” We learn plenty here:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-romans"],"yoast_head":"\n