‘Now we who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the frail (powerless), and not to please ourselves.'
Paul commences with the general statement, to be read in the light of the previous chapter, that ‘we who are strong' ought to have consideration for the ‘powerless', by ‘bearing their infirmities', just as Christ ‘bore our infirmities' (Isaiah 53:4). The phrase Paul uses probably has Isaiah in mind. This will include living among their weaker brothers and sisters in subjection, while among them, to the things that they in their weakness see as necessary for religious living, but it also has wider application. Paul is drawing out a general lesson from the particular situation. We are to seek to please others rather than ourselves in all things which are matters of relative unimportance so as to ‘bear their infirmities'. That a more general principle is in mind is confirmed by the change in vocabulary, He no longer speaks of the ‘weak' but of the ‘powerless'. Thus the statement is to have wider application, although having the previous situation in mind. We are reminded here of Philippians 2:5-11 where there is the same injunction to follow the example of Christ's humility for the good of others.