Enduring

           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 but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. (Romans 15:1-4)

          Once again, definitions are in order. We need context. Paul’s been writing about weak people who think it’s wrong to eat meat sacrificed to idols. As a cultural note of explanation, families took such meat home and at it as a family, so we’re not talking about something as simple as not eating at a temple. He wasn’t talking about people who are doing things that Scripture clearly calls a sin. Bearing the failings of the weak doesn’t mean letting someone kill people, or telling them their immorality is OK. He’s not calling us to give up our morality, but to accommodate our neighbors to the extent that we can within it.
         This goes against what society tells us. Society’s motto is “I can do what I want, when I want, with whom I want, how and where I want, as long as I don’t hurt anyone.” And “hurt” is carefully defined. Society doesn’t extend this to everyone, of course, but society is bend on pleasing itself. It is the role of the Christian to be counter-cultural, to go out of our way to benefit others, even when they insult us. We are to keep on being different.
          Paul says that this is why we have the stories of Abraham and Sarah, for the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years, and for all the other “wait for it” stories. They’re meant to encourage us and give us hope as we live the stories that someone else will hear and be encouraged and have hope. But it only works if we endure.