We are not to please ourselves, but each one of us is to "please his neighbor for his good to
edification" (Rom. 15:2). To apply this principle in our practical relations with one another would
greatly help us. Sometimes the assurance that we are right makes us hard, and on that line we may
get altogether away from the spirit of grace, and be really pleasing ourselves.

Hence it is important to give heed to this touching reference to Christ:"For even Christ pleased
not Himself." An allusion to what Christ was personally is always very appealing to those who
love Him. He surely moved in perfect liberty, and if He had pleased Himself it would always have
been to do what was absolutely right. If ever any one was entitled to please himself it was He. But
He did not live on that principle. There is nothing more marvelous than that He should say, "For
I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me" (John
6:38). His own will would have been absolutely right and perfect, but He did not come on the
principle of doing His own will at all. We sometimes justify our own will because we feel sure
that we will what is right; but Christ was not here on the line of His will at all, but to do the will
of the Father. Then, in the scripture before us, He "pleased not Himself." Are we really in that
spirit in our relations with the brethren? Alas! God’s portion is largely diminished by the lack of
it. Everything that comes up tests our spirits. We sometimes think we are standing for doctrines
or divine principles, when the truth is that we are being tested as to the spirit we are of. The spirit
and inwardness of Christ was not to do His own will, or to please Himself. It is marvelous_and
truly humbling_to consider Him!

"Christ pleased not Himself." He was here to represent God to men so faithfully that all that men
had to say against God fell on Him. "The reproaches of them that reproached Thee fell on Me."
He would be before men identified with all that God was, and bear the reproach of it. The
reproach that lay on God in the eye of the Jew was His grace. In Luke 4 they "wondered at the
gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth"; but when He showed divine grace in concrete
expression in the blessing of a Sidonian widow or a Syrian leper they took Him to the top of the
hill to cast Him down. The reproach which attached to Him was that He expressed God in grace;
He made nothing of the self-righteous pretensions of men; He was a Friend of publicans and
sinners. He did not please Himself; He expressed God in grace, and He bore reproach. Such is
to be the path of the saint! We are to be identified with the principles on which God is moving in
grace; they are to characterize us in all our relations with our brethren. This would secure happy
relations between all the saints, even if they have different measures of light and faith, and there
would be no hindrance to our "with one mind and one mouth" glorifying "God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 15:6). I think there is an intimation in this of saints being
together as in assembly. The assembly is not formally mentioned; we must go to 1 Corinthians for
that; but for saints with one accord and one mouth to glorify God is an assembly character of
things. The mutual relations of the saints, and the attitude of their spirits one toward another, are
to be so adjusted according to the spirit of Christ that there is nothing to hinder their united praise
to God. It all has in view, not merely the peace and unity of the brethren, but what God will get
in their united service of praise.

(From An Outline of the Epistle to the Romans.)