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For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on Me.”<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Christ is our supreme example of humility for the sake of others.<\/p>\n The Greek word translated \u201creproaches<\/span>\u201d is oneidismos<\/em><\/span>, which is based on the verb oieididz\u014d<\/em><\/span>, meaning \u201cto defame, deride, disparage, or reproach.\u201d In other words, it means to attack with abusive words.<\/p>\n \u201cFell<\/span>\u201d is from epipipt\u014d<\/em><\/span>, which is made up of epi<\/em><\/span>, meaning \u201cover or upon\u201d and pipt\u014d<\/em><\/span>, meaning \u201cto fall.\u201d Thus, epipipt\u014d<\/em><\/span>, means \u201cto fall upon\u201d or \u201cto land upon.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul has been showing us that we ought to consider the wellbeing of others as more important than our own wellbeing. Even as we read through this passage, all of us are at one time or another going to say, or at least think, \u201cBut what about me? Don\u2019t I have to take care of myself? I can\u2019t expend all of my energy taking care of others; I need to take care of good old number one!\u201d<\/p>\n I suspect that Paul\u2019s response to that would be that good old number one should always be good old number last! If we take care to always do good and be well pleasing to others, then God will take care of us. (Clearly, we need to ensure that we are taking good physical care of ourselves so we can meet the needs of others.) Paul now gives the supreme example of selfless love and the considering of the welfare of others more than self; that is Jesus Christ Himself. His quote here is from the Psalms.<\/p>\n Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. <\/span>(Psalms 69:9<\/strong><\/span>)<\/p>\n This entire Psalm is a Messianic psalm. When Christ hung on the cross, in fact before he hung on the cross, while he was going through the illegal mock trials the night before and the morning of his crucifixion, He suffered many reproaches for our sakes. He was beaten in the face with both open hands and closed fists and was spat upon (Matthew 26:67<\/strong><\/span>). He had the hairs of his beard plucked out (Isaiah 50:6<\/strong><\/span>). He was beaten with the scourge (John 19:1<\/strong><\/span>) until his flesh was like bloody hamburger meat! He was mocked and ridiculed (Psalms 22:7, 8; Matthew 27:31; Matthew 27:41-43<\/strong><\/span>). And yet, He did not strike out at them nor retaliate in any way. In fact, He remained silent when falsely accused (Matthew 27:12-14; Mark 15:4, 5<\/strong><\/span>). Instead of striking back, He took the reproaches which we should have received. God in the flesh took on the reproaches of men so that we sinful men could avoid the reproaches of a righteous God. Truly Christ was more concerned about us than He was about pleasing Himself.<\/p>\n If He was willing to take such abuse for our sakes, then surely we should be willing to subjugate our own desires and pleasures for the sake of our neighbor, shouldn\u2019t we?<\/p>\n Paul has spent a lot of time and effort teaching us how important it is for us to humble ourselves before God and before our fellow Christians. Do you suppose that it might be a good idea for us to learn how to do that?<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\nTruth to Learn<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Behind the Words<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Meaning Explained<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Application<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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