I'd like to begin by asking you to turn to John 17, John chapter 17, at verse 11. This is Jesus' high priestly prayer, where he prays for us. 

John 17, 11: "Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name, those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. 

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you sent me. And I have declared to them your name, and I will declare it, that the love with which you love me may be in them, and I in them."

Well, Jesus prays that the disciples and all who would believe through their testimony and the written word would be one, would have one mind, would have one purpose, that the world may know that Jesus is the Christ. 

Our study in 1 Peter is quite parallel. I'd like for you to turn to 1 Peter 3, verse 8. We'll look at a couple of scriptures as we start here, 1 Peter 3, verse 8. Peter writes, "Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous, not returning evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed, and do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. 

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. 

Be of one mind, he says. Have the same mind as Christ. Love one another. I'd like for you to look at our text, what Paul says in chapter 15, Romans 15 at verse 1. He says, "We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 

Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us to the glory of God. 

I've given you four points on your outline for our study this morning. First, please your neighbor. Second, for edification. Third, the example of Christ. And fourth, the purpose of God. 

Well, God's intention for every believer in Jesus is that we might have the same mind as Christ, that we might live for God and for others, that we might love men as God loves men, sanctifying, sacrificing ourselves for their edification. In our context, Paul is writing concerning disputes over doubtful things, as you remember from chapter 14. He's been teaching us that it is right for the stronger brother to forego his liberty in Christ in these doubtful areas so that he might not cause the weaker brother to stumble. 

It is in this context that Paul implores us to be of one mind, to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus. We should not seek to please ourselves; we should seek to please our neighbor for the purpose of his edification. This is a tremendously important truth. 

I want you to listen to Weiss' comment on this first verse and the idea of pleasing your neighbor. He says, "The pleasing one's neighbor in this context refers to the act of the believer foregoing a legitimate act because that weaker Christian thinks it to be wrong. It pleases him because it removes a source of temptation to him to do that thing and makes his attempt to live a life pleasing to God easier. But the stronger Christian is to do this only in the instance where the weaker Christian would be edified or build up in the Christian life." 

Again, in the context, we're talking about disputes over doubtful things, and Weiss makes a very important point here; he answers a question I think we often have. If I am to yield my liberty to the weaker brother, where does that end? I mean, should I never eat a pork chop again because there are believers who have a conviction about eating pork? The stronger Christian is to do this, he's to forego his liberty only in the instance where the weaker Christian would be edified or build up. 

So if I'm not in a situation where exercising my liberty may cause a brother to stumble, I'm certainly free to exercise that liberty and enjoy that liberty and eat that pork as unto the Lord, giving him thanks. If I'm hanging out with Mark and Ray, it's not a problem. But if someone has a conviction that they shouldn't eat pork, then I certainly don't want to give them a pork chop for dinner, right, to cause them to stumble. 

The exhortation here is to be sensitive to my brothers and sisters in Christ, to be seeking to serve them, to edify them, to please them. This I do by getting to know them, by praying for them, spending time with them, loving them in a self-sacrificial way. It is in this way that I am to please my neighbor and not myself. 

Notice verse 2 says we are to please our neighbor for his good, for the purpose of edification. And this is the real essence of the passage here, the lesson for us in Romans 14 and 15. Edification is the goal, and it should be our desire. 

Turn over to Ephesians 4 with me, please, Ephesians 4 verse 28. In the previous verses, Paul, in verse 17, has said we should no longer live like who we are, or who we were, but we should live like who we are. He talks about the transformation, having put off the old man, having put on the new man, and being renewed in the knowledge of him who created us. 

And in verse 28, he gives an example of that total transformation. He says, "Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." 

Seek words that are necessary for edification. Do you do this? Paul says no corrupt words, no coarse words, but words that edify. That's a purposeful decision on our part, isn't it? Be kind to one another, have compassion for one another, share one another's burdens, rejoice together, love one another, and forgive. Forgive one another, he says, even as God in Christ forgave you. 

Do you seek to do these things? Are you looking, striving to edify your brothers and sisters in Christ? That's a good question for each of us to ask. These areas of personal conviction that we're talking about here are not really that important so that I must have my own way, right? It's not a big deal if I don't exercise some liberty if doing so will keep my brother from stumbling in his walk and his faith if it will edify him and cause him to grow in Christ. 

Paul captures this idea in 1 Corinthians 8 as well. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, sort of a parallel passage, 1 Corinthians 8, 1. He uses a different example here, things offered to idols. He says, "Now concerning things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge." Look at what he says here, "Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. The idea here is Paul's kind of like Romans 15, where he says not to have disputes over doubtful things. 

You may know that it's okay to eat this meat that's been offered to idols, but you shouldn't be arguing that with your brother, trying to convince your weaker brother that he should eat the meat, see? Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies, and if you think that your goal is to win every Christian over to your personal convictions and you're willing to fight about that and cause division about that, then Paul says, you don't know anything as you ought to know. 

Verse 3, "But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, that there's no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live." 

So we have that knowledge, that's true. Verse 7, "However, there is not in everyone that knowledge. For some with consciousness of the idol until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled." Can you imagine if you'd come out of one of those Gentile religions in that time where you worshiped in the temple and drunkenness and orgies and eating these things offered to idols and that was your past and you'd been saved out of that through faith in Christ and now you were living in that community still and someone was eating that meat having been offered in that worship service? 

That could be a real problem for you. He says we don't all have this knowledge. Verse 8, "But food does not commend us to God. For neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating an idol's temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died. 

But when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. His conclusion, verse 13, "Therefore if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat lest I make my brother stumble." If it is damaging, Paul even says we might destroy our brother by encouraging him to violate his conscience. If it does violence to him in his walk and his faith, then I want no part of that. If food makes my brother stumble, I'll not eat, because what I want most is his edification for the glory of God. 

That's Paul's heart in our passage. It kind of reminds me of our study in 1 Peter, we talk about submitting to government or wives submitting to their husbands or children to their parents. It's not so much the act of submission as it is an attitude of submission. It's not so much that I eat the pork chop; I don't eat the pork chop. It's my attitude towards my brother. Why am I doing what I'm doing? What is my purpose? How am I living my life and thinking and what am I looking for? 

We're intending to do, praying to God to help me. Verse three of our text says, "For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me." 

The incarnation of the Son of God, the life that He lived on this earth, the death that He died on the cross, which we remember here this morning in our communion service was not for the purpose of pleasing Himself. We see this clearly in Hebrews 12, one and two. Turn over to Hebrews 12 at verse one with me. 

The author of Hebrews says, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." 

We've studied these verses before, but they're so important and there's something very interesting here, something that's germane to our text. The author of Hebrews is talking about a life of faith. He's referring us to the amazing examples we've just seen back in chapter 11. In these verses in 12, one and two, his intent is to give us the ultimate extreme example of faith, of trusting God and His will, of giving of oneself, not pleasing oneself, but pleasing God and men. 

The word translated author does not mean what we might at first think. It's the word archegos, and it means the chief or premier example, the pioneer, the captain, the forerunner. He used the same word back in chapter 2:10, where he says, "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain," same word there, "the captain of their salvation, perfect through sufferings." 

In chapter 12, verse 2, he's using Jesus as the premier example of faith, the leader. The word finisher here, author and finisher, speaks of completion, consummation. It's the word teleotes, much like the word Jesus spoke on the cross when He said what? It is finished, right? It is finished. The idea here in verse two is that He has taken faith to its completion, to its ultimate example, conclusion, the highest level, the greatest example. 

And next, we see something very interesting. It says, "Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Now, this is very often taught that Jesus looked ahead to the accomplishment of salvation, the glory to come, and that helped Him to endure the cross. But that's not what it says. 

This interpretation's based on an erroneous use of the preposition for. The Greek preposition is ante. And the predominant use of ante in the first century was instead of. It's used this way in Luke 11, 11, where we have, "If He asked for a fish, will He for, ante, instead of a fish, give Him a serpent?" Vincent says, "The joy was the full divine beatitude of His pre-incarnate life in the bosom of the Father, the glory which He had with God before the world was. And in exchange for this, He accepted the cross and the shame." 

When it says the glory that was set before Him, it means the glory that He possessed. He left that. He gave it up. The contrast is designed between the readers, verse one, and the joy which was already present to Christ. The heroic character of His faith appears in His renouncing a joy already in possession in exchange for shame and death. 

In this way, Jesus did not please Himself. It's interesting that Paul uses a messianic psalm here in our text, Psalm 69, verse 9, where he says, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me." 

Jesus did not please Himself. He chose to leave the eternal glory of His place in heaven with the Father in the presence and worship of the angels to condescend, to take on flesh, to become a man, to live a life of humility on this earth in service to others, and then die a death He did not deserve, to become sin for us, to take our sin upon Himself, to experience the wrath of God in our place, separated from perfect communion with the Father so that He might accomplish our salvation. He died for us because He loved us. 

And so we ought to lay down our lives for others, love others, our brothers and sisters, as He loved us. 2 Corinthians 5:11 says, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences. For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. 

For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. Or if we are of sound mind, it is for you." Listen to what he says in verse 14. "For the love of Christ compels us." The love of Christ. What compels you? What constrains you? To love others, to live for others, to love God, to be a witness. 

"The love of Christ demonstrated at the cross compels us because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died. And he died for all," listen, "that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again." 

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is talking about sort of a similar thing here. He says, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful." And when he says all things are lawful, he's not talking about unlawful things—murder and stealing. Those are not lawful for Paul. What he's saying is in these doubtful areas, all the things in the world, the temporal, carnal things, I can do what I want, not do what I want. I can eat what I want, not eat what; work on Sunday afternoon, not work on Sunday afternoon. 

All things are lawful, he says, but all things are not helpful. Not all things edify. He says, "Foods for the stomach and stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall then I take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?" Certainly not. This is what was going on in the Corinthian church. 

"Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two," he says, "shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee sexual immorality." Then he tells us, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" You're not your own, why? For you were bought at a price. 

You were bought at a price. Christ paid a price. He left the glory, the fellowship he had, his proper place at the right hand of God, and he became a man. He paid a price. We were bought at a price. He redeemed us. We're no longer to live to please ourselves. We're to live to please God and to edify our brothers. And Jesus is our premier example of this. 

He's the one who shows us, particularly at the cross, what it means to not please ourselves, but to give our lives for others in agape love. This is the mind we are to have. This is the mind of Christ. 

Verse five of our text, "Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." How are we gonna have one mind? How are we gonna be like Christ? We're not gonna be like Christ if we're dividing and fighting over doubtful things. We're not talking about sin. We're talking about all the areas of life that are preferential, that are a personal conviction. 

He says, therefore, receive one another, just as Christ also received us to the glory of God. We see in our text, please your neighbor. We see that it's for edification. We see the example of Christ, and last, we see the purpose of God. I don't know that I can possibly emphasize this truth enough in my preaching and teaching, in my exhortation and encouragement to you. 

God saved you for the express purpose of making you like Jesus Christ. Therefore, God intends that you live according to the reality of who you are because of what he has done in salvation and regeneration. He has united you to Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. It's God's intention that you live a holy life of love for God and love for men, especially for your brothers and sisters in Christ. 

It seems to me that there's a lot of confusion concerning this great and central truth to the Christian life. Many in the church today are not concerned with holy living, with Christlikeness. Rather, they are seeking what Jesus can do for them to make their life better. We see this in the many programs that make up the modern evangelical church, a group and a book study to fix your finances, fix your marriage, another support group for this circumstance, for that. 

It's not that these things are problematic in and of themselves, but it is if it's the totality of church, if it's the totality of Christian life, of the intent of God for us to fix or make better our temporal woes. I feel like we miss it if that's what we think the Christian life is. 

Some teach licentiousness, trading on the grace of God with no concern for holy living. Others are much more reverent of God, concerned with holiness and the glory of God, and yet there's confusion. This makes me think of our Reformed brothers. I believe they would fall into this camp. They uphold passionately the holiness and glory of God. They teach the necessity of holy living, even placing the law of Moses on the believer as a rule of life to accomplish this goal. 

And yet at the same time, they continually speak of how wicked and sinful we are as believers. And they use passages like Romans 7, 14 to 25 as an example of the height of maturity for the believer in Christ, where he realizes how wretched and vile he is and thus becomes the greater debtor to the grace of God. 

They say on the one hand that the believer must live a holy life, that his assurance of his election can only be found in his performance as holy living Christ-likeness. And yet at the same time, the pinnacle of the Christian life is coming to a place where you never ever do the things you want to do and always continually perpetually do the things you hate. This confuses me, my friends. 

I believe the biblical truth is much more clear. God saved you from his wrath for your sin. This is justification. But he also saved you from the controlling power of sin in your life. He released you through death with Jesus from sin, from law, and from the fear of death. 

Listen now, in order that, for the express purpose that we might now live to God, that we might love God and love others, this is what we could not do in Adam. We were controlled and dominated by indwelling sin and were wholly self-centered, self-focused, seeking to please ourselves, not our neighbor. 

We were vile, wretched sinners, desperately wicked hearts. Who could understand it? But in Christ, the spirit of life has made me free from the law of sin and death, so that I might now, by the life and grace and power of Jesus in me, see the righteous requirement of the law, that is love, fulfilled in my life. God saved me and empowered me. 

In fact, he gave to me all things that pertain to life and godliness, according to Peter. He took out my heart of stone, he put in a heart of flesh, he came and made his home in me, and now his Holy Spirit imparts strength to my inner man, and Jesus lives in and through me by faith, so that I might now have the same mind as Jesus, that I might be one with you in mind, in purpose, in spirit, and that we might be one with God, so that the world may know that Jesus is the Christ. 

Who are you? What should you expect from your life? What does God expect from your life? It seems to me that he went to great lengths to transform you from who you were, to empower you to now live for him, to be a witness of the transforming power of the gospel, to lead men to Christ and to love one another. 

How will they know we are his disciples? Because they don't know. Because we have love for one another. Love does no harm to a brother. 

All right, receive one another. When the world sees us sacrificing ourselves, seeking to please our brothers for their edification, when the world sees the love of God poured out through us to others, they will know that Jesus is real, and salvation and transformation is real through faith in Him. No other way. 

We can talk till we're blue in the face, and it's important that we talk, it's important that we preach the gospel, it's important that we tell them about Jesus, but we also have to live that life. Peter says we should live such a good life among the pagans that when God visits them for salvation, they will believe and be saved. Our words, the gospel preached, and our witness, the life we live, are the means by which God saves men. 

Let me ask you, in light of all these truths, what manner of persons ought we to be? You're not a vile, wretched sinner. You're not controlled and brought into captivity to the sin in your members. You're not carnal, and you're not fleshly. You are spiritual. You are born again. You are in Christ. You live by the Spirit and not by the letter. 

The same sin still dwells in you. It's there. The battle is real, but the battle is to reckon yourselves dead indeed to sin. The battle is to believe God and trust Him. The battle is to abide in Christ one day at a time so that His love can be poured out through us to others. You are in Christ. Now live like it. Be holy. Love God and love men. Have the same mind as Jesus. 

And trust God one day at a time by faith to accomplish His will and purpose to make you like Jesus and to use you as a witness for His glory. Be who you are. Believe Jesus and love one another. This is the command of the New Covenant, 1 John 3:23. Believe Jesus and love one another. Don't dispute over doubtful things. Father, receive one another just as Christ also received us to the glory of God. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for the gospel, for salvation, for what You've done in us and what that means for us. Help us to believe what You say is true in Your Word. And help us to live a life that's worthy of our calling, that's in equal weight to who we are because of what You have done. It's nothing that we have done. Nothing about us. It's about Your grace, Your mercy, Your love, and what You've done. And help us to understand that You expect us and intend for us to be holy like You are holy and to be witnesses and to tell people about Christ in this good news of salvation through faith in Him because of what He accomplished at the cross. In Jesus' name, amen.