Today Paul says something very profound in our reading from Romans 15:1-22 in the One Year Bible. He says, simply, "We must not just please ourselves."
This sums up a great deal of what life is about. One of the biggest lessons we must learn in life is to act with other's interests ahead of our own. Learning to be selfless, rather than selfish. Choosing another person's joy over our own.
There's nothing wrong with joy or pleasure. God made our bodies, and gave us lots of good food, beautiful sights, gorgeous sounds, delicious smells, and luxuriant feelings for us to enjoy. He made the world scintillate our senses. And He intends us to enjoy them.
But, we must learn not to put our own enjoyment above the other demands of life. It's important that we learn to selflessly desire other people's good, and give up our own enjoyment when necessary to secure their welfare.
When you begin to see everything we do in life - eating, drinking, looking at beautiful things, etc., as various forms of pleasure, it helps to put it all in perspective. It might feel nice to drive a BMW, but is it worth the money that it costs? Maybe that money could be spent on something more lasting, and worthwhile. (Not to pick on BMW, I'm just using it as a luxurious example.)
So while we should go on enjoying life, let's keep our pleasure in perspective. Notice Paul didn't say, "We must not please ourselves." He said, "We must not only please ourselves." We must love others more than we love our own pleasure.
God, thank You for teaching us to stop being selfish and put other people above our own pleasure.
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