What Does Romans 15:1 Mean?
Now we who are strong owe it to carry the weaknesses of the powerless, and not to please ourselves.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.THE KEY
Strength is not a surplus that makes you self-sufficient; it is a debt that makes another person’s weakness yours to carry.
THE MEANING
The verse places your strength under an obligation: it is available to carry another person’s weakness, not only to serve your own satisfaction. Strength becomes visible in what you can bear for someone else.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that strength makes you independent of others or gives you first claim on comfort.
THE ROOT
ὀφείλομεν
opheilomen
GROWS FROM
ὀφείλω
opheilō
To owe or be indebted; hence, to be under obligation.
“owe it to” in this verse is opheilomen. The verse’s “ought” is debt language: the strong are described as owing something to the weak. Bearing weakness is an obligation built into strength, not an optional display of generosity.
ALSO GROWS
opheilē: Debt or obligation.
ὀφειλή
The noun makes the obligation in “ought” concrete: something is owed.
opheiletēs: A debtor; one who owes.
ὀφειλέτης
The related word names the one who carries an obligation, echoing the strong person’s position in this verse.
βαστάζειν
bastazein
GROWS FROM
βαστάζω
bastazō
To carry, bear, or lift a load.
“carry” in this verse is bastazein. This is a concrete, weight-bearing verb. The same verb describes carrying one another’s burdens in Galatians and bearing infirmities in Matthew, keeping the verse’s “bear” tied to taking a load onto oneself.
ALSO GROWS
bastazete: Bear or carry; a plural command form of the verb.
βαστάζετε
Galatians 6:2 uses this form for bearing one another’s burdens.
ebastasen: He bore or carried; a past-tense form of the verb.
ἐβάστασεν
Matthew 8:17 uses this form for bearing infirmities, joining the verb directly to human weakness.
ἀσθενήματα
asthenemata
GROWS FROM
ἀσθενέω
astheneō
To be weak or lack strength.
“weaknesses” in this verse is asthenemata. The word names actual weakness or incapacity, not a defect of character. Its word family can name a weak person, a condition of weakness, and a limitation to be borne, placing the strong beside real human limitation rather than condemning it.
ALSO GROWS
asthenēs: Weak or without strength.
ἀσθενής
This related word describes the weak person whose limitations the strong are called to bear.
astheneia: Weakness, frailty, or illness.
ἀσθένεια
The noun makes clear that this word family can describe a condition of weakness as well as a person who is weak.
THE PATTERN
Strength is revealed by carrying what another cannot carry alone.
Even to old age I AM, and to gray hair I will bear you. I have made, and I will lift, I will bear, and I will slip you free.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.But much more those limbs of the body that seem to be weaker are needed.THE THREAD
Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.Galatians uses the same Greek verb, βαστάζω (bastazō), for bearing one another’s burdens. Romans names that bearing as what the strong owe; Galatians shows the same carrying as a shared practice.
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