Matthew Poole and continuators on Romans 15:3

3. For even Christ pleased not himself ; but as it is written , The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me.

He backs his Exhortation in the first verse, with an Argument taken from the Practise of our Lord himself, who is our perfect pattern, and hath left us an Example, that we should follow his steps, vid. Iohn 13.15, 34. 1 Pet. 2.21. 1 Iohn 2.6. and 4.17. By Christ his not pleasing himself, is meant his not indulging or sparing himself; he did not seek his own ease, nor to satisfie the inclination of the humane nature, which abhorreth pain, and the Destruction of its self. He took such a course all along as sufficiently demonstrated, that he respected our Benefit, and not his own.

Here is an Ellipsis, something must be supplied to fill up the sense: Either the meaning is, he pleased not himself, but others; or he pleased not himself, but bore our infirmities and reproaches: Or else he pleased not himself, but it happened to him; Or he so carryed himself that it might be truely applied to him, which is written, &c.

viz. in Psal. 69.9. That David uttered these words in the Person of Christ; Or as a Type of him may appear from Iohn 2.17. Interpreters are divided about accommodating this Testimony, to the occasion for which it is brought. Either the meaning is, that Christ did willingly expose himself to all the reproaches and contumelies of men, in obedience to his Fathers Will; Or else, that He had the same concernments with God the Father; so that what befell God, did also befall him; He was as tender of the Fathers Honour as of his own; Or else, that the sins of men, which are the things that cast reproach upon God, were taken by Christ upon himself, and he bore them in his Body upon a Tree. Seeing then that Christ hath done so much for our sakes, and hath not sought his own ease and benefit, we ought also to seek the good of others, and to deny our selves, vid. Phil. 2.6, 7, 8.