One In Christ
ONE IN CHRIST
ROMANS 15:1-13
Think about Paul’s suggestions for life in the church—are you putting them into practice?
This section deals, in the main, with truths and counsel underlined earlier in the letter. As we read through the letter, and draw near to the mind and heart of the writer, it is possible in these two concluding chapters to sense Paul’s relaxed mood. A tense and difficult theological exposition has come to an end. He has written chapter after chapter of vigorous and fervent reasoning which has engaged all his powers. It was doubtless a relief to turn to simpler, if not unimportant questions, the peace of the church, its principles of fellowship, and finally the personal greetings which always closed an ancient letter.
With the notion of the Christian community as a functioning body still in his mind, Paul begs the Roman Christians to help one another. The strong are to bear with the weak. A church should be marked by mutual understanding and concern. Such is the spirit of Christ (15:3).
Harmony was the apostle’s deep concern. He pleads for it here, and shows that it grows round Christ. Those actively at one with him are naturally at one with each other (15:5). So is God honored before people (15:6). Disharmony shatters testimony.
15:7-8 hint at a source of possible division. We have seen that a rift between the attitudes of Jewish and Gentile Christians could have been the occasion of the impatience criticized in chapter 14. With some delicacy Paul now hints to the Jews that the Gentiles, who had joined them in the Christian community, deserved a welcome (15:8). Indeed, they were a fulfillment of prophecy (15:8-12; Psalm 18:49; Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalm 117:1; Isaiah 11:10).
From the last quotation, anxious not to press his point, but to allow the ancient Scriptures to carry their own persuasion to the minds of those who revered them, he picked up the word “hope” and added a verse to it (15:13).