Romans 15
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Romans 15:1-2:
We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. |
1 Thessalonians 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all |
Don’t misunderstand; this doesn’t mean we are to allow compromise. Paul preached grace boldly, but he instructed Timothy, “Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2). We are to be bold guardians of pure doctrine.
Yet we are not to use doctrine to build walls between us. That was the sin of the Pharisees. The law told them, “Keep the Sabbath holy,” but the command itself wasn’t enough for their flesh. They added their own safeguards, multiple rules and regulations that allowed the fewest possible physical movements on the Sabbath. The law also said, “Do not take God’s name in vain.” But the Pharisees built even more walls, saying, “We won’t even mention God’s name. Then we won’t be able to take it in vain.”
Yet we are not to use doctrine to build walls between us. That was the sin of the Pharisees. The law told them, “Keep the Sabbath holy,” but the command itself wasn’t enough for their flesh. They added their own safeguards, multiple rules and regulations that allowed the fewest possible physical movements on the Sabbath. The law also said, “Do not take God’s name in vain.” But the Pharisees built even more walls, saying, “We won’t even mention God’s name. Then we won’t be able to take it in vain.”
"When we truly love God, we are released from the cruel constraints of our own egos. As our capacity to love increases, we go beyond the giving of time and talents and means-on to the full giving of self."
(Neal Maxwell; Notwithstanding My Weakness; 1981)
(Neal Maxwell; Notwithstanding My Weakness; 1981)
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Romans 15:3:
For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” |
Paul quotes Psalm 69:9 This Psalm is a Psalm of David as he pleads for help from God. At verse 9 he says he zealous for God’s house and the reproach of those who reproached God fell on him. He is saying he has absorbed the failings of those who are around him. |
Through his life on earth, Jesus refused to do anything for his own selfish advantage (see Matthew 4:8-10). Instead, he did the things that God the Father wanted him to do (John 5:19). He spoke the words that God the Father wanted him to say (John 8:28). His decision was to obey God the Father completely, in every matter (Mark 14:36).
As he did that, Jesus accepted insults (Mark 3:22 and 15:29-32) and shame (Hebrews 13:12-13). Paul describes this in Romans 15:3 with words from Psalm 69:9.
Psalm 69 describes a person who is loyal to God. However, the enemies of this person have attacked him fiercely, without any proper reason. So, in the Psalm, he prays desperately to God. He is sure that God will act on his behalf. In the end, God will certainly rescue his people.
The first Christians were aware that several verses in that Psalm described events in Jesus’ life (John 2:17 and Psalm 69:9; Acts 1:20 and Psalm 69:25). In fact, Jesus himself used the Psalm to describe his own experience (John 15:25 and Psalm 69:4). -UsefulBible
As he did that, Jesus accepted insults (Mark 3:22 and 15:29-32) and shame (Hebrews 13:12-13). Paul describes this in Romans 15:3 with words from Psalm 69:9.
Psalm 69 describes a person who is loyal to God. However, the enemies of this person have attacked him fiercely, without any proper reason. So, in the Psalm, he prays desperately to God. He is sure that God will act on his behalf. In the end, God will certainly rescue his people.
The first Christians were aware that several verses in that Psalm described events in Jesus’ life (John 2:17 and Psalm 69:9; Acts 1:20 and Psalm 69:25). In fact, Jesus himself used the Psalm to describe his own experience (John 15:25 and Psalm 69:4). -UsefulBible
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Romans 15:4:
4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. |
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Hope is a word that appears frequently on the pages of the Bible. We are encouraged by the steadfastness of women and men facing hard times who held onto hope and God’s promises. The passage from Isaiah 11:1-10 that we read as a call to worship and that Paul refers to in Romans 15 is about a stump and yet it is a passage of hope. When you see a stump most people don’t look at that and feel hopeful about a tree. It means there was a tree and now it’s gone. If we knew the tree before it was cut down we might be even less hopeful. The people of Israel saw their nation invaded and conquered and the temple in Jerusalem destroyed, and many survivors carried off into exile and slavery. How do you hold onto hope in a circumstance like that when the tree of your nation has been cut down and seemingly destroyed? You keep looking to the Lord. Isaiah says out of the stump of Jesse shall come a new shoot, a new leader, and “the spirit of the Lord will rest on him.” Someone powerful and good is coming who will make things right. Like Isaiah, when we feel life is chopping us down, we can hold on to hope by looking to the Lord, by remembering those who endured tough times before us, and by taking a long-range view. It takes time for a shoot to grow into a new tree. “All it takes is one bloom of hope to make a spiritual garden.” Terri Guillemets --Brewster Baptist Church
Romans 15:5-12:
5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:
9 And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.
10 And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.
11 And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.
12 And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.
5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:
9 And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.
10 And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.
11 And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.
12 And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.
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Revelation 15:13-21:
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 14 Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. 15 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, 1 16 that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. 18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient-- 19 in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. 20 And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, 21 but as it is written: “To whom He was not announced, they shall see; And those who have not heard shall understand.” |
The end for the Christian is not death, but resurrection--a hopeful end. Hope defines three things about which everyone must decide: the stance before tragedy, the suicidal option, and fate.
Tragedy is so real that it is oft not obvious that hope is sustainable. Tragedy is often the denial of hope. Healthy Christian response does not pretend to understand how God could let it be; neither do they retreat to denial or to the obnoxious insipidity's of a "blessing in disguise." They ought to, first off all, to respond to the victims of tragedy, and, not letting themselves "drift away from the hope promised by the Good News" (Col 1:23), they fix their pained vision on the preciousness that coexists with tragedy and seems ultimately more real. Christian hope is no bland optimism. It survives amid chaos and bears the wounds that are the insignia of what is and can be rather than with what is not. It is convinced that, whatever the chaos is, it is not the name of God. Hope is the vigorous alternative to the suicidal option. In the words of Christian existentialist philosopher Gabriel Marcel, hope "underpins action or runs before it....it is the most active saints who carry it in its highest degree." Thinking of hope as an inactive state of the soul comes., says Marcel, "from a stoical representation of the will as a stiffening of the soul, whereas it is on the contrary relaxation and creation." Hoping Christianity is not standing on the sidelines pining for the best. It is rather a drive toward action that comes with believing ones self to be, or as Thomas Aquinas states it "a participator in divine providence." In this sense hope is the antithesis of the suicidal option." By that I do not mean the physical termination of life, but to the gradual, psychical withdrawal from life by someone who is more impressed by life's reactivities than by its possibilities. The marks of the suicidal option are marks of death" detachment, coldness, insensitivity. Overwhelmed by what they believe are anomalies, the suicidal option says no. Hope, struggling in the darkness of faith, says yes. Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.—Sarah Ban Breathnach The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.—Barbara Kingsolver We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you're slamming the door in the face of God. —Charles L. Allen |
Romans 15:22-33:
22 For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you.
23 But now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you,
24 whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.
25 But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints
26 For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.
27 It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.
28 Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain.
29 But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
30 Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me,
31 that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,
32 that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you.
33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
22 For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you.
23 But now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you,
24 whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.
25 But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints
26 For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.
27 It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.
28 Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain.
29 But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
30 Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me,
31 that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,
32 that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you.
33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.