Romans 12.15-Paul Commands Romans To Continue To Rejoice With Those Who Rejoice And Weep With Those Who Weep
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday November 12, 2009
Romans: Romans 12:15-Paul Commands Romans To Continue To Rejoice With Those Who Rejoice And Weep With Those Who Weep
Lesson # 422
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 12:15.
This evening we will study Romans 12:15 and in this passage Paul commands the Roman believers to continue to make it their habit of rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep.
Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”
“Rejoice” is the present active infinitive form of the verb chairo (xaivrw) (khi-ro), which means “to rejoice” but is used in relation to other members of the body of Christ who are rejoicing.
It is used by Paul as an imperatival infinitive indicating that he is returning to the subject of his readers’ relationship with each other.
It is used of believers identifying with their fellow believers in their joys, which echoes his teaching in 1 Corinthians 12:26.
1 Corinthians 12:26, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”
Identifying with one’s fellow believer in their times of rejoicing is appropriate to do since it demonstrates that they are obeying the command in Romans 12:9 to love without hypocrisy (Romans 12:9).
The believer who is functioning in the love of God towards his fellow believers will not react to a fellow believer’s joy with envy or bitterness but rather will rejoice with them.
This command to rejoice with those who rejoice addresses the horizontal aspect of Christ fellowship, which is related to one’s fellow believer.
Specifically, it is related to the “companionship” aspect of Christian fellowship, which we studied in detail in Romans 12:13.
So in Romans 12:15, the verb chairo means “to rejoice” and functions as an imperatival infinitive, which indicates that Paul is commanding his readers that they must continue to make it their habit to rejoice with those who rejoice in the body of Christ.
This is a “customary present imperative,” which denotes that the Roman believers were continue to make it their habit to rejoice with those in the body of Christ who are rejoicing.
Paul’s statement in Romans 1:8 and 15:14-15 implies that they were.
Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”
“With those who rejoice” is composed of the preposition meta (metav) (met-ah), “with” and the genitive masculine plural present active participle form of the verb chairo (xaivrw) (khi-ro), “those who rejoice.”
The preposition meta is a marker of association to denote the company in which Paul’s readers were to obey his command to rejoice, namely among those of them who were rejoicing.
It functions as a genitive of association indicating that Paul is commanding the Roman believers to continue to make it their habit to rejoice “together with” or “in association with” those believers who are rejoicing.
The older brother in the account of the prodigal son is an example of failing to rejoice with those who rejoice (Luke 15:11-32).
Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”
“Weep” is the present active infinitive form of the verb klaio (klaivw) (klah-yo), which can speak of crying, wailing, crying for joy, mourning the dead, the crying of infants, or bewailing oneself.
It can also indicate sad emotions because of missing a loved one in his or her absence.
It is found more than 100 times in the Septuagint, usually translating the Hebrew bakhah (2 S. 20:3 [LXX 2 K. 20:3]) when David wept for Absalom and in 2 K. 20:3 [LXX 4 K. 20:3]) when Hezekiah wept upon hearing Isaiah’s words of the king’s impending death.
The verb klaio appears 40 times in the New Testament and is found predominately in the Gospels.
The word can be placed in the following categories: (1) Weeping associated with death or loss (Mt. 2:18). (2) Weeping associated with remorse (Mt. 26:75; Mk. 14:72; Lk. 22:62). (3) Weeping associated with judgment and eternal destruction (Rev. 18:15, 19; cf. Mt. 2:18; 8:12). (4) Weeping associated with compassion or appreciation (Lk. 7:38; 19:41; cf. Rm. 12:15).
In Romans 12:15, the verb klaio means “to weep audibly” as an expression of grief, a lamentation like one mourning over the dead.
The word speaks of compassion towards those members of the body of Christ who are weeping because of the loss of a loved one or some form of suffering.
This verb appears in Luke 19:41 when our Lord wept audibly over Jerusalem since He knew that the city and its leaders would reject Him as Messiah resulting in judgment being poured out on the city and the nation.
Luke 19:41-42, “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.’”
Like the verb chairo, klaio functions as an imperatival infinitive indicating that Paul is commanding the Roman believers to continue making it their habit to weep with those in the body of Christ who are weeping due to some form of suffering.
It is used of believers identifying with their fellow believers in their sorrows, which echoes his teaching in 1 Corinthians 12:26.
Our Lord is an example of a believer who wept with those who wept when He wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus (John 11:35).
In John 11:35, the verb klaio is not used but rather dakruo, which speaks of weeping inaudibly.
Our Lord’s inaudible weeping at the tomb of his friend demonstrates His great compassion for sinners and reveals how God feels about human suffering and death since He is the Son of God.
This verb appears also in Hebrews 5:7, which speaks of our Lord weeping in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Hebrews 5:7, “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.”
“Loud crying” is composed of the adjective ischuros (isxurov$), “loud” and the noun krauge (kraughv), “crying.”
The noun krauge refers to the loud crying of our Lord and the adjective ischuros emphasizes the intensity of this loud crying.
Our Lord was praying to the Father with intense loud crying because He was repulsed by the prospect of losing fellowship with His Father in His perfect human nature on the cross.
This loss of fellowship with His Father is called His substitutionary spiritual death, which was the payment for every sin committed in human history-past, present and future (Matthew 27:45-46; Isaiah 53:10-11).
It interesting that our Lord is never said to have laughed (gelao) or to have engaged in laughter (gelos).
However, He did rejoice (agalliao) according to Luke 10:21 and was “glad” (chairo) according to John 11:15.
The apostle Paul shed tears (Acts 20:17-38; 2 Corinthians 2:1-4; Philippians 3:18-19).
In Romans 12:15, the present imperatival infinitive form of the verb klaio is a “customary present imperative,” which denotes that the Roman believers were to continue to make it their habit to weep with those in the body of Christ who are weeping.
Paul’s statements in Romans 1:8 and 15:14-15 imply that they were.
Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”
“With those who weep” is composed of the preposition meta (metav) (met-ah), “with” and the genitive masculine plural present active participle form of the verb klaio (klaivw) (klah-yo), “those who weep.”
The preposition meta is a marker of association to denote the company in which Paul’s readers were to obey his command to weep, namely among those of them who were weeping.
The substantive participle form of the verb klaio functions as a genitive of association indicating that Paul is commanding the Roman believers to continue to make it their habit to weep “together with” or “in association with” those believers who are weeping.
So from our study of Romans 12:15, we can see that Paul issues two more prohibitions, which are related to the believer’s fellowship with other believers and emphasizes the importance of identifying in the sorrows and joys of our fellow believer since we are members belonging to one another.