Romans 15: 1-13

1-7 8-13

1-7

1

Just like many action movies where the big strong hero has a duty to protect all of the weaker people, the stronger or more mature Christian should protect the weaker or newer Christian. But unlike a hero in a movie the more mature Christian is not physically protecting the other, the one who is strong in the faith, more studied in the scriptures with the understanding of what being a true Christian is should protect the faith of the weak, or newer Christian. Protect their faith by not lording over the understanding or knowledge that the new may not posses, but being encouraging and patient, bearing with the failings of the weak, the words bear with, literally pick up and carry a weight, we are to carry the weight of the failings of the newer Christian with gentleness and kindness, correcting errors with loving instruction and not harshness, doing what is best for others and not necessarily what we want to do.

2

The old saying is true, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, we should do our best to be helpful, kind and encouraging to all the people that we meet and not just our brothers and sisters in Christ, showing all the peace that one can have with the Holy Spirit.

3

Christ’s purpose in his first coming was to do the Fathers will and accomplish the means of salvation for all of God’s elect, Christ said so himself in his prayers in the garden of Gethsemane, not my will be done but yours. We are to be imitators of Christ and just as He did not do what he pleased neither should we, I am not saying we can never enjoy something or have a hobby just for our enjoyment, but we should always be putting others before ourselves and be servants and givers, just as Christ gave his life for us. The quote from the second part of verse 3 is from Psalm 69:9 “For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.” Because this sinful world hates God, so they will hate us also, but we are still to be kind and peaceful with all.

4

The Old Testament is still important and valuable to us now even though we are living in the new covenant of Jesus Christ and His blood, creation, promises, His moral law, all the writings in the Old Testament are for our endurance, or to build up our patience, learning how longsuffering God was with His people, after time and time again of them doing what was right in their own eyes, going after other gods, the Baals and the Ashteroths, a seemingly never ending cycle of Israel going astray and God punishing them to bring them back, Israel coming back in distress only to going astray again, over and over again, decades and centuries of the this cycle give us a picture of how we are to be patient and longsuffering, constantly loving our neighbor by witnessing to them over and over, no matter how many times they reject the Gospel, we are to have hope that they will be saved and we will have gained another brother or sister in Christ, for God’s glory and not our own.

5

The God in the Old Testament, not that there is a different God in the New Testament, but the picture of God’s patience that we see in the Old Testament gives us encouragement to be able to live in harmony and peace with everyone today, but we are to live in harmony and peace with peoples in accordance with following Jesus, us living in peace and harmony in accord with Christ Jesus is not what the world wants everyone to do, they want everyone to accept and validate everyone’s personal sin as their right and privilege, we still call a sin a sin and spread the gospel at every opportunity we have.

6-7

So that with everything we do, living at peace, encouraging others, especially other Christians, spreading the gospel and witnessing to people, we do all this for the glory of God.

8-13

8

When Christ came He fulfilled all of the law and the prophets, His coming was a service to the Jews in that it was the proof that all of God’s promises and covenants were honored and true. Everything that God promises will come to pass and Jesus was the fulfillment of them, even though most of the Jews rejected Him, their rejection was also prophesied.

9

Now us Gentiles can be accepted and can glorify God for showing his mercy on us by grafting us, the wild olive branch, into the cultivated tree. The second part of verse 9 is quoted from 2 Samuel 22:50 ““For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name.” This is also the same verse from Psalm 18:49

10

Verse 10 is quoted from Deuteronomy 32:43 ““Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land.””

11

Verse 11 is from Psalm 117:1 “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!” With all nations being translated as “all you Gentiles”

12

And verse 12 is from Isaiah 11:10 “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.” The root of Jesse who is the father of David is referring to Jesus, also referred to as the root of David in Revelation 5:5

13

Verse 13 is the closing of Paul’s instruction to the Romans and a preliminary benediction for his letter. In the rest of 15 and chapter 16 is the “official” conclusion, ending greetings and benediction but Paul here reminds us that we should be filled with joy and peace, filled with the Holy Spirit and filled with a sure hope of the security we have in God.