Harmony

 Romans 15:5 ESV

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 


I love the juxtaposition of endurance and encouragement in this verse. Endurance alone sounds stoical: grit your teeth, cross your fingers and hope to die. Endurance isn't enough.

Encouragement alone sounds Epicurean: be hedonistic and blinkered to spiritual realities. Encouragement isn't enough, if we're simply encouraged to be selfish and materialistic. Faith in Christ married endurance and encouragement.

If we have faith in Christ, we will assuredly endure. Yet it won't be a joyless perseverance. We'll be encouraged in the midst of our longsuffering.

The Christian life isn't some individualistic thing. We can pick and choose our friends, but we don't get to decide who's in God's family with us. This is why Paul prays that we'd be in harmony and of one accord, as we seek to serve our Lord.

'O Lord our God, may we enduringly and encouragedly be united in our service of you. For your honour and praise, amen'

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Power

 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.Exodus 9:16 ESVhttps://bible.com/bible/59/exo.9.16.ESV  Secular historians point to the lack of extra-biblical evidence of Hebrew slavery in Egypt and ensuing exodus. But here in this verse, God describes how this anonymous Pharoah has been immortalised in the annals of the Hebrews, so that God is proclaimed in all the earth. The mighty men of the world might think they can stand against God and win, but resistance is futile!  The more stubborn Pharoah was, the more the Lord was able to display His power. The more insistent Pharoah was of keeping his slaves, the more unreasonable he appeared. It was a battle of wills, and the will of Yahweh prevailed.  In the end, Pharoah will have been broken by the plagues. In the final plague, his own firstborn son was killed, the next in line to the throne of the world superpower. He might have tried to put a brave...
Read more

Tattoos

  You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:28 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/lev.19.28.ESV It's becoming increasingly popular to have tattoos of Bible verses. I've never yet seen a tattoo of Leviticus 19:28! Leviticus can be hard to unpick: does it matter if we have tattoos nowadays? Tattoos will have been a symbol of pagan unbelief in God the Creator. If tattoos were an improvement to our skin, God will have given us them in the first place. The proliferation of tattoos even amongst professing Christians today illustrates how ungodly the professing Church is, in my opinion. Clearly, we have to contextualise Leviticus. The food laws for example have been abolished by Jesus, when He pronounced all foods to be clean. Yet this verse refers to self harm as well, which we should clearly continue to discourage. In the context of the chapter, this is the one that commands us to love our neighbours. Does getting a tat...
Read more

Forget

  Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. God isn't telling us to have amnesia. He's not telling us to forget his goodness to us in times past. He is in the context telling us to forget our rebellion against him, and the judgement that our sinfulness incurs. Isaiah's audience were rebellious and sinful, just as we are. As such, God would punish them with the rod of his wrath. Babylonia would sweep in to take them captive.  Graciously, God said captivity wasn't the end of the story. He was going to do a new thing. He was going to make a way in the wilderness. This life is a spiritual wilderness . Happily though, Jesus is the way through that wilderness to Father God in glory. He provides spiritual rivers in the desert to sustain us on the way to glory: primarily his word, his Spirit, a...
Read more