Can't We All Just Get Along Pt. 4 -Rom. 15:7-13

Can’t we all just get along? Over the last three weeks we’ve look to Romans 14-15 for an answer to this question and so far Paul has prescribed three practices that, if endorsed, will accomplish this often elusive goal: have respect, don’t condemn, and seek to serve. Today we are going to wrap up our mini-series by looking at the fourth and final means by which unity in the church is achieved—acceptance. Paul builds a compelling case for acceptance within the Christian community in Romans 15:7-13 that might be organized into four distinct elements. Ultimately, we will learn from this passage that one’s acceptance for others in the body of Christ ought to be informed by Christ’s acceptance of us—redeemed sinners.

a. The Call for Acceptance-15:7

In addition to exercising respect, withholding condemnation, and striving to serve others, the people of God must also accept one another in order to get along well in the context of the church. The kind of acceptance that Paul envisions here must not be confused with what many people associate “acceptance” with today. Paul is not talking about blind tolerance of any and all behaviors conducted by any and all people. He is talking about acceptance of biblically permissible behaviors performed by brothers and sisters in Christ. When it comes to fellow believers and what they do within biblical parameters, acceptance is to be employed. The present tense of the command given suggest that acceptance ought to always be applied with no end in sight. Also, the verb used “proslambanw” denotes a heartfelt kind of acceptance among friends that goes beyond merely putting up with someone’s presence. In other words, fellow church members are to be less like coworkers/associates that only stand each other long enough to get through a work day and more like treasured friends that love each other in spite of allowable differences. 

After all, isn’t this kind of relationship that believers enjoy with Christ? Paul continues by providing the following example—“just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God” (15:7b). The same Greek verb is used –that same friendly heartfelt acceptance mentioned already—to describe Jesus’ relationship with His followers. Consider how much harder it must be for Jesus—God made flesh—to accept sinners than it proves for the redeemed to accept each other! Regardless of how much more difficult it must be for Jesus to call saved humans friends, HE DOES! In so doing, He glorifies God the Father who is shown to be gracious, merciful, and loving to those who do not deserve it. In lieu of so great an example, believers are compelled to take on the same attitude in their interactions within their spiritual family—regardless of allowable differences and, as will be revealed soon, in spite of spiritual heritage.

As Paul nears the end of his letter, it becomes clear that he is doing his best to get a diverse group of believers to work together. Although eating certain foods and peripheral issues were symptoms of the diversity within the church of Rome, ultimately, these conditions were mere side effects of a more underlining issue—a heterogeneous amalgamation of Jews and Gentiles. This was no small thing. Prior to the ministry of Jesus and Pentecost thereafter, Jews and Gentiles lived and worshipped in very different contexts. Now they were being joined together in a radical way by the Holy Spirit. As awesome and glorious as this was, it also presented challenges, challenges that demanded (and continue to demand) respect, service, and acceptance to overcome.

b. The Precedent of Acceptance-15:8

Next, Paul makes a case for acceptance of the Gentiles into the family of God that largely depends on Christ’s ministry. He begins by connecting the ministry of Jesus to the original people of God—“For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God” (15:8). The “circumcision” mentioned here is a direct reference to the Jewish people—identifying them by their distinct covenant mark. To be sure, Jesus came first and foremost as a Jew to the Jews in fulfillment of the many promises made to the Jewish patriarchs.

However, not only has Jesus’ ministry involved “confirming the promises given to the fathers” (i.e. the Jewish fathers), it also has implications “for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy” (15:8b-9a). Now, because of what Jesus did in a largely Jewish program, the Gentiles can glorify God for the mercy He has shown them. After all, “of the many promises made by God to the children of Israel, none are more apropos in this context than Gen. 22:18, ‘Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed’” (Mounce, Romans, 261). Through the Jews and for the Jews initially, Jesus came to provide mercy and blessing to the whole world—Jew and Gentile alike.

This idea is consistent with what Paul has shown throughout the letter to the Romans. In chapter 4 he demonstrated that the Abrahamic promises include Gentiles without canceling Israel’s own privileges and blessings (privileges and blessings that are reiterated in chapters 9-11 in spite of the increasingly Gentile church). Even in the thesis statement of the book (in chapter 1), the inclusion of the Gentiles into the family of God is celebrated, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).

If Christ’s example of accepting Gentiles and the precedent of Christ’s ministry involving the Gentiles wasn’t enough to inspire acceptance within the church, perhaps the Old Testament itself would make a compelling case.

c. The Biblical Evidences of Acceptance-15:9b-12

Paul offers four Old Testament passages as evidences for Christ’s program of acceptance in the context of the church that together make a great case for what he is encouraging. Interestingly (and quite brilliantly on Paul’s part), all four references contain the key word “Gentiles,” betraying Paul’s purpose in confirming from Scripture that Gentiles were included all along in God’s gracious promise to create and bless a people for His own name (Moo, ZIBBC III, 86). The first text offered by Paul to make this case is from Psalm 18:49 (or 2 Sam. 22:50)—“Therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentiles, and I will sing Your name” (15:9b). In the original context (Psalm 18), David is praising God for the victory that the Lord has given him over the Gentile nations. In Romans 15, Paul places David’s comments on the lips of Jesus and applies them Christologically. In so doing, he reveals that Christ is the one who has ultimately subdued the nations and brought them under the benefits of His kingdom reign (Moo, ZIBBC III, 86). As all kinds of people are brought under Christ’s reign and are included in His kingdom, Paul argues by means of this text that citizens ought to accept this new reality and the people implicated therein.

The second text that Paul calls attention to is Deuteronomy 32:43. There Moses praises the Lord for giving him victory over Pharaoh and his army saying “Rejoice, O Gentiles, his people” (15:10). In the original context, Hebrew victory over the tyrannical Pharaoh was a cause of celebration for all. Applied Christologically, Paul argues that Jesus’ victory over the tyranny of sin was a cause of celebration for Jew and Gentile alike. As all kinds of people within the church are able to celebrate the victory that Christ has provided, they ought to be able to accept each other and celebrate.

The third text quoted is originally found in Psalm 117—“Praise the Lord All you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him’” (15:11). In verse 2 of Psalm 117, God’s “mercy” and “truth” are provided as reasons for the psalmist’s praise given in verse 1. Applied in Romans 15, “God’s ‘truth,” or ‘faithfulness,’ demonstrated to Israel and his ‘mercy’ revealed to the Gentiles are the lead ideas that govern these quotations” (Moo, ZIBBC III, 87). That God’s mercy motivated the praise of the Gentiles, even in the Psalms, indicates that Paul believed their salvation was in God’s mind from the beginning. If God’s intention from the beginning was to save all kinds of people—the very same diversity witnessed in the church—then shouldn’t the church’s members learn to accept each other?

If David, Moses, and the psalmist were enough, Paul provides a quote from Isaiah for good measure—“Again Isaiah says, ‘There shall come the root of Jesse, and He who arises to rule over the Gentiles, in Him shall the Gentiles hope’” (15:12). Taken from Isaiah 11, Paul reflects on the prophet’s prediction that the Messiah would come as a shoot springing up from the stump of David’s family line. He predicts that this shoot would rule the nations and on him the Gentiles will “rest their hopes.” The first century church that grew in a primarily Gentile world served as the fulfillment of this prophecy as more and more non-Jews were discovering the hope of Christ.

Paul’s use of David, Moses, the psalmist, and Isaiah is powerful evidence in favor for acceptance within the body of Christ. As all kinds of people are brought under Christ’s reign and are included in His kingdom, as all kinds of people within the church are able to celebrate the victory that Christ has provided, as it was God’s intention from the beginning was to save all kinds of people, and as all kinds of people can and do find their hope in the same Christ, believers everywhere ought to accept one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. In so doing, they will get along well and be used of God to bring more and different people into the every-growing family of God. Though Paul in Romans is trying to get Jews and Gentiles to play nice with each other, surely these principles apply today as the Holy Spirit draws all kinds of people to Christ in the church.

d. The Benediction After Acceptance-15:13

To mark the conclusion of this series of admonitions (14:1-15:12) towards unity and “getting along” Paul offers a benediction in verse 13. Letters like this one to the church in Rome, “often included a prayer or well-wishing for someone’s health, especially in the opening; Paul’s letters, which focus on spiritual issues, naturally include more prayers than most ancient letters (15:5-6, 33, etc.). Jewish people customarily used wish-prayers or blessings like this one in the same way that they used direct intercession, and Paul no doubt means for God as well as his Roman audience to hear this prayer” (Keener, IVPBBCNT, 453).

Paul’s benediction here begins with the following prayerful blessing: "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” In his comment on this prayer, Martin Luther states “the Apostle places joy first and then peace, because it is joy that gives peace to men, engendering it in their hearts” (Romans, 198-99). If joy yields peace, then, as Paul has argued for the better part of two chapters, respect, service and unity make up the nutrient-rich soil in which this joy grows in the life of the church.

The desired outcome/result of this prayer is identified at the end of verse 13—“so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” If respect, service, and unity are the nutrient rich soil and joy is the plant that flowers peace, then hope is the feeling one gets upon looking at the beautiful spectacle. Ultimately, as Paul has intimated time and time again in these chapters, all of these initiatives toward unity are accomplished by, because of, for, and as a result of the Holy Spirit’s activity in the lives of believers. Without the Spirit, believers would not be drawn to Christ, made a part of his family, or be able to get along. It is His power that ultimately brings hope—hope that is a byproduct of a church that get’s along in a world that is tearing itself apart.

So What?

Are you genuinely accepting of your brothers and sisters in Christ—even with their allowable idiosyncrasies and differing views? Or is your attitude toward them verging on mere tolerance? Brothers and sisters in Christ ought to be friends, not merely associates and the quickest way to correct this is remembering how Christ has accepted us and brought us all together by His Spirit. After all, if the church in Rome could overcome the differences between Jews and Gentiles in order to build each other up and reach their context, should we be able accept biblically allowable differences to do the same?

Can’t we all just get along? I truly hope so, because a church that Isn’t united is not going to be able to withstand what is coming in the future. If for no other reason, allow the warnings, pressure, and imminent persecution to correct your misgivings about the very people that God’s Spirit has drawn into His body and put on respect, service, and acceptance. The edification of the saints depends on it and our effectiveness in evangelism requires it.