Romans 1:1-17

Romans 1:1-17

Romans is considered by many to be the greatest theological treatise ever written. In this letter, Paul will scale the heights of the Christian faith, wrestle with the most difficult of problems, and describe what it means to live and think like a Christian. This book is the source and resource for great scholars and simple believers to understand and explain the Christian faith.

But in the depths of the theological and abstract thinking, we can sometimes lose sight of the highly practical human touch of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Paul never lost sight of the highly human side of the faith. In this passage, we see Paul’s powerful and stirring statement that he is not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of all people, both Jews and Greeks. That statement alone can fill volumes of study. Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4, “The righteous shall live by faith,” a quote that helped launch the Protestant Reformation.

But even in the midst of the opening flourish, Paul gives us a humble and highly practical insight. Verse 12 is not very likely to be one of the highly memorized verses of the New Testament, but perhaps it ought to be. “…that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” Here is the leading advocate of world evangelism of his day, one of the most intelligent people in the world, a great hero of the faith, talking to a small group of Christians and telling them about their role in mutual encouragement. Paul uses a word found nowhere else in the Bible to describe what will happen when they come together. The words “mutually encouraged” are translated from a single compound word. That word is made up of the words “together/with,” which expresses closeness of association; this is a powerfully intimate word. You may sit near a stranger on a bus, but you sit with your spouse or lover on the couch. The second part of this compound word is the word Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit when He calls him “the Comforter.” That word itself is a compound word and means to “stand beside and call out for us as an advocate.”.

What all this means is that in the midst of the deep thinking and the study of the Christian faith, we must never forget the intimate and dear relationship of being together and mutually comforting and strengthening one another in the body of Christ.

"Lord, help me to never forget that I am, as a disciple, in a relationship with other believers. AMEN"