Romans 15:5-6 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Believers united in purpose and devotion is a powerful experience. There are many things that can unite a people. Some of these are not always good and beneficial, such as war and aggression. A church can be united around a building project or even a worthwhile cause but miss out on the most important thing of being united in praise and worship of God. Paul brings together many different ideas in these verses.
First, there is a focus on God gifts of endurance and encouragement to believers to help them be in harmony with one another. We need both of these in order to develop strong and healthy relationships. Endurance is related to patience. It basically means to hand in there when the going gets rough. Relationships in the church, family, and community are rarely ever just perfectly smooth. There will always be tension because we each have different ideas, viewpoints, and ways of approaching issues. These differences can create tension, disagreement, and judgmentalism. God’s gift of endurance will help us work through these differences so that we can move forward in our common mission and goals.
God also gives us the gift of encouragement. All people have challenges and excess baggage that we bring to relationships. These are sometimes cause by pain, sorrow, or uncertainty, both within ourselves and from outside sources. Being around someone who is encouraging can help us to see God at work and not just our own struggles. We may be the key person to help someone else along the path of life. Having a friend do this for us can create strong bonds of unity and lead us to praise and glorify God who gives these gifts to us.
Finally, all of this comes in response to what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. It is through Christ and in relationship to Christ that we can experience genuine and unalterable unity. The power for all of this comes from God’s grace in Christ, not our own efforts, which will too often fail to bring out the needed harmony and praise. When Christ is the source and purpose for all this, the result will be praise to God. If we try to do these things on our own, we may be too influenced by pride and the flesh, thus ending up in judging others instead of being patience and encouraging to one another.
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