A Prayer for Harmony and Unity in the Body

Today, we look at Romans 15:5-6 as we gather together to pray as a church body.

"May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

A couple of exegetical notes that could spur on discussion and prayer:

1. The genitive "of" in the phrase "the God of" could be easily translated, "who gives."

• Obviously, these Christians needed endurance and encouragement. Why would they need "endurance"? Why would they need to be "encouraged"? Are we any less needy of these things today?
• Since they needed them (implication: so do we, if we are faithfully seeking the Lord and His kingdom), WHAT does Paul do? Let us with Paul seek to regularly pray that God would grant us (and others) He alone can truly give: endurance and encouragement. 
• How often do we pray for these things for our brothers and sisters who are struggling?

2. When the graces of divine endurance and encouragement are lacking in a congregation, "harmony with one another" will be lacking in the congregation.

• The solution seems to be that we as Christians must live "in accord with Christ Jesus."
• WHAT does this look like? (hint: passages like Phil. 2:1-8 might be helpful)
• A.W. Tozer once said that the best way for an orchestra to be "in tune" with one another is to have them all tuned to the same tuning fork. Otherwise, all the parts will sound out of tune and disharmonious with one another.
• HOW can we all live "in accord with Christ Jesus." Do we need His mindset? If so, how (and where) is this cultivated?

3. Despite the persecution and difficulty the Christians in Rome were experiencing, Paul says that by living in harmony with each other, they will "with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

• Unity and harmony are not an end, but merely a means to an end: the glory of God!!
• This is counter-cultural, even within the church. Community is costly. It takes work. It requires much time. Even more, it takes prayer. Living for self and by one's self is easy and really doesn't require grace or prayer. Which is why a community operating in the unity of the Spirit is a great witness to the transforming power of the gospel over the self-centeredness and individualism that pervade our dark world. 

Let us then pray to the end that God is glorified in our church's unity this evening. Pray that in our lives of difficulty and discouragement, God would fill us with His endurance and encouragement. The result will be that we live harmoniously, and that the world will see we truly belong to Jesus (cf. John 13:33-34), and that our great Father in heaven will be hallowed on earth as He already is in heaven.

In Christ, and for the glory of God in the church (Eph. 3:21),

pastor ryan