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Paul Prayed They Would Live in Peace and Unity
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]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. Romans 15:5-6[/perfectpullquote]There are a few things I find very interesting in this passage of scripture. The first is that this is a prayer of Paul. The language “May the God… grant,” indicates that this is a prayer that Paul is praying over his target audience. Prayer should be the foundational piece of our Christian walk. However, we typically don’t pray for things that come easily to us. The fact that Paul is praying for unity among believers suggests to me that unity is not something that comes naturally. It will only come with God’s help.
This is reinforced to me by the opening lines of this prayer “May the God of endurance and encouragement.” I was unable to find scholars that addressed this statement. However, I think it’s possible that Paul starts off his prayer with these words because he knows unity is going to take work. It’s not going to be a quick fix. We are going to need patience with each other, and we are going to need to be encouraged to continue to strive for unity.
The only thing that can unite us is Christ. “To live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus.” The goal given here is to glorify God in unity as a body of believers with one voice. We can only be unified when we have a central focus on Jesus. In order to honor God we need to both individually and corporately submit ourselves to his will and desire a greater presence of him in us
Paul gives us a road map for how to do this in Philippians 2:2-8: Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
In a world that feels like it’s becoming more and more divided we have a great opportunity as believers to reflect God to the world by being united in Christ. To do that we need to follow the example given by Christ and humble ourselves in obedience to God’s will and love our neighbor “not looking only to our own interests, but also the interests of others”
– Adam Deering
