When we hope in God, we can hope have hope for one another. That’s because — whether we’re weak or strong — the same Savior is helping us in our journey, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:13). Knowing this, we’re called to receive one another as Christ has received us . . . in all our imperfections. This is what Christian community looks like — believers in their various stages of life, weaknesses, and misunderstandings of doctrine singing together in one accord as they hope, together, in Christ. 

 Sermon: https://churchandfamilylife.com/sermons/69366a3816a3768dc4b231f1

The word. Romans 15, 1 through 13 is a call to hope. That word shows up multiple times, three times in the text. And the message really is hope in God and as a result you can hope in one another. The Apostle already said God is able to see you through, God is able to make you stand And so the thrust of this whole section is that the weak and the strong can live in harmony because they have hope in God and as a result they can have hope in one another.

So the strong are called to bear with the scruples of the weak, not just to tolerate them, not just to put up with them, but actually to bear with, in other words, to shoulder the burden, to bear with their scruples. And the word that the apostle uses, it means to carry, to come up under and carry. Like it's used in the Bible and elsewhere, to carry a body and to carry a cross, to come up underneath and to hold up. This is just a matter of Christian maturity. It's not measured by how free you are, but by the way that you have hope for one another.

So the weak are tender in conscience, the strong are free in their liberty, both are called to follow the example of Jesus Christ. The one who did not please himself says the text. And so Paul says, but let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. He's manifesting the hope that he has for converted Jews and Gentiles. He's made them one family, and they gather together to worship God with one voice.

Isaiah said, in him the Gentiles shall hope. And so Paul is quoting four Old Testament passages, but What he's saying is that this objective that God has for the weak and the strong, and that's why Paul says, receive one another just as Christ has received you. And he received you not when you had it all together, not when you agreed on every debatable matter, but He received you, broken, weak, confused, in need of grace. And Paul ends this section with one of the most beautiful blessings in the New Testament. Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is what Christian community looks like. A people who've been brought together, who believe in Jesus Christ, in their various stages of life, in their various weaknesses, their various misunderstandings of doctrine, but they have this in common. They are abounding in hope through the Holy Spirit. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Scripture applied as a production of Church and Family Life.

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