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May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:5-6 and 13).

The way our tongues can set things on fire and the ways we can learn to have wisdom-trained tongues … how the early church addressed deep disagreement among its Jewish and Gentile members … Paul confronting Peter to his face, in public … Paul and Barnabas, unable to agree, choose to go their separate ways … Jesus telling us that what comes out from our mouths is really the overflow of our hearts … making every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification.  These are among the themes and topics we’ve looked at during this Disagree Deeply, Love Deeper Still series.

We’re coming to the end of this series – but we’re only getting started with the actual work of doing, of putting into regular, daily practice, what we have been learning.

Paul ends this long section in Romans 14 and 15 that we have been studying this week with two benedictions, two blessings, upon the believers in Rome.  These blessings are not feel-good abstractions or religious happy talk.  They were not aimed at making the Roman believers feel better but at helping them to live better on the issues that Paul has just been addressing.

What were those issues?  Despising people whose consciences won’t allow them to do what you enjoy doing.  Judging and condemning those whom you feel are way too lax in their habits and practices. Impatience towards those who are “weak” in some way, or resentment towards those who are “strong” and use that strength to ensure that things go their way.  Friction and conflict around who has status and who doesn’t, and why.

Paul has laid out what Christ is calling them to be and to do: to take all of our cues about “church” from Jesus; to accept one another in Christ without despising or condemning one another; to stop passing judgment over disputable matters, but instead to pursue peace and to work hard building each other up; to use our areas of strength, not to protect our status, but to please and serve our brothers and sisters, especially those of lower status.  Having laid this out, Paul now blesses.

A blessing is a word sourced in God: a powerful word, a word that causes something to happen, a word that sets things in motion.

The blessings begin with God, with who God is: The God who gives endurance and encouragement (verse 5), and the God of hope (13).  The endurance and encouragement needed is in the doing of what Paul has been talking about!  It takes a lot of endurance and encouragement to disagree deeply, but love deeper still!  And Paul wants us to be anchored in hope, that God is more than able to perform in us what he commands of us.

And this God gives: a spirit of unity among yourselves (verse 5), and all joy and peace as you trust in him (13).  Unity is not an abstraction.  It means that these believers who are having such hard times with one another can receive from God something that they could never generate or sustain on their own.  And that, to their astonishment and surprise, they would experience the peace and joy of heaven as they are working out these very worldly issues and disputes.

And the blessing has a goal, it is designed to take them somewhere: that with one heart and mouth they would glorify God together (verse 5), and that they would overflow in hope by the power of the Spirit (13).

That blessing to them is ours as well.  Are we ready to begin receiving it, and walking it out together?

As you think back over this series, what was memorable for you, what stands out as important for you?  Take a few moments to name these things and to thank God for them.

What is one thing from this series that God is inviting you to practice –what’s a behavior change God is calling you to?  Pray about it.

As we finish this series Disagree Deeply, Love Deeper Still, let’s bless Chatham Community Church together, using Paul’s words.  I’ll read them, a bit at a time, and you pray them over our church:

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.