Romans 15.5-Paul Desires That The Spirit Cause The Romans To Continue Thinking The Same With One Another According To The Teaching Of Christ Jesus
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday May 11, 2010
Romans: Romans 15:5-Paul Desires That The Spirit Cause The Romans To Continue Thinking The Same With One Another According To The Teaching Of The Lord Jesus
Lesson # 500
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 15:5.
This evening we will study Romans 15:5, which reveals Paul’s Spirit inspired desire that the Holy Spirit, who produces perseverance as well as encouragement, cause the Roman believers as a corporate unit to continue making it their habit of thinking the same with one another according to the teaching of the Lord Jesus.
Romans 15:5, “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus.”
Romans 15:5 marks a transition from a discussion in Romans 15:1-4, which instructs the strong to imitate Christ’s self-denial and self-sacrifice when conducting themselves in the presence of the weak to a discussion in Romans 15:5-12 regarding unity between Jew and Gentile.
This statement in Romans 15:5 is technically not a prayer since it is not addressed specifically to the Father.
In fact, the noun theos, “God” refers to the Holy Spirit, which is indicated by several statements.
First of all, in Romans 15:5, Paul teaches that God produces perseverance and encouragement.
Then, in Romans 15:4, he teaches that the Scriptures produce perseverance and encouragement that is divine in quality and character
In Romans 15:4a, Paul reveals to the Romans that he cited Psalm 69:9 in Romans 15:3b as support for the statement in Romans 15:3a that Christ never pleased Himself for His own benefit because the Old Testament Scriptures were written for their instruction.
He teaches that the purpose of this instruction in the Old Testament Scriptures was so that by means of perseverance as well as by means of encouragement, which are both produced by the Scriptures, they may experience confidence that they have been blessed, are being blessed and will be blessed in the future.
Also, 2 Peter 1:20-21 teaches that the Spirit inspired the Scriptures.
Lastly, in Romans 15:6, Paul reveals that the purpose of the Spirit producing unity among the Roman believers is so that they with one voice might glorify the Father.
Romans 15:6, “So that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Therefore, theos in Romans 15:5 could not possibly be referring to the Father but rather the Spirit since He is the member of the Trinity whose function to glorify the Father and the Son, thus the statement in Romans 15:5 is not technically a prayer.
However, it is an intercessory prayer that Paul prayed.
Paul is revealing his Spirit inspired desire for the Roman church as an indirect means of exhorting the Roman believers to maintain their unity.
He is not attempting to restore unity in Rome since his statements in Romans 1:8 and 15:14-15 imply clearly that there was unity in Rome and thus his statement in Romans 15:5 is designed to maintain this unity.
In Romans 15:14-15, Paul writes to the believers in Rome that he was convinced that they were full of goodness and filled with knowledge and able to admonish each other, thus, his teachings in this epistle would serve as a reminder to them.
Therefore, Paul’s statements in Romans 15:14-15 make clear that the Roman believers were actually practicing everything Paul had prescribed in the epistle including the exhortation here in Romans 15:5.
Romans 15:5, “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus.”
“God” is the articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός) (thay-oce), which refers to the Spirit.
“Perseverance” is the articular genitive feminine singular form of the noun hupomone (ὑπομονή) (ee-poe-moe-knee), which functions as a “genitive of product” indicating to the reader that perseverance is produced by the Holy Spirit.
“Encouragement” is the articular genitive feminine singular form of the noun paraklesis (παράκλησις) (pah-rak-klee-sees), which also functions as a “genitive of product” indicating that encouragement is produced by the Holy Spirit.
“Who gives” is the third person singular aorist active optative form of the verb didomi (δίδωμι) (thee-thoe-mee), which means “to cause” and is used with the Holy Spirit as its subject and the Roman believers, both weak and strong as its object.
This indicates that Paul desires that the Holy Spirit, who produces perseverance and encouragement in the believer through the Scriptures, “cause” the Roman believers to continue making it their habit of thinking the same.
The optative mood of the verb didomi is a voluntative optative expressing Paul’s desire that there would be unity among the believers in Rome.
It was a Spirit inspired desire since Paul wrote Romans 15:5 under the inspiration of the Spirit and it was a desire that he expressed in prayer to the Father.
“You” is the dative second person plural personal pronoun personal pronoun su (σύ) (see), which refers to all the believers in Rome without exception as indicated by the expression to auto phronein (τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν), “to be of the same mind.
Further indicating this is that in Romans 14:1-15:4, Paul is attempting to maintain unity in Rome by teaching the weak and the strong to not condemn each other with regards to non-essentials and that the strong must operate in love and not abuse their freedom in the presence of the weak.
The word functions as a dative of advantage indicating that the Roman believers will “benefit from” the Holy Spirit producing unity among them.
“To be of the same mind” is composed of the articular accusative third person singular neuter form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) (off-toce), “the same” and the present active infinitive form of the verb phroneo (φρονέω) (fro-neh-owe), “be of…mind.”
Here in Romans 15:5, the verb means “to think” and is used with the Holy Spirit as its subject and the Roman believers as its object and the intensive personal pronoun autos refers to the Roman believers as a corporate unity.
The present tense of the verb phroneo is a “customary” present indicating that Paul desires that the Holy Spirit cause the Roman believers “to continue making it their habit of” thinking the same.
“With one another” is composed of the preposition en (ἐν), “with” and the dative masculine plural form of the reciprocal pronoun allelon (ἀλλήλων) (ah-lee-loan), “another.”
The reciprocal pronoun allelon is used with reference to the Roman believers’ relationship with each other and denotes that there is to be a mutual exchange between the Roman believers in that Paul desires that the Holy Spirit cause them to continue making it their habit of thinking the same with one another.
The preposition en is a marker of close personal association indicating that Paul’s desire is that the Holy Spirit would cause the Roman believers to continue making it their habit of thinking the same “with” one another.
“According to Christ Jesus” indicates that Paul desires that the Holy Spirit cause the Roman believers to continue making it their habit of thinking the same according to the teaching of Christ Jesus.
This interpretation is supported by the fact that the teaching of the Lord Jesus as propagated by the apostles and recorded in the Greek New Testament is the only means that the Holy Spirit uses to cause believers to think alike.