Romans 15.6-The Romans Were To Unanimously, With One Voice, Continue Making It Their Habit Of Glorifying The Father
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday May 12, 2010
Romans: Romans 15:6-The Romans Were To Unanimously, With One Voice Continue Making It Their Habit Of Glorifying The Father
Lesson # 501
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 15:5.
This evening we will study Romans 15:6, which presents the purpose for Paul’s Spirit inspired desire in Romans 15:5 that the Spirit cause the Roman believers to continue making it their habit of thinking the same with one another according to the teaching of Christ.
Romans 15:5-6, “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“With one accord” is the adverb homothumadon (ὁμοθυμαδόν) (owe-moe-thee-mah-thone), which is used of the Roman believers and is modifying the verb doxazo, “may glorify” and means “unanimously” the Roman believers were to glorify the Father.
The adverb “unanimously” denotes “being of one mind.”
That the word means “unanimously” is indicated by the context since in Romans 15:5, Paul’s Spirit inspired desire was that the Holy Spirit 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 Christ Jesus.
Therefore, unity of thought among believers is based upon the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, which could be summarized as loving God with one’s entire being and loving each other as He has loved all men and believers.
This unity of thought is expressed verbally as indicated by the prepositional phrase to follow, en heni stomati, “with one voice,” which is also modifying the verb doxazo, “may glorify.”
Paul mentions thinking first before verbally glorifying God to teach that thought precedes word and action.
If the thinking of believers is in agreement with the teaching with the Lord Jesus Christ, then they will be able to glorify God with their words and actions.
However, if their thinking is not in agreement with the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, then they will not be able to glorify God with their words and actions even if they do attempt to glorify Him with their words and actions since a person’s thought is seen only by God and men can deceive with their words and actions.
Christians are involved in hypocrisy if they attempt to glorify God with their words actions and yet are not thinking like Christ by bringing their thoughts into obedience to the Spirit who speaks to the believer through the teaching of the Word of Christ.
“You may glorify” is the second person plural present active subjunctive form of the verb doxazo (δοξάζω) (thock-sah-zoe), which means “to glorify” God in the sense of worshipping Him since Paul is emphasizing the Romans thinking the same according to the teaching of Christ verbalizing this unity of thought.
He is not speaking of the Roman believers glorifying the Father in the sense of manifesting His character and nature, i.e. His love with each other, though in Romans 14:13-15:4 he emphasized with the strong their need to operate in divine love toward the weak.
Rather, he is speaking of the Roman believers glorifying the Father in the sense of worshipping the Father since he is speaking in the context of the Roman believers being unified in thought by conforming their thinking to the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and worship begins with thinking.
This worship of the Father through unity of thought manifests itself verbally as Paul says with the phrase “with one voice” and will manifest itself in conduct, i.e. the believer’s words and actions.
The present tense of the verb is a “customary” present indicating that the Roman believers with one mind, with one voice, were to “continue making it their habit of” glorifying the Father in the sense of worshipping Him.
Paul’s statements in Romans 15:14-15 indicate that the Romans were in fact already doing this thus he is simply reminding them here to continue doing so.
“With one voice” is composed of the preposition en (ἐν), “with” and the dative neuter singular form of the adjective heis (εἷς) (eece), “one” and the dative neuter singular form of the noun stoma (στόμα) (stowe-mah), “voice.”
The noun stoma is used in relation to the Romans believers as a corporate unit glorifying the Father with their voices whether through speaking or singing.
The word is modified by the adjective heis, “one,” which pertains to that which is united as one in contrast with being divided and is thus emphasizing the concept of unity in that Paul wants the Roman believers to be united with each other in worshipping the Father.
The preposition en functions as a marker of means and the noun stoma functions as a “dative instrumental of means” indicating that the voices of the Roman believers were to be the instruments that they employed to glorify the Father.
“The God” is the articular accusative masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός) (thay-oce), which refers to the Father since the articular construction of this noun in the New Testament commonly signifies the first member of the Trinity unless otherwise indicated by the context and the word is modified by pater.
The noun theos is used here in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ indicating to the reader that the Father is the God of Jesus Christ, which is confirmed in Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34 and Ephesians 1:17 and would emphasize the humanity of Christ and that He is the perfect revelation of the Father (John 1:18).
“Father” is the accusative masculine singular form of the noun pater (πατήρ) (pah-tear-ed), refers to God the Father and is used in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ emphasizing His equality with the Father since He is God as well.
The noun theos, “the God” emphasizes that the Father is Jesus Christ’s God whereas pater, “Father” emphasizes that Jesus Christ shares the same nature as the Father and thus emphasizes His deity (John 5:16-18).
Together these two nouns when used in relation to Jesus Christ emphasizes His hypostatic union in that He is undiminished deity and true sinless humanity in one person forever.
“Of our Lord” is composed of the genitive first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ) (eh-go), “our” and the articular genitive masculine singular for of the noun kurios (κύριος) (ker-dee-oce), “Lord.”
The noun kurios indicates the following: (1) Jesus of Nazareth’s equality with the Father and the Spirit. (2) His joint-rulership with the Father over the entire cosmos. (3) His highest ranking position as Chief Administrator in the divine government. (4) His absolute sovereign authority as Ruler over all creation and every creature. (5) His strategic victory over Satan and the kingdom of darkness in the angelic conflict.
In His deity, Jesus Christ is “Lord” (See Luke 20:42), however in His human nature He received this title as a result of His obedience to the Father’s will, which called for Him to suffer spiritual death on the cross as a substitute for every member of the human race-past, present and future (See Philippians 2:5-11).
“Jesus” refers to the human nature of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth and “Christ” is a technical word designating the humanity of our Lord as the promised Savior for all mankind who is unique as the incarnate Son of God and totally and completely guided and empowered by the Spirit as the Servant of the Father.
Romans 15:5-6, “Now, may God the Holy Spirit who produces perseverance as well as encouragement cause all of you for your benefit to continue making it your habit of thinking the same with one another according to the teaching of Christ, who is Jesus in order that unanimously, with one voice, all of you may continue making it a habit of glorifying the God and Father of our Lord, namely, Jesus, who is the Christ.” (My translation)