In this short section of Paul's letter to the Romans, we hear Paul's personal voice as he shares his desire to meet with his friends and fellow Christians in Rome. I think that Paul's words and attitude also show three ways that Christians should interact with each other. As the family of Christ, we must pray for each other, encourage each other, and preach to each other.
Paul starts this passage by letting the Romans know that he has been praying for them. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you (vs 8), constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times (vs 9, 10). Paul was fervently praying for his friends and brothers in Christ. I think that this is something that we should be doing also as Christians. Can you think of a time when someone told you that they had been praying for you? If nothing else, I think it is comforting to know that someone was thinking of you at sometime during their week.
I think practically, we should pray for our friends like Paul, but also be praying for our church leadership and missionaries. I have two quiet times during the day. In the morning I pray through the book "Operation World"; I highly recommend this book or another one like it. Each day I pray for a different country, for its physical and social needs, for the church in the country and for the evangelization of the country. At night when I pray it is more personal and I lift up friends, family, missionaries and church leaders during this time. I think we need to take Paul's example and diligently pray for our fellow Christians.
Our church family also encourages us. That is that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith (vs 12). I think that as Christians, our talk and our sharing of God moving in our lives can be of great encouragement to one another. What do you talk about with your friends after church? I'm not saying that you shouldn't share personal things like how school or work or kids are going, but do you talk about what you are reading in scripture? Do you share prayer requests? These are important things that we can talk about to encourage each other in Christ. Missionary's monthly letters are another way to be encouraged by the work of people around the world. It is a great way to encourage someone and also use your money for the Kingdom by supporting a missionary. If you do this, than you can use the missionary letters to stay up to date on the person or family that you are supporting as they share Jesus with others.
Lastly, we should be preaching to one another. I don't mean preparing a sermon and going around in a circle sharing what we came up with, but I do think that we can preach to each other by sharing scripture and what we thought of it, or what it made us see about God. We can encourage others during rough times with the truth of the gospel. I think this brings up the question of do you know the gospel of Jesus Christ? This is an important thing to know, so make sure that you could confidently share with someone if they asked you right at this moment, how to become a Christian.
Quite simply, the gospel is that there is a perfect, just God who created man. However, man became sinful and rebelled against God. God in his perfectness and justness must judge and punish man for this sin and rebellion but, God in his great love made a way for man to be reconciled with him. By sending Jesus Christ, the son of God, to earth; Jesus lived a perfect life and died as a sacrifice for the sins of man. Jesus literally took on all of the punishment that we deserved in his death, then rose from the grave, so that anyone that responds to this and puts their faith in Jesus can be reconciled with God, forgiven by God and have eternal life through God.
That is a truly wonderful message of hope and it is also a great encouragement to our fellow Christians.
Lastly, I think I should note the truly global view that Paul has in this section. He talks about preaching the gospel and sharing the gospel a few times in the passage and also says he is obligated to Greeks and non-Greeks (in sharing the gospel). I think that we too as Christians and as churches need to make sure that we our keeping a global mind set. Do simple things like praying for missionaries, take it a step further and support a missionary or even take it a step further and be like Paul, going places to share the gospel with others as we have been commanded by Christ.
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