Paul mentions here the best way
for Christians to live. His words indicate that there are degrees of harmony
possible among believers. For example, we could imagine that the strong and the
weak should form different churches, and if they did that, they would have two
churches marked by internal harmony, even although they would not be in harmony
with one another.
It is possible that Paul here is
drawing the attention of his readers to the Trinity. He mentions a divine
person at the start of verse 5, he mentions the second Person of the Trinity at
the end of verse 5, and he mentions the first Person in verse 6. So it looks as
if the One mentioned at the start of verse 5 is the Holy Spirit, and he is the
One who encourages his people and enables them to persevere.
Paul’s words here are in the form
of a benediction, which could also indicate that he has the Trinity in mind. It
could be that Paul is reminding his readers, as they exist in situations of
potential disagreement, to focus on the unity and harmony of the Trinity. They
do everything together, and Paul calls his readers to praise the Father
together. The implication is that a failure to deal correctly with one another
means we cannot praise God in harmony, and he only wants harmonious praise from
his people.
Paul gives us insight into intelligent
worship. Usually, we worship the Father, and we worship him in a particular
way, which is his connection to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how God the
Father wants us to think about him. I suppose we could say that the description
of Jesus here is a brief summary of what the Father did for him. The Father
gave him the name Lord when he ascended to heaven; the Father gave him the name
Jesus when he came into our world by becoming a man; and the Father anointed
him with the Holy Spirit in order to fulfil his messianic roles.
Worship of the Father is also a
reminder of the doctrine of adoption, that both weak and strong believers belong
to his family. Quite often in an earthly family, the children are at different
stages of growth, and the younger ones who are weak may act foolishly. But if
one of the mature children suggested to their father that they should remove
the younger ones from the family he would be appalled. It does not please the
Heavenly Father when the price of our worship is to exclude unnecessarily some
of his children.
So in verse 7, Paul tells his
readers, whether strong or weak, to welcome one another in the same manner as
Jesus has welcomed us. He welcomed us with our defects, our misunderstandings,
our little grasp of his truth. He welcomed us with the intention of changing us
into his likeness in a gentle way. How good it would be if every church
practised what Paul describes here, because they would be living for the glory
of God and not for their own opinions!
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