A Prayer For Unity
Romans 15:5-7
Introduction
Who a person is affects how they pray. The mother of a sick child will pray a certain way. A student nervous about an exam will pray a certain way. An evangelist about to speak before a stadium full of people will pray a certain way. A child hoping for a new toy will pray a certain way. We have seen some of the prayers of Jesus. How Jesus prayed came from who he was. We now turn to the Apostle Paul. Of course Jesus and Paul are different. Paul was a Pharisee who became a Christian. Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and God incarnate. But they both had love for the people of God and some of the themes of their prayers will be similar. What will be different is how they look. We have the content of Jesus‘ prayers in the form of narrative in the Gospels. For Paul, we have him describing his prayers in his letters, and so we may not have the exact wording of his prayers. Still, we have the spirit of his prayers and that is what matters. A few weeks ago we looked at Jesus‘ prayer in John 17 for future believers and their need to be united. This prayer by Paul will tie in nicely to that prayer. The fact that Jesus and Paul focused on unity so much should give us a hint as to the importance of unity for the church.
Our God
All of the prayers we have looked at have begun with a careful address toward God. We must be clear who we are praying to and what part of his character we are relying on. This prayer is no different, although it is not immediately clear. The NIV says “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement.” That could be taken as a generic address toward God with a comment about the things that he sometimes gives. But in the original Greek, that is not what it says. Paul says “May the God of endurance and encouragement give.” Paul is actually saying that endurance and encouragement are a part of God’s character and so it is appropriate to pray to God for help in unity. The point of encouragement is fairly obvious. We need encouragement to be united, because it does not come natural. But what does Paul mean by endurance? To me endurance is something that you grit your teeth through because you hate every minute of it. It is the kind of thing you do when you take the worst tasting cough medicine because you know that is what is necessary to get rid of the cough. You endure the discomfort because you hope for something better in the future. There are two questions worth asking: 1) does God simply endure us and 2) do we just endure the people who are different from us? I don’t think that is what Paul is saying. The word here means more than endurance. It is actually joyful endurance or patience. The best way to describe it is the relationship between a parent and a child. The relationship is not easy but it is not horrible either. The child does things that make life harder but they also do things that make life better. As the child learns, we do not freak out because they were not born perfectly intelligent or mature. We help them to develop. But in helping them to develop we must be patient and joyfully endure. That is who God is and that is what he expects from us.
Need For Unity
So we know who Paul is praying to, but what is he praying for exactly? Unity of course. But what does Paul mean by that and why is it important enough to pray for? Paul sees the church as the Body of Christ. If all Christians belong to the body, what does it do to the health of the body if Christians begin to fight and bicker with one another? There are a large number of diseases that are called autoimmune diseases. What happens is that bodies immune system begins to attack parts of itself, not realizing that it is not an outside infection. It can create tremendous damage to the human body. An autoimmune disease can be tremendously destructive within the Body of Christ. This is why Jesus prayed this as well. But what does this look like today? Is this a call for better relations between Catholics and Protestants or Baptists and Pentecostals? It can be a part of it but Paul is speaking to something more specific. Paul here is praying for unity within a single congregation. The challenge for the church in Rome is that it began as a church of Jews who believed in Jesus but later became dominated by non-Jewish believers in Christ. The Jews and Gentiles had their own way of seeing things and doing things. Each group saw themselves as having an advantage over the other group. The situation was serious enough that it needed, not just a letter by Paul, but prayers to the God of endurance and encouragement. So what does this mean for us? We do not have to be a congregation ripped apart by division and strife to care about this prayer. However we might be at the moment, we are a collection of people from different backgrounds, families and generations. We have certain values, personalities and character traits. If at some point we did not have some conflict, I would say that we are not interacting enough. Being different is what makes us stronger and we grow as those differences come together and force us to become better followers of Jesus. It is a healthy process but it can become unhealthy. It can lead to such deep division that we reject one another and that we damage the Body of Christ. How do we prevent this?
God and Us
What is the solution to this problem? There are two parts to the solution. One is that we pray. We bring our need for unity to God, to the God of endurance and encouragement. In John 17, when Jesus prays for unity, he prays that we would be one as he and the Father are one. Here Jesus hints at the mystery of the Trinity. The Father, Son and Spirit are distinct and yet are one God. So when we pray to God, asking for unity within the church, we are praying to the God who embodies unity and diversity in harmony. Unity comes from God transforming our hearts and minds so that we can put the needs of others before ourselves and to relinquish our need to be always be right. Prayer is the backbone to our unity. But God expects us to work with him. As much as we are to pray for unity, we are also expected to accept one another as Christ accepted us. God does not just want an inner change, he wants us to act on what he has done and actually try to live with one another in harmony. Paul did not just talk about this or pray about this, he lived it. As we go through the book of Acts and Paul’s letters, we see that Paul came into conflict with others. That is natural as he was a strong personality and his ministry required that he make difficult decisions. But we also see him working things out, not giving the details, but seeing him back in fellowship with the people he struggled with. Paul speaks, not from theory, but from experience.
Conclusion
There is much that has changed from the first century church to the twenty-first century church. But what has not changed is the need for unity. God has created a church made up of diverse people with different personalities and agendas. We as a local congregation might get along and enjoy each other but we are not beyond the need for this prayer. We must hold on to the unity that we have by joining Paul in this prayer for unity and choosing to accept one another as Christ accepts us.
