Romans: Lesson 12 of 12

Lesson 11

Six Rules for Practical Christian Living

Rule 6: Live a Life of Encouragement! (Romans 14:19 -15:13)

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Read Romans 15:1-7

Question: What is Encouragement?

Marrion Webster says that to encourage someone is to inspire them with spirit or hope.

In Romans 15, Paul is essentially telling the strong in faith to be encouragers for the weak in faith. According to Paul, it is the responsibility of the strong to close the gap to meet the weak.

Question: What does this remind you of?

Read Romans 5:7

The fact is that when we were weak, God closed the gap for us.

These verses in Romans 15 essentially call us to close that gap by living a life of encouragement.

I. The Reasons for encouragement

A. To promote Peace/unity (Romans 14:19)

Question: How effective is the gospel if the people of God are bickering and fighting amongst themselves?

Peace is one of the fruits of the spirit… love, joy, “peace”

If you recall from earlier in our studies in Romans, the righteousness that comes from God grants us “peace” with God (Romans 5:1).

Read Hebrews 12:14

When we encourage those who are weak in faith, we are working towards creating peace between ourselves – just like God worked towards creating peace between us and him.

Living at peace is more important than being right about open-handed issues.

B. For Mutual Edification (Romans14:19)

Question: How are the “strong” built up through encouragement of the weak?

Read Romans 1:11-12

Read Ephesians 4:15-16

We are all part of the body of Christ, and therefore when all the parts are working together and working as well as they can, the whole benefits.

C. For the Building Up of the body (Romans 15:2)

Encouragement goes hand in hand with building up the body of Christ.

II. The Example of encouragement

A. Christ (Romans 15:3)

Christ did not please himself, but did what was in our best interest

Christ is the ultimate example of one who was strong, closing the gap between himself and those of us who are weak, who were powerless to close the gap ourselves.

B. Scripture (Romans 15:4)

Although ultimately we know that the scriptures were written to point us to Christ, Paul gives us three things here that scripture does in addition to that

1. To teach truth

2. To establish endurance (perseverance)

3. To build hope

Question: Why do some so-called believers fall away?

Answer: They turn from faith because they either do not know or they lose hope in the promises of scripture.

C. Paul (Romans 16: 1-16)

III. The Source of encouragement - God (Romans 15:5)

Question: Is it hard to be an encourager?

In Romans 15:5, we see that GOD grants us the encouragement that we need to live in harmony with others. In other words, it is encouragement of the soul that God gives us that gives us the strength to be able to encourage others, build them up, and therefore increase harmony and unity within the body of Christ.

IV. The Result of encouragement

Question: What happens when we live a live of encouragement and build up others?

A. God is Praised (Romans15:6)

Have you ever tried to come to church and worship when you were out of fellowship with another believer?

By living a life of encouragement, we facilitate our ability to worship God.

B. God’s Glory is Revealed (Romans 15:7)

PRead Romans 15:8-12

Ultimately everything in the Christian life is about the praise and glory of God.

C. Hope is built in the lives of believers (Romans 15:13)

Question: Why is hope so important?

Hope is the natural emotional outflow of a life characterized by faith.

By contrast, a lack of hope is a demonstration of a lack of faith.

Faith and hope are both two of the three main elements of Christian character:

The triadic formula: Faith, Hope, and Love

1 Corinthians 13:13; 1 Thessalonians 1:3, 5:8

Paul talks about “hope” more in Romans than in any other epistle

ESV: Romans 17 times; 7 times in Hebrews and 2 Corinthians

NIV: Romans 18 times

Conclusion: A life of encouragement closes the gap between the weak and the strong and is necessary for the building of the body of Christ and for establishing faith and hope in believers.