Romans 1:11-12

For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you--- that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

Romans 1:11-12

How often do we truly seek to edify another? How often do we enter in to an interaction with the explicit intent of building up someone else? Unless I am misguided, I would venture to guess rarely. More often, our interactions are at best transactional: we need to communicate information X or receive information Y, or manipulative at worst. Even when our encounters are entered into with the best of intentions they often are sterile and lifeless. Contrast this with Paul's intent to impart some gift to the Roman church. He writes with the same intentionality witnessed in the life of Christ, who though teaching, preaching, and healing, did so with a purposeful intent for the individual or group. We know that spiritual gifts are given for the benefit of the body; of all believers, yet rarely do we intentionally seek our opportunities to edify our brothers. To do so requires both attention to the details and affairs of another's life as well as the selflessness (or should I say Christ-likeness) to relegate one's time and desires to build up another. We have been given the tools to strengthen and embolden our sisters if we would only put on the attitude of Christ, who gave himself for our benefit and salvation.

Romans 1:8-10a

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness , whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers

Romans 1:8-10a

Our everyday understanding of the Christian life is far too insular, far too individual. By rightly concerning ourselves with the interior state of our own hearts and souls we too often fashion islands of faith. Our fears become too personal, our prayers mere recitations of our desires. Paul's concern for the Roman believers should remind us that our thoughts should be for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to be cognizant of their concerns, their needs, their good. Beyond that, we should also be in prayer not primarily for ourselves but for the needs of our co-laborers. This prioritization of prayer not only puts their requests squarely before the Lord but also relegates our own needs to their proper place. George A. Buttrick affirms this ordering of our prayer life by advising personal petition last after intercession, "The fourth order in our prayer may be petition. It comes last, not because it is most important, but because it needs the safeguard of earlier prayer." Lord let us order our prayers and lives rightly.

Romans 1:3-4

Concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.

Romans 1:3-4 

It really does all come down to the resurrection. If Jesus isn't resurrected then none of this matters. If he was, everything does. The only hope of purpose comes from the resurrection; the only hope for peace; the only hope of power; the only hope of meaning; the only hope of forgiveness; the only hope of consolation. All of it rests upon what happened in that tomb. As wise and as revolutionary as Jesus' teaching was, it would have all been empty had the tomb remained occupied. There is no 'Judeo-Christian' ethic without the resurrection. There is no hope for the world without it. It is the crux of human history, the turning point of eternity.