Romans 1:12 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Romans 1:12

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He then has another way of putting it, and this is very beautiful. We are just in the foothills before we get to the big texts of the letter. ‘That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.’ You have done amazing things in Rome, you have had tremendous deliverances, he says to them. You have stood firm through great provocation and trouble, and there is much we can help each other on. There were so many people there converted from paganism, people who have made tremendous sacrifices for the faith, people who had left high jobs and high stations for the faith, rather than renounce what they believed, because they could no longer function under pagan sacrifices and things of that kind.You could read ‘encouraged’ as ‘assured’: ‘that I may be comforted, encouraged, assured, together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. What a wonderfully humble approach the apostle has. Every believer was a great value to him, and he could gain a spiritual benefit from the least. He wanted to preach the gospel to them, and he wanted to hear how the Lord had brought their churches about, and how he had blessed them, and how they had been saved, and how the prayers of thousands and thousands have been answered, including mine. ‘It will be just as much an encouragement and an assurance to me as my efforts, I hope, will be to you’, he says. He is going to hear what Christ has delivered them from, what experiences they have had of Christ’s provision for them, of the advances they have made. That is going to be of immense comfort to the apostle Paul, he loves to hear of the work of Christ being proved by faith. And they are going to hear from him and are going to have their faith strengthened also.

Application

In a sense, it's always like that. The preacher comes seeking by God's grace to benefit you. But he only survives because of the benefit you have for him. Sometimes by way of correction, but by encouragement, by sharing, by testimony. You don't want a preacher now or in the future who is a cold fish. This is mutual, our mutual faith. We support each other, and we are all one. Do you feel that you are a shepherd to others and that you are a help to others? It is good for young or old if God enables you to be a help to others and sometimes a counsellor, and to teach and to nurture and nourish others. But remember the way the apostle did it – he was always ready to learn from and to derive encouragement from the one to whom he ministered. To be a good helper, you have got to be a good recipient, one who receives admonition well, one who receives advice properly, one who can be helped by the other also. If I am too proud to be helped by the one I am helping, if I am too proud and too high and mighty to be encouraged and assisted by that other person, I am not fit to be a shepherd or a counsellor.

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Romans 1:12 Commentary and Bible Study

The meaning of Romans 1:12 explained