Our mutual faith

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established— that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.- Romans 1.8-12

What precious words Paul writes to people he has never met. He thanks God for them. He brags on their faith. He never ceased to pray for them. He prayed that he would be able to get to them. He wanted to have the chance to teach them and establish them in the faith. He was grateful for their mutual faith.

Paul was a man of amazing love and tenderness. He can sometimes seem like a very hard preacher as he deals with sin and people doing wrong and getting things sorted. He uses some pretty blunt language at times. When you think about it though everything he says he says out of love because he knows the God’s way is best for us all.

But here it is nothing but love. It is the kind of love we all could apply to each of. We need to gives thanks for each other because sometimes we are all we have. We ought to build each other up. We ought to consistently pray for each other. We ought to enjoy fellowship and look forward to times to be together.

Lastly though we ought to encouraged by the mutual faith we share. We need to be grateful that we do not stand alone in this dark old world. There are others who also stand for the gospel. It is very easy to feel alone in a land where the vast majority of people are not true born again Christians and where our thoughts and ideas are foreign. Let’s be encouraged, like Paul, when we meet those of mutual faith and not be so quick to divide over petty issues.