The Romance of Romans-Part 116

Romans Chapter 15 cont'd:

I pray that the God of hope will fill you with abundant joy and peace through your belief in him, and that you will also overflow with this strong hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I am confident that you dear friends are also full of goodness and knowledge and therefore able to effectively counsel and teach one another.

Comments:

There are over 30 "one another's" in the NT that, when combined, give us a fairly great list of how to practically live out what it looks like to "walk in love" within a community of faith. We all need a network of believing friends in Christ in which our fellowship experience is "eyeball to eyeball" and with whom we have regular and ongoing interdependent relationships. One of these relational responsibilities is to "instruct" or "admonish" one another...the meaning of the one Greek word used here (nouthesis) that I paraphrase in the second sentence above: "effectively counsel and teach".

Admonish is a word that, in our culture, has come to have negative overtones. This seems sad to me because it represents a very needed element in healthy friendships...it brings some "guts" and "risk" to the table and adds vital texture to a great friendship. Unless I am sometimes "challenged" by my friends, loved ones and co-workers by their pointing out something I am missing, neglecting, overdoing, falling short in...and/or the like...I tend to settle down into a self-satisfied "comfort zone" and not put my whole heart into something I have said I am committed to. Of course, I need to know that such friends are "for me" and that they are compelled by their love for me as they present their challenge. The love motive is actually embedded in the original meaning of this Greek word. Additionally, in the context of this passage, Paul outlines the qualifications for the person who can effective "admonish" another...they are to be filled with goodness and knowledge.
And even more than this...the context indicates that those who are equipped to teach others well are those who are filled with joyful hope by the Spirit's power.

In other words: Don't come messing in my personal business, if you haven't done your homework, don't have a track record of having some substantial goodness/kindess rooted in your soul, don't have the joy and peace of Christ humming within you, or...if you've lost all hope for me. But, if you've got all that...bring it on 'cause I want to keep growing. Do it with a song in your heart! ;-)

"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Col 3:16