It’s easy to shake our heads in disbelief at the apparent failure of world leaders to contribute to measures aimed at world peace. It’s also easy to shrug our shoulders at our own inability to negotiate peace within our family or faith community.
The good news is that the Bible has a plan for world peace, and the Bible also offers sage advice on overcoming relational strife.
The bad news is that the heart of the Bible’s strategy for peace scandalously requires the suffering of God, and challenges us to change our own hearts and wills before seeking to change the minds and worldviews of others.
Many years ago, a wise pastor and author named Arch Hart told me a scandalous secret. He said our churches are inhabited by a lot of good people, but not a lot of nice people.
At least theoretically, accepting the gospel and turning to follow Jesus makes us “good” in God’s sight, but we all fall so far short of the perfection evident in the life of Jesus that we should probably refrain even from calling ourselves “Christians.”
We are good because we have encountered Christ, the epitome of the good, and have been made good by his righteousness. But there remain many rough edges, ugly bits, and the faint stench of something that is not right or ought not to be. And we may be quick to judge, to point the finger, or to consider ourselves better than certain other people in our circle of influence.
Paul calls the source of all this trouble our “flesh,” or “sinful nature,” part of our “fallen” human identity that will be severed, jettisoned, destroyed, at the resurrection when Jesus returns.
So we have a lot of good people, but not a lot of nice people. A key task of discipleship, a key task of apprenticeship to Jesus, is to become more “nice,” more closely aligned to our Master, the Prince of Peace. That means, among other things, that you and I must actively attend to being people of peace, shaping our whole lives – our actions, words and thoughts – into becoming peacemakers.
Our lectionary readings today share the theme of peace, and in the text of Romans 15:4-13, Paul makes peacemaking paramount. After unfolding the gospel of the righteousness of God revealed in Christ in Romans chapters 1-11, Paul turns in chapters 12-16 to the lived expression of the gospel among real people in real communities. His central concern is unmistakable: those who follow Jesus must become makers of relational peace.
Paul begins by reminding us in chapter 15:4 that “whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.”
Peace-making does not arise from our own resources but from the deep reservoir of God’s Word and God’s Spirit. Careful attention to the teaching of Scripture forms us into a people who are capable of hope. The Scriptures steady our hearts so that in the face of relational conflict, we do not collapse into despair or lash out in anger. Hope fuels patience, and patience fuels peace.
In verses 5-6, Paul offers a benediction: “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.”
Notice the logic here. Harmony is a gift. Relational peace is not something we manufacture through willpower alone but something that God grants as we yield to him. And the purpose of this gift is unity in the worship of God. A fractured community cannot clearly sing the gospel. A reconciled community becomes its own doxology, and blesses others.
In verse 7, Paul says, “Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God.” All of Paul’s pleas for unity in chapters 14-15 are theologically grounded in Christ. The “weaker” Christian is to be accepted by the community because God has accepted him/her (14:3). In the same way, each member of the faith community is to welcome each other, without reservation and without condition, “just as Christ also welcomed you” (15:7a).
If we really understood the glorious truth that God accepts us despite our many deficiencies and flaws, we will be able to accept others despite their deficiencies and flaws. As Tim Keller puts it in his commentary on Romans: “In fact, the way you can tell how much you understand the gospel is to look at how much you love people despite their flaws.”[1]
This is the heart of Christian peacemaking. To welcome means to receive, to draw near, to make room in our hearts and habits. Jesus has welcomed us at the cost of his own life, breaking down the wall of hostility and making peace by the blood of his cross. When we welcome one another, especially those who differ from us, those who naturally annoy us, those who have hurt us, we re-enact with our lives the gospel that we proclaim with our words.
In verses 8-12, Paul widens the lens. The long-promised reconciliation of Jew and Gentile has begun. Isaiah’s ancient prophecy comes alive: not Israel alone but the nations too hope in Christ. If God can reconcile Jews and Gentiles, then no relational rift within a local church congregation is beyond the reach of God’s mercy and grace. No rift is too hard for God to mend.
The gospel is not an abstract idea but a living power that erases boundaries, reframes grievances, reorients negative thinking, restores broken relationships, and makes the unthinkable possible.
Finally, verse 13 forms a second benediction saturated with hope: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Joy, peace and hope are not rewards for perfect behaviour, but gifts given to those who trust God, and who desire God’s kingdom of peace to reign in the here and now, in the messiness of life. John Stott comments: “If faith is the means to joy and peace, overflowing hope is the consequence, and all four [qualities] are due to the power of the Holy Spirit within us.”[2]
And these gifts of God do indeed overflow, through the Spirit’s power. They reach beyond our own hearts and minds. They spill into our relationships. The God of hope makes us ambassadors of hope.
Romans 15:4–13 teaches us that peacemaking is not optional for followers of Jesus. It is the natural fruit of our welcome in Christ. It is the evidence of a community resting on hope and shaped by hope. It is our mutual witness to a divided world.
As we conclude, I have some homework for you, and for me: three ways to practise relational peacemaking this week.
1. Initiate an act of reconciliation.
Think of a relationship you have that is marked by tension, distance, or misunderstanding. Pray for the courage and humility to take the first step toward reconciliation. Perhaps send a message, ask for a constructive conversation, or offer a simple gesture of kindness. Don’t wait for the other person to deserve it. Simply welcome them as Christ has welcomed you.
2. Practise slow, listening presence.
A lot of the conflict we experience grows deeper because we are quick to speak and slow to listen and understand. This week, choose one significant conversation in which you deliberately slow down. Listen to the other person without interrupting. Reflect back what you heard. Allow them to do the same. This is one of the most powerful ministries of peace we can offer.
3. Create a harmony moment.
Paul longs for communities that glorify God with one voice. Choose a small way to create unity by inviting someone who is clearly different from you to share a meal. Pray with a colleague or neighbour. Participate in a church ministry with someone you don’t usually serve alongside. Let unity become an act of worship, and see where it leads.
Every move toward healing, peace and unity is shaped by care. When we genuinely care for the wellbeing of the other person, or the other community, or the other nation, the barriers seem smaller and the road ahead less steep and stony.
I love the way Esther Lightcap Meek puts it in her book, Loving to Know. She says, “To care is to move toward the unknown in hope.” [3]
May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, and may the Spirit of God make you bold as you pursue the holy work of relational peace in this second week of Advent.
Sermon 838 copyright © 2025 Rod Benson. Preached at North Rocks Community Church, Sydney, Australia, on Sunday 7 December 2025. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).
References
[1] Timothy Keller, Romans 8-16 for You (n.p.: The Good Book Company, 2015), 165.
[2] John Stott, The Message of Romans (Nottingham: IVP, 1994), 373.
[3] Esther Lightcap Meek, Loving to Know: Covenant Epistemology (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2011), 32.
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