Paul prays for those reading his letter, that the God of endurance would grant us to live in harmony, that we would glorify God together.

Why would we need endurance to live in harmony?

We’re told to welcome one another as Christ welcomed us. I looked up the Greek for that word welcome. It means to receive, to accept, to take to oneself. As Christ makes us one with Himself, we’re to receive others into the family. We are joined with them just as we are joined to Christ. We are one family and more so, one body.

The words endurance and welcome are repeated words; so is hope. We have hope through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, all that we see in the lives of those who went before. But we also have a God of hope who can make us abound in hope by the power of His Holy Spirit.

I do want to speak to verse seventeen where the ESV translation says he has reason to be proud of his work for God. The other translations all talk of glorifying and exalting Christ! It’s God’s work, not our own. We can speak of what’s been accomplished with pride because it wasn’t us. We give the glory to God. Paul makes that clear in verse eighteen.

The book ends with another warning to be united. Watch out for those dividing the body and creating obstacles, other than what good doctrine requires. We’re to obey Scripture. Obey God. Obey the law of love.

If we want Satan crushed, we need to be wise in what’s good, what the Scriptures teach us. And we need to be innocent of evil. That’s our mandate. God’s the one who crushes Satan. But He’ll do it under our feet.

God does the work. God accomplishes. God gets the glory. But He uses His saints. Give yourself to Him to use, to bring to the obedience of the faith. He is the only wise God.