Picture the upper room on the night before the cross. The lamps flicker, shadows dance across the walls, and the air is heavy with the weight of what’s coming. The disciples sit confused, troubled, whispering questions they don’t dare voice.
And Jesus—knowing that the next hours will bring betrayal, agony, and death—lifts His eyes to heaven.
- What does He pray?
- Not for escape.
- Not for vengeance.
- Not even for His own relief.
He prays for His followers. He prays for us. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one” (John 17:20–21).
Think about that. With the cross just hours away, the Son of God prayed for us.
He could have prayed for
- our strength,
- our safety,
- our success
but …..
He prayed for our oneness, knowing that the credibility of His mission would be displayed in how His followers loved one another.
That prayer does not fade into the night. It reverberates through the centuries, finding its echo in Paul’s letter to the Romans. In chapter 15, he urges a divided church to live “in harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:5–6). Unity is not sentimental. It is not optional. It is essential to the mission of the church and to the credibility of the gospel itself.
Unity is not a shallow agreement or a forced conformity. It’s the deep harmony that comes when different people, different backgrounds, and even different convictions are bound together in Christ.
It’s the living answer to Jesus’ prayer and the evidence to a watching world that the gospel is true.
I. Bearing With One Another
Romans 15:1–3
“We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”
Paul circles back to the same theme from Romans 14: maturity is not about having all the answers or demanding your way—it’s about using your strength to serve.
What It Means to “Bear With”
- “Bear with” doesn’t mean just tolerating—it means carrying someone else’s weight.
- The strong in faith are not called to flaunt freedom but to help those who struggle.
- This is countercultural—in a world that prizes independence, the gospel calls us to interdependence.
Galatians 6:2
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Colossians 3:13
“…bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
Think of a veteran athlete mentoring a rookie. The stronger player doesn’t belittle the weaker one for missed plays—he encourages, coaches them up. Why?
- Because the team’s success depends on it.
- In the same way, the church flourishes when the spiritually mature stop playing for themselves and start carrying the younger or weaker members.
Three simple skills needed to “bear with another”
- Encourage, don’t criticize. When another believer struggles with doubt or falls into old habits, step closer instead of pulling away.
- Be patient. Growth takes time. Instead of demanding instant maturity, walk with them through the process.
- Sacrifice comfort. Sometimes bearing with others means giving up preferences for their good. (Ex: worship style, ministry approach, personal convenience).
Philippians 2:3–4
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
Paul roots this call in Christ’s own example: “For Christ did not please himself” (v. 3).
- Jesus bore our sins, our weaknesses, and our shame—not because He had to, but because His love compelled Him.
- The cross is the ultimate picture of bearing with others.
But here’s the question: how do we actually get there? If we’re honest, human attempts at unity so often fall flat. We try to build it on traditions, on cultural trends, or on the shifting sands of popular opinion. The result is fragile, easily fractured, and temporary. The only foundation strong enough to sustain true unity is the Word of God.
II. Encouragement Through the Word
Romans 15:4–6
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
Real unity comes when God’s people decide to listen to His voice above every other voice.
When the Word of God is our center, differences don’t disappear, but they no longer divide.
- Convictions remain, but Christ’s truth binds us closer than opinions can pull us apart.
- And in that kind of unity—Word-shaped, Christ-centered—the world sees a glimpse of the glory of God.
Think about the noise we live in every day.
- Social media feeds shout opinions at us.
- News outlets spin stories from opposite directions.
- Friends, traditions, and even church culture can pull us into camps.
It’s like standing in a crowded room where everyone is talking at once—you hear bits and pieces, but no single voice is clear. That’s what happens when the church tries to build unity on anything other than God’s Word. It becomes a shouting match, and the loudest opinion usually wins.
But imagine a symphony orchestra. Each musician has a different instrument, a different part to play, but before the performance begins, they all tune to the same pitch—the same standard.
- That single note brings harmony to what would otherwise be chaos.
- In the same way, the Scriptures are God’s tuning fork for His people.
- When we choose to align our hearts and convictions with His Word, we find harmony even in our differences.
The application is simple but demanding: whose voice shapes your decisions, your convictions, your relationships?
- Is it the voice of tradition?
- The voice of popular opinion?
- The voice of your own comfort?
- Or is it the clear, steady voice of God in Scripture?
Real unity in Christ is not achieved by lowering the volume of every other voice, but by raising the authority of His Word above them all.
So here’s a challenge: the next time you find yourself in conflict “What does God’s Word say?”
That question doesn’t just settle arguments; it builds unity.
Because when we decide together to listen to His voice above every other voice, we not only find agreement—we display the glory of God to the world.
III. United for God’s Glory
Romans 15:7–12
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews[b] on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:
Paul makes it clear: unity is not an optional extra. It is rooted in the gospel itself.
- Christ has welcomed both Jew and Gentile into His family,
- and to prove it Paul strings together Old Testament promises—from the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms—to show that God’s plan was always global.
- From the beginning, God’s heart has been to draw people from every nation into one family under Christ.
Welcoming one another is not just about being polite—it’s about intentionally making room for those who are different.
- It means moving toward the new believer.
- It means showing grace to someone whose preferences differ from yours.
- It means choosing to embrace people who may not look like you, or see every issue exactly as you do—because Christ has embraced you.
Think about a family table at Thanksgiving. Around it sit people with different opinions, different personalities, and sometimes even unresolved tensions.
- Yet they share the same meal,
- the same family name,
- the same bond.
The church is God’s family table—messy at times, but bound together by Christ’s sacrifice!!
IV. Overflowing with Hope
Romans 15:13
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Paul ends this section with a prayer, not a command. That’s significant.
- Joy, peace, and hope are not things we can manufacture through willpower or positive thinking alone.
- They are gifts that come from God Himself—specifically, from the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.
A phone battery, no matter how advanced the technology, will eventually drain down to zero if it’s not recharged.
Our spiritual and emotional lives are the same.
- The constant demands of life—family, work, ministry, even the struggle to love people well—drain us.
- But the Spirit of God fills us back up.
- Paul believes that when we stay connected to Him, joy and peace flow into us, and hope begins to overflow.
A reservoir collects water, not just to hold, but so it can spill over and provide life downstream.
- Paul doesn’t just pray that believers would have hope, but that they would abound in hope—overflowing in a way that touches others.
- When the Spirit fills us, hope doesn’t just lift us personally; it spills out into our families, our workplaces, and our church community.
Hope is not wishful thinking, like crossing your fingers and hoping things turn out okay.
It is rooted in the character of God and the certainty of His promises.
Hebrews 6:19 calls it “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.”
So the question becomes: where do you need the Spirit to recharge your hope today?
- Is it in a broken relationship?
- In the uncertainty of your future?
- In the discouragement of unanswered prayers?
Paul reminds us that hope isn’t something we muster—it’s something God supplies.
- Our role is to stay plugged in: to keep believing His promises, to keep listening to His Word, to keep depending on His Spirit.
- And when we do, we find that joy, peace, and hope don’t just trickle into our lives—they abound, overflowing for the glory of God.
Conclusion
Friends, Jesus prayed that we would be one. Paul reminds us that unity comes when we stand on God’s Word, welcome one another in love, and let the Spirit fill us with hope. So this week, choose to listen to His voice above every other voice. And when we do, the world will see a church that speaks with one voice and points with one life to the glory of God.
It was dreadfully cold in December of 1914. The First World War had only been raging for a few months, but already it was unlike anything the world had seen before. Young soldiers—barely more than boys—were dug into muddy trenches that stretched across Europe. The air smelled of gunpowder. The ground was scarred with shell craters. Between the two sides lay “no man’s land”—a barren stretch of earth filled with barbed wire, smoke, and death.
On Christmas Eve, something unexpected happened. From the German trenches, soldiers began to sing: “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht…”—“Silent Night, Holy Night.” The tune drifted across the battlefield. The British soldiers on the other side recognized the melody and joined in, singing in English. For a moment, enemies were singing the same song—about the same Savior—across the same battlefield.
The next morning, the unimaginable happened. One by one, soldiers began to climb out of their trenches. Instead of aiming rifles, they extended hands. They exchanged small gifts—tobacco, chocolate, buttons from their uniforms. Some even kicked around a soccer ball in no man’s land. For a single day, the war stopped. Enemies became friends. Unity broke through in the unlikeliest of places.
Of course, the fighting eventually resumed. But that Christmas truce has been remembered for more than a century because:
it showed what’s possible when something greater than hatred and division takes hold of the human heart.
And here’s the truth for us: what was temporary on that battlefield is meant to be permanent in the church.
Jesus prayed for it in John 17.
- Paul called the Romans to live it out in chapter 15. “Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”
- When we listen to God’s Word above every other voice, when we welcome one another across our differences, and when we let the Spirit fill us with hope, the world sees something it cannot explain—real unity.
