A Word in Season: The Encouragement of Faith (Romans 1:12)

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Perhaps you know another Christian who has a knack for pulling you down.

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They may not intend it, it may in part be a constitutional inclination, but they seem to have a special skill of leaving you with a very gloomy view of the prospects of the church of Jesus Christ so that you leave their presence with your heart heavy, your hands hanging down and your feet dragging in the dust, confident of this, that only difficult difficulties and dangers lie ahead and with your expectations dimmed and your vigour diminished.

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Now the Apostle Paul was not such a Christian. That's not to say he wasn't a realistic man.

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The point I'm making is not that we should deny the battles that we have to fight or the difficulties that we face or the issues we have to deal with, the obstacles we need to overcome, the challenges in the world or the difficulties in the church.

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In fact the Apostle Paul is writing to the church in Rome and he's going to have to deal with the difficulties that there are in being a

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Christian in that great city and the challenges that the church of Jesus Christ in that city faced given their distinct constitution as a congregation.

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And yet the Apostle Paul, recognising that those challenges do exist, is nevertheless able to say that he longs to see them because he wants to impart to them some spiritual gift so that they might be established.

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And then in chapter 1 and verse 12 he makes clear what he has in mind, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

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Now, the Apostle is anticipating that their relationship with each other, the fellowship that they have, the words that they speak is going to produce strength in their souls, that as a result of their communication with one another their hearts will be stirred up, their minds will be sharpened, their confidence will be that much stronger, their expectation that much brighter, that they'll be better equipped for the work that God has given them to do.

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And what will produce that is their mutual faith, that the confidence that each one has,

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Paul and the Roman Christian or Christians with whom he's dealing at that time, that their confidence in God's promises, that their sense of the glory of God's Christ, their understanding of God's purposes, their expectation for God's church, in short the fact that they believe that God will be

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God to them in all things, will be communicated between them in such a way that they will leave that conversation with a spring in their step, with their eyes lifted toward heaven, with their heart vigorous, with their confidence in God and in his word enhanced.

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And it's not a case of the great apostle speaking down to these shabby little

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Roman Christians and seeing if he can just give them a bit of a boost, no it's two believers or a number of Christians and they're going to speak to one another and they're going to see the faith that exists in each and perhaps the fruits of that faith and they'll go away persuaded of spiritual reality and with confidence in the

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God of salvation. And so it's not the apostle speaking down and it's not believers like us saying well

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I'm sure there's nothing that I can impart to anybody else, still less to somebody of greater stature and experience and understanding, no it's the faith of God's people that puts joy in the hearts of other believers.

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And so that's a privilege into which we can all enter, it's not a matter of our character or constitution first and foremost, it's a reflection of God's gracious gift toward us.

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We need to cultivate the skill of encouraging one another by faith, of fixing our eyes upon God and upon his

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Christ and thinking about him and speaking of him and communicating about him in a way that puts steel into the souls of our brothers and sisters.

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It's a great knack to have, it's not always an easy one to cultivate, it doesn't mean we have to be careless or dishonest about reality around us, but we need to hold fast and hold up the reality of God and his so great saviour and that great salvation.