Romans 15:13 (NRSV)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In Paul’s letter to the Roman church, he spends the first eleven chapters building one long argument: Jew and Gentile stand on identical ground before God. No distinction, he says in chapter 3 — all have sinned, all are justified freely by grace. In chapter 11, Gentile believers are branches grafted into an old olive tree, sharing its root with Israel rather than replacing it.
A few years before this letter, the emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome — Jewish Christians included. The church kept meeting without them, shaped by Gentile believers who'd never kept kosher and saw no reason to start. When the ban lifted, Jewish believers came home to a congregation with its own habits already set. Paul calls one side "weak in faith" and the other "strong," and neither gets a compliment. The weak still ate only vegetables, still marked certain days as holy. The strong ate anything, treated every day alike, and chapter 14 opens by telling them not to look down on the ones they disagree with. Two groups at the same table, two consciences, each sure the other had it wrong.
Paul doesn't referee that argument. He keeps pointing both sides back to Christ, who died for the believer sitting across the table. Early in chapter 15, he quotes four Old Testament passages picturing Gentiles praising God alongside Israel, one voice. That's what he's been building toward since chapter 1.
Our verse for today, verse 13 of chapter 15, serves as the letter’s benediction, right before Paul shifts into travel plans and personal greetings. Everything he's argued for fourteen chapters lands here, in a prayer.
The word translated "abound" in verse 13 is perisseuō (per-is-SYOO-oh), and it means to overflow or exceed a standard measure. It describes having more than enough, a surplus, or a superabundance in quantity and quality. By my count, Paul used the word over 20 times in his other letters, but the most notable use in the Bible is in John's Gospel, after Jesus feeds five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. "Gather up the fragments left over," Jesus tells the disciples (John 6:12). The same word, perisseuō, describes what remained: Twelve full baskets (v. 13). Not a crowd barely fed. A crowd fed until they were full, with room to spare.
Paul’s prayer is not that the argument would end. He prays, "May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace, so that you perisseuō in hope.” More hope than it takes. More than you asked for. More than you can imagine.
The whole letter's theology rests on one request: that what fills this newly rejoined, still-adjusting family would be more than the moment required.
Not enough to get by. Left over. Twelve baskets of it.
Prayer
Father, you are the God of hope. Fill us with joy and peace in the middle of what isn't resolved, and let your Spirit make that hope abound — more than the moment requires. Amen.
This devotional was written and read by Cliff McCartney
Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.
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