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15 Some of us trust God with strong faith. We must help those believers whose faith is weaker. We must be patient with them. We should not just do things that will make us happy ourselves. Instead, each of us should do things that will make other believers happy. We should help them to trust God more strongly. Even Christ did not just do things that would make himself happy. It is written in the Bible that he said this: ‘People have insulted you, God. In that way they have also insulted me.’[a]

Everything that people wrote in the Bible in past times is there to teach us something. Those words help us to be patient and strong. As a result, we can trust God to do what he has promised.

It is God himself who helps us to be patient and strong. So I pray that he will help you to agree with each other and to be friends. That is how Christ Jesus wants you to live. As a result, all of you will praise God together with the same thoughts. You will all agree that God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is very great.

Christ saves both Jews and Gentiles

Christ has accepted you, so you must accept each other. In that way you will be praising God. Remember this: Christ became a servant of the Jews so that they could understand God's true message. He showed them that God has now done what he promised to their ancestors.[b] The Gentiles also praise God because he has been kind to them. This is written in the Bible:

‘I will tell the Gentiles about you, God.
I will praise you with songs, to show how great you are.’[c]

10 It says also in the Bible:

‘Be very happy, you Gentiles!
Praise God together with his people.’[d]

11 It also says this:

‘Say how great the Lord is, all you Gentiles.
All people, from every country, should say how great he is.’[e]

12 God's prophet Isaiah says this:

‘The root of Jesse will arrive.
He will come to rule the Gentiles.
The Gentiles will trust him to save them.’[f]

13 God is the one who causes us to hope for good things. I pray that God will bless you very much. I pray that he will cause you to be happy and to have peace in your minds. He will do this because you believe in him. As a result, God's Holy Spirit will make you strong with his power, so that you hope even more certainly.

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Footnotes

  1. 15:3 See Psalms 69:9.
  2. 15:8 God had promised to the Jews that he would send his Messiah to save them. Jesus showed them that he himself is God's Messiah. When Jesus lived on the earth, God's promise became true.
  3. 15:9 King David said this in Psalms 18:49.
  4. 15:10 See Deuteronomy 32:43.
  5. 15:11 See Psalms 117:1.
  6. 15:12 See Isaiah 11:10. Jesse was King David's father. See 1 Samuel 16:1. Jesus was born many years after Jesse and David lived on the earth. The ‘root of Jesse’ means that Jesus belonged to Jesse and David's family. See Matthew 1:1-16. But it means also that Jesse and David come from Jesus. Jesus caused them to be alive, as a plant grows up from its root. Jesus is God. He has always been alive in God's home beyond the earth. He made everything and everyone.