That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us . God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterise us , keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!
Romans 15:5 MSG
Now the God of patience and consolation.—Such, then, should be the temper of the Roman Christians. The Apostle prays that along with the spirit of steadfast endurance God will also give them that spirit of unanimity which proceeds from singleness of aim. There seems, at first sight, to be little or no connection between the God of “patience and consolation” and the being “likeminded.” They are connected, however, through the idea of singleness of purpose. He who is wholly self-dedicated to Christ, and who in the strength of that self-dedication is able to endure persecution, will also have a close bond of union with all who set before themselves the same object.
Consolation. . . .—The same word as “comfort” in the previous verse.
To be likeminded. . . .—To have the same thoughts, feelings, sentiments, hopes, and aims.
According to Christ Jesus.—The conforming to that “spirit of Christ” which it is to be assumed that all who call themselves Christians have put on. Ellicott
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