Loving Your Brothers
and Sisters in Christ
part 5

Loving Brothers and Sisters in Christ part 5

Romans 15:13 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.

Colossians 4:12 12 Epaphras, who is one of your number, a slave of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings, always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand [e]complete and fully assured in all the will of God.

We are concluding today one part of our series of messages. We are concluding our look at one way that brothers and sisters in Christ are to love each other; by praying for each other. And I began this part of the larger series on love by pointing out that we pray for each other, but that our prayers are most often about things in this physical world. We will prayer for each other about physical healing, or physical needs, or momentary physical problems. But Scripture teaches us to go deeper in our prayers.

Imagine visiting a hospital where every doctor treated only symptoms. A patient arrives with crushing chest pain, and the doctor simply gives him aspirin for the pain. Another has a high fever, so the doctor hands him a cold towel. Another is dehydrated, so someone fans him to make him feel cooler. Everyone feels better for a few minutes, but no one gets well because no one addresses the real problem.

That's often how we pray. We spend almost all our time asking God to relieve the symptoms of life—heal this illness, fix this financial problem, solve this conflict. Those are good things to pray for. But Scripture repeatedly shows us that God's greater concern is the condition of the heart. He wants holiness more than comfort, Christlikeness more than convenience, eternal maturity more than temporary relief. That's why the apostles so often prayed for the inner man rather than merely the outer circumstances.

And this series has taught us is that Scripture instructs us to pray for each other about far more than these simple things. We are to pray for Victory Over Sin and Spiritual Temptation, for Spiritual Wisdom and Knowledge, for Spiritual Strength and Endurance, Growth in Love, for Faith and Spiritual Maturity, for Fruitfulness in Ministry and Good Works, and last week we prayed for Unity Among Believers, for Protection from Evil and False Teaching, and for Boldness in Witnessing for each other.

There is so much more than physical things to pray for. And really the things that we should be praying for are the things that will endure into eternity. We are to be praying for the inner man more than the outer man.

So today we are going to finish this list of things to pray for fellow believers with numbers eleven, twelve, and thirteen; We are to pray for joy, peace, and hope, we are to pray for our brothers and sisters sanctification, and we are to pray for their perseverance unto the coming of Christ. And I think it is fitting that we conclude with these three, because these three call for prayers for God to take us to the finish line. They are not just about making it day by day, they are about God empowering and sustaining us unto the day that we meet our Lord.

Opening prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the privilege of calling You our Father and for making us one family through the blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ. As we open Your Word today, teach us to love one another more deeply by praying for one another as You desire. Forgive us for the times our prayers have focused only on the temporary things of this life while neglecting the eternal work You are doing in our hearts. Give us eyes to see what matters most to You, and fill us with a greater desire to pray for the spiritual growth, holiness, joy, peace, hope, and perseverance of our brothers and sisters in Christ. May Your Holy Spirit use Your Word today to transform not only the way we pray, but also the way we love one another, so that we may become more like Christ and bring glory to Your name. We ask these things in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Let’s begin with…

11. Prayer for Joy, Peace, and Hope

I mentioned in one of the previous sermons that a very effective way to pray for each other is to take prayers that Paul, or others have prayed, and use their words to pray for each other. And that is really how I can up with this list of what we should pray for each other. I looked for passages where Paul, or others, prayed for something for a person or church.

For example in

Romans 15:13 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We know that Paul is praying this for the Christians in the church in Rome. How do we know it is a prayer? Because of that first phrase; “Now may the God of hope fill you…” This is a benediction to his letter, expressing the blessing that he desires God to convey on the Roman believers.

And we can pray that prayer for ourselves, or for our brothers or sisters. It would go something like this;

Lord, as I bring before you brother or sister Jones today, I pray that You, the God of hope would fill them with all joy and peace in believing, and that their joy and peace will cause them to abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, that is a remarkable and rich prayer. You are praying for joy, peace, and hope for someone. That is a far richer blessing than, “protect sister Jones from hurting.” But let’s break it down a little further into “the substance of inner blessings,” “the source of inner blessings,” and “the supply of inner blessings.”

What is the substance of these inner blessings? In other words, what does it mean to pray for joy, peace and hope?

Joy is the deep, abiding gladness that Sister Eleanor feels because she knows Christ and trusts God's promises, even as she endures the pain and uncertainty of her battle with cancer. Her body may grow weaker, and some days may be filled with difficult treatments and discouraging news, but her joy remains because it is not rooted in her circumstances—it is rooted in her Savior. Peace is the settled confidence and inner tranquility that Brother James experiences after losing his job. Though he does not yet know how all the bills will be paid, he rests in the assurance that he has been reconciled to God through Christ and that his heavenly Father will never forsake him. Instead of being consumed by fear and anxiety, he entrusts his future to the Lord's sovereign care. Hope is the confident expectation that young Sarah clings to as she stands beside the grave of her believing husband. Her heart aches with grief, but she does not grieve as one who has no hope, because she knows that Christ has conquered death and has promised the resurrection of all who belong to Him. She looks beyond the sorrow of today to the glorious day when every promise of God will be fulfilled, every tear will be wiped away, and she will see her Savior face to face. These are not merely positive emotions or optimistic attitudes. They are supernatural graces that God gives to His children through faith, that the Holy Spirit continually strengthens within us, and that become evident in the lives of believers who keep trusting Christ no matter what they face.

That is the substance of the inner blessings, but what is the source of those inner blessings?

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

You are praying for your brother or sister to have that kind of inner tranquility that comes from “the God of hope,” by the “power of the Spirit.” You are not praying for them to just have a positive attitude. You are not saying, “Lord, help them look on the bright side.” Let’s be honest, the dark side can easily overwhelm the bright side in many circumstances. No, you are praying for a supernatural infusion of joy, peace, and hope. Hope, joy, and peace from on high. That’s the source of these inner blessings. And what is the supply of the inner blessings that you are asking for?

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is such an audacious prayer. Paul is not asking God, “Lord, you know those Romans. They are dealing with persecution right there in the capital city of the empire. Lord, most of your people are slaves living under cruel and frightening circumstances. Lord, their bodies are weak and frail, Lord please just give them a little joy, a little peace, and a little hope. Not much Lord, just help them get through today.”

No, that is not his prayer for them. He says, “Lord, you are the God of hope, I pray you will fill your people up with all joy and peace so they can have an over abundance of hope. Let your joy, peace, and hope completely captivate every part of their inner being.” “Lord, that is my prayer for them.”

And that is what I pray for you.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for being the source of our joy, peace, and hope. I pray that You would fill my brothers and sisters with the joy that comes from knowing Christ. Grant them Your peace in the midst of every trial, and remind them of the unchanging promises found in Your Word.

Comfort them in times of sorrow and strengthen their faith to trust You in every circumstance. May their confident hope in You be a testimony to those around them.

Fill them with all joy and peace in believing, so that they abound in hope through the power of Your Holy Spirit. And give us a supply of your joy, peace and hope that will carry us all the way to the end of our days.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

What else do we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ that brings us as complete Christians into the presence of Christ.

12. Pray for Their Sanctification

We don’t just pray for inner peace, joy, and hope for our fellow Christians. We pray for their sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says

In 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, Paul concludes his letter with a heartfelt prayer for the believers' complete sanctification, asking God to make them holy in every aspect of their lives.

And this is important for us to remember when we pray for others. We often pray for the circumstances of others lives. We want their pain to be relieved, we want the disease to be gone, the bills to be paid, the fighting to be over.

But we just discovered another kind of prayer, the prayer for inner joy, peace, and hope. This is a prayer “in spite of” circumstances. We are praying that “in spite of” the pain, the disease, the bills, and the fighting, that our brothers and sisters may have inner joy, peace, and hope. And that is a more complete prayer.

But even that kind of prayer is not completely complete.

I was thinking about how we pray for people. We may have a fellow Christian who is destitute. They have nothing. No job, no home, no food. They are living hand to mouth. And our first prayer for them is that God will provide for their needs right? Get them food, clothing and shelter Lord.

But then our second prayer, what is it? For them to have inner joy, peace, and hope. Help them to see beyond this life, and live in their eternal spiritual reality.

But that is still not a complete prayer for others. In 1st Thessalonians 5:23 Paul prays for the believers in Thessalonica, for their complete sanctification. And again, the verse spells out “the substance of sanctification,” “the supply of sanctification,” and the source of sanctification.”

Let’s start with the easy one, “the source of sanctification.”

Just like with joy, peace, and hope. God is the source for your sanctification. If you didn’t already know this, God is at work in every believers life, to make them holy.

Ephesians 5:25–27

"...Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her... that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle... but that she would be holy and blameless."

Romans 8:28–29

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good... For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son."

And He is the source of the power for making us holy. Now let’s go to the second easiest point, “the supply of your sanctification.”

How much sanctification will God accomplish in me during my lifetime? All of it. Paul is praying that God will sanctify you entirely and then verse 24 says that “He will do it.”

Think about this my friends, God is going to make you complete, and without blame. He is working on you to make you perfect by the end of your life.

Now, I think sometimes we like to think of that as “in the sweet by and by” language. We like to think, “well, I’ll be made perfect in that split second when I die, and pass from this life to the next. Or I’ll be made perfect when Jesus returns, and I and caught up to Him in the Rapture.” But up until then, I live as I please. I am content with my flaws, and God is okay with them too.

No, my friends, He is working on you to get you there during your entire life. Complete sanctification. That is the supply of your sanctification.

But what is the substance of your sanctification?

What does my sanctification look like?

He is working to sanctify you in spirit, soul, and body. What is that? Well, this is an interesting way of describing the nature of humanness. In Paul’s day, there were a number of philosophical groups in the Greco-Roman world. Two of those groups were the Platonists and the Pythagoreans. And these words that Paul uses to describe the nature of humanness come from them. They believed that humans were comprised of three parts; the body, the soul, and the spirit.

For them, as with us, the body of a person is just this physical part. We each have a body; hands, feet, eyes, ears, heart, lungs etc. In this we are like the animals. But, in addition to the body, they believed that humans and animals also had a soul, or life.

Here they were talking about the affections of the body. These are the sensations of the body. You have physical eyes, that’s the body, but the soul or life of the eye is in the sensation of seeing. Your brain registers that you have seen something. The ear is part of the body, but the life of the ear is in what you have heard. The Platonist and Pythagoreans taught that we have this in common with animals as well. We both have physical bodies, and we both have sensory experiences.

But then, they also taught that humankind has a spirit. This is different than the animals. At death, the body dies, and the sensory experiences die, but the spirit is immortal and lives on.

The Hebrews had similar view. Remember in Genesis 2:7 when God created man it says

7 Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground (that the body of man) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; (that’s the soul of man) and so the man became a living [a]being. (that’s the spirit)

So why am I telling you all of this? Because Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica,

23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is praying that the entire person; body, soul, and spirit be sanctified. Every part of you from this physical body, to the sensory experiences of this physical body, to the eternal spirit that will survive death.

When we pray for complete sanctification, we are praying that every part of us, and our brethren be without blame either at our death, or at Jesus’ return.

1 Corinthians 9:27: "But I discipline my body and make it my slave,

Romans 6:12–13

"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." (NASB)

Romans 6:19

"...just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification."

We pray for complete sanctification, so let’s pray.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for calling us to be holy as You are holy. I pray that You would continue Your work of sanctification in my brothers and sisters. Shape their character to reflect the likeness of Christ, and give them hearts that delight in obeying Your Word.

Transform them daily through the truth of Scripture. Strengthen them to resist temptation, pursue holiness, and live lives that honor You in every thought, word, and deed.

Sanctify them in the truth and conform them more and more to the image of Christ. May their lives bring glory to Your name.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

The last prayer for brothers and sisters in Christ to be taken to the end is the

13. Prayer for Perseverance Until Christ's Return

We already saw that prayer in the passage we just read

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But I want to close with this second passage.

In Colossians 4, Paul is concluding his letter to the church in Colossae, and he includes a section of greetings. They are greetings from Paul to specific people in the church.

15 Greet the brothers who are in Laodicea and also [g]Nympha and the church that is in [h]her house. 

And there are also greetings that Paul is conveying from people they know.

10 Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings; and also Mark, the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you received [d]instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him); 11 and also Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, and they have proved to be a comfort to me.

Then in verse 12 he conveys a greeting from someone else they know.

12 Epaphras, who is one of your number, a slave of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings,

And with that greeting, he tells them that Epaphras is constantly praying for them. And what he is praying for the believers in Colossae is instructive to us, as to what we should be praying for each other.

12 Epaphras, who is one of your number, a slave of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings, always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand [e]complete and fully assured in all the will of God.

"That you may stand complete..."

The phrase "stand complete" describes believers who have reached spiritual maturity and remain steadfast in their faith. The commentators on BibleHub note that the word complete (or perfect, teleios) does not refer to sinless perfection, but to being full-grown, mature, and fully developed in Christian character. It pictures believers who are firmly established in the truth, no longer spiritual infants tossed about by false teaching or shaken by trials. Epaphras prayed that the Colossians would become stable, mature Christians whose lives consistently reflected Christ, standing firm because they were rooted in sound doctrine and growing in obedience to God.

"...and fully assured..."

The expression "fully assured" speaks of complete confidence and settled conviction. Rather than living with uncertainty or wavering between truth and error, Epaphras desired that the believers would possess a deep assurance concerning God's truth and God's purposes. As several BibleHub commentators explain, this assurance is not self-confidence but confidence produced by knowing God's revealed Word and trusting His promises. It is the kind of conviction that enables believers to stand courageously, resist false teaching, and obey God without hesitation because they are fully persuaded that His way is true and best.

"...in all the will of God."

The phrase "in all the will of God" refers to embracing the whole of God's revealed will—both what He teaches us to believe and how He calls us to live. BibleHub commentators emphasize that Epaphras was not praying merely that the Colossians would discover God's specific plan for individual decisions, but that every area of their lives would be brought into submission to everything God desires. His prayer was that they would be filled with God's truth, shaped by His commands, and obedient in every aspect of life, leaving no part of their hearts or conduct outside the authority of God's will.

"When Epaphras prayed that the Colossians would 'stand complete and fully assured in all the will of God,' he was praying for far more than simply knowing what God wanted them to do. He was asking God to bring them to spiritual maturity so that they would stand firm in their faith, fully developed in Christian character, and completely convinced of the truth of God's Word. He wanted them to be so grounded in God's revealed will that they would not be shaken by false teaching, trials, or temptation, but would confidently obey God's will with unwavering faith. This is the goal of sanctification—to become spiritually mature believers who know God's will, trust God's will, and faithfully live out God's will."

We pray for perseverance to the end. So that is how we conclude this message with this prayer for you.

What to Pray

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for Your promise to sustain those who belong to You. I pray that You would strengthen my brothers and sisters to remain faithful through every trial and temptation. Guard them from falling away, and help them to stand firm in their faith with steadfast hope.

Keep their hearts fixed on Christ as they eagerly await His return. Give them endurance to finish the race well, trusting in Your power to keep them until the end.

Keep them faithful and blameless until the day of Christ. May they persevere with confidence, bringing glory to You in all they do.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Loving Your Brothers and Sisters in Christ part 5

Loving Your Brothers
and Sisters in Christ
part 5