Romans 15:13: the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace

1540 · John Calvin, Commentary on Romans 15.13

In saying the God of hope, he had in view the last verse; as though he said, — “May then the God in whom we all hope fill you with joy, that is, with cheerfulness of heart, and also with unity and concord, and this by believing:” for in order that our peace may be approved by God, we must be bound together by real and genuine faith. If any one prefers taking in believing, for, in order to believe, the sense will be, — that they were to cultivate peace for the purpose of believing; for then only are we rightly prepared to believe, when we, being peaceable and unanimous, do willingly embrace what is taught us. It is however preferable, that faith should be connected with peace and joy; for it is the bond of holy and legitimate concord, and the support of godly joy. And though the peace which one has within with God may also be understood, yet the context leads us rather to the former explanation. He further adds, that ye may abound in hope; for in this way also is hope confirmed and increased in us. The words, through the power of the Holy Spirit, intimate that all things are the gifts of the divine bounty: and the word power is intended emphatically to set forth that wonderful energy, by which the Spirit works in us faith, hope, joy, and peace.

1657 · John Owen, Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost 3.4

Rom. xv. 13, “The God of hope fill you with all peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.” The power of the Holy Ghost is not only extended to hope, but to our peace also in believing.

1770 · John Gill, A Body of Practical Divinity Chapter 8. Of the Grace of God

The efficient cause of it is God; hence he is called, “the God of hope” (Rom. 15:13), not only because he is the object of it, but because he is the author of it; even God, Father, Son, and Spirit. It is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who begets men again to a lively hope of a glorious inheritance; and this is owing to the virtue of the resurrection of Christ from the dead (1 Pet. 1:3), and indeed it is the gift both of the Father and of Christ; “now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, who hath given us good hope through grace” (2 Thess. 2:16), and as it is “through the power of the Holy Ghost” that saints “abound in hope,” in the exercise of the grace of hope; it may well be thought that it is by this same power that it is first produced in them (Rom. 15:13).

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Romans 15.13

Now the God of hope - The God who "inspires," or "produces" the Christian hope. All joy and peace - Rom 14:17. If they were filled with this, there would be no strife and contention. In believing - The effect of believing is to produce this joy and peace. That ye may abound ... - That your hope may be steadfast and strong. Through the power ... - By means of the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit. It is by his power alone that the Christian has the hope of eternal life; see Eph 1:13-14; Rom 8:24.

1866 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 12 (1866) 684

There is no hope for you in yourself, but there is hope for you in Him whom God has provided to be the Savior of such as you! Hopelessness in self is what we want to bring you to, but hopelessness in itself, and especially in connection with God, would be a sin from which we would urge you to escape. If you are sitting down in despair, I want to speak to you, first, of the God of Hope. Dear Friend, there is that in God—Father, Son, and Spirit—which may remove your fears so that you need never utter a single doubting word again!

1877 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 23 (1877) 1384

Apostle, in the text, leads us through the Scriptures to God, Himself, who is personally to fill us with joy and peace, by which I understand that He is to become the great Object of our joy! As Israel in the Red Sea triumphed in the Lord, even so do we joy in God by our Lord Jesus Christ. Like David, we say, "Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God, my exceeding joy."

1938 · William R. Newell, Romans Verse-by-Verse 15

Many would stop at Romans 5:1, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” But in this present verse God speaks as the God of hope; and He wants us filled with all joy as well as peace, so as to be abounding in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, if God is the God of hope, looking forward with expectancy and delight to the certain, glorious things of the future, then a dejected, depressed, discouraged saint of His is yielding to a spirit directly contrary to His will, which is, for each of us, that we abound in hope. 2. It is God Himself alone who can fill us with all joy and peace, making us to abound in hope. We cannot transform ourselves!

1680–1681 · Thomas Manton, Works, vol. VII Several Sermons upon the CXIX. Psalm, Sermon XC. Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me

Hope causeth a kind of anticipation and pre-union of our souls with the blessedness expected: as heirs live upon their lands before they have them. And that is the reason why joy is made to be the fruit of hope, though it be proper to fruition and enjoyment: Rom. xii. 12, ‘Rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.’ It refresheth them in their pilgrimage, and affecteth them in some measure as if it were in hand. So Rom. xv. 13, ‘The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.’ While believing, waiting, hoping, while conflicting with difficulties, they carry themselves as if they had already obtained the thing promised; for by eying the promise they are cheered and revived. Hope giveth a foretaste, especially when the comforting Spirit addeth his impression thereunto.

1877 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 23 (1877) 1384

Whatever your joy and peace may be now, you ought to see at once that they are meant to be only a platform from which you are to look for something brighter and better—you are filled with joy and peace that you may abound in hope! Our Apostle rightly adds, "by the power of the Holy Spirit," for I take it that this is partly mentioned by way of caution because there are hopes rising out of inward experience which may turn out to be fallacious and, therefore, we must discriminate between the hope of Nature and the hope of Grace.

1877 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 23 (1877) 1384

Fear is banished, now, for we have looked to the God of Hope and found acceptance in the Beloved. Now, therefore, in the chamber where Fear formerly dwelt, Hope takes up its residence—azure-winged, bright-eyed Hope makes its nest there and sings to us all the day long! The text speaks of an abounding hope and if you consider, for a while, you will see that very much hope must arise to a Christian out of his spiritual joy. If you have once been in the bosom of Jesus and known His joy, your hope will overflow! For instance, you will argue—He has pardoned my sins and made me to rejoice as a forgiven man—will He condemn me, after all? What does the pardon mean if, after all, the transgressions are to be laid upon me and I am to suffer for my sins? The Believer has great joy because God's love is shed abroad in his soul and he argues that if the Lord loves him so intensely now, He will not undergo a change and remove His love.

1877 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 23 (1877) 1384

And now observe the degree of joy and peace which he wishes for them—"that you may be filled"—and that by the God of Hope, Himself! God alone knows our capacity and where the vacuum lies which most needs filling. A man might try to fill us and fail, but God, who made us, knows every corner and cranny of our nature and can pour in joy and peace till every portion of our being is flooded, saturated and overflowed with delight! I like to remember David's words, "The rain, also, fills the pools," for even thus does the Lord pour His Grace upon the thirsty soil of our hearts till it stands in pools! As the sun fills the world with light and enters into all places, even so the God of Hope, by His Presence, lights up every part of our nature with the golden light of joyous peace till there is not a corner left for sadness or foreboding!

1877 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 23 (1877) 1384

God give you the joy of joys, the light of delight, the Heaven of Heaven! Then notice the comprehensiveness of his prayer. "All joy"—that is joy in God the Father's love, joy in God the Son's redeeming blood, joy in God the Holy Spirit's indwelling—joy in the Covenant of Grace, joy in the seal and witness of it, joy in the promises, joy in the decrees, joy in the doctrines, joy in the precepts, joy in everything which comes from God! "All joy." Paul also requests for them all peace—peace with God, peace of conscience, peace with one another, peace, even, with the outside world, as far as peace may be.

1894 · Handley C. G. Moule, The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans (The Expositor's Bible) 31

Like that mysterious ether of which the natural philosopher tells us, this joy, this peace, found and maintained "in the Lord," is to pervade all the contents of the Christian life, its moving masses of duty or trial, its interspaces of rest or silence; not always demonstrative but always underlying, and always a living power. It is a life of faith; "all joy and peace in your believing." That is to say, it is a life dependent for its all upon a Person and His promises.

1909 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans 15.13

Lastly, note the hope which springs from this experience of joy and peace. ‘The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope.’ Here, again, the Apostle does not trouble himself to define the object of the hope. In this, as in the former clause, his attention is fixed upon the emotion, not upon that towards which it goes out.

1909 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans 15.4-13

There is a river in Switzerland fed by two uniting streams, bearing the same name, one of them called the ‘white,’ one of them the ‘grey,’ or dark. One comes down from the glaciers, and bears half-melted snow in its white ripple; the other flows through a lovely valley, and is discoloured by its earth. They unite in one common current. So in these two verses we have two streams, a white and a black, and they both blend together and flow out into a common hope. In the former of them we have the dark stream—‘through patience and comfort,’ which implies affliction and effort. The issue and outcome of all difficulty, trial, sorrow, ought to be hope. And in the other verse we have the other valley, down which the light stream comes: ‘The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope.’ So both halves of the possible human experience are meant to end in the same blessed result; and whether you go round on the one side of the sphere of human life, or whether you take the other hemisphere, you come to the same point, if you have travelled with God’s hand in yours, and with Him for your Guide.

1909 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans 15.13

And one more word about this first part of my text: the result of that direct action is complete—‘the God of hope fill you’ with no shrunken stream, no painful trickle out of a narrow rift in the rock, but a great exuberance which will pass into a man’s nature in the measure of his capacity, which is the measure of his trust and desire. There are two limits to God’s gifts to men: the one is the limitless limit of God’s infinitude, the other is the working limit—our capacity—and that capacity is precisely measured, as the capacity of some built-in vessel might be measured by a little gauge on the outside, by our faith. ‘The God of hope’ fills you in ‘believing,’ and ‘according to thy faith shall it be unto thee.’ II. Notice the joy and peace which come from the direct action of the God of hope on the believer’s soul. Now, it is not only towards God that we exercise trust, but wherever it is exercised, to some extent, and in the measure in which the object on which it rests is discovered by experience to be worthy, it produces precisely these results. Whoever trusts is at peace, just as much as he trusts.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Romans 15.4

Might have hope - Note, Rom 5:4. We may learn here, (1) That afflictions may prove to be a great blessing. (2) that their proper tendency is to produce "hope." (3) that the way to find support in afflictions is to go to the Bible. By the example of the ancient saints, by the expression of their confidence in God, by their patience, "we" may learn to suffer, and may not only be "instructed," but may find "comfort" in all our trials; see the example of Paul himself in 2Co 1:2-11.

1894 · Handley C. G. Moule, The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans (The Expositor's Bible) 31

And again it, the Scripture, says, (Deut. xxxii. 43), "Be jubilant, Nations, with His people." And again (Psal. cxvii. 1), "Praise the Lord, all the Nations, and let all the peoples praise Him again" (ἐπαινεσάτωσαν). And again Isaiah says (xi. 10), "There shall come (literally, "shall be") the Root of Jesse, and He who rises up—"rises," in the present tense of the divine decree—to rule (the) Nations; on Him (the) Nations shall hope;" with the hope which is in fact faith, looking from the sure present to the promised future. Now may the God of that hope, τῆς ἐλπίδος, "the Hope" just cited from the Prophet, the expectation of all blessing, up to its crown and flower in glory, on the basis of Messiah's work, fill you with all joy and peace in your (τῷ) believing, so that you may overflow in that (τῇ) hope, in the Holy Spirit's power; "in His power," clasped as it were within His divine embrace, and thus energized to look upward, heavenward, away from embittering and dividing temptations to the unifying as well as beatifying prospect of your Lord's Return.

1894 · Handley C. G. Moule, The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans (The Expositor's Bible) 31

For all the things fore-written, written in the Scriptures of the elder time, in the age that both preceded the Gospel and prepared for it, for our instruction were written—with an emphasis upon "our"—that through the patience and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might hold our (τὴν) hope, the hope "sure and steadfast" of glorification in the glory of our conquering Lord. That is to say, the true "Author behind the authors" of that mysterious Book watched, guided, effected its construction, from end to end, with the purpose full in His view of instructing for all time the developed Church of Christ. And in particular, He adjusted thus the Old Testament records and precepts of "patience," the patience which "suffers and is strong," suffers and goes forward, and of "encouragement," παράκλησις, the word which is more than "consolation," while it includes it; for it means the voice of positive and enlivening appeal.

1901 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 47 (1901) 2753

Lastly, this is a hope such as the Scriptures always produce in those who believe them, obey them and follow them. O Brothers and Sisters, if you are patiently fighting the battles of the Lord, determined that nothing shall turn you aside from following the great Captain of your salvation—if you are resting in the precious blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit has worked in you this determination that come what may, you will never turn aside from the King's highway of holiness—then I know that you will delight in and seek after all the comforts that are stored up for you in the Inspired Word of God! You will prize your Lord's promises, you will observe your Lord's ordinances and, above all, you will esteem and love your blessed Lord, Himself, who is "the Consolation of Israel." You will honor the Divine Spirit, who is the Comforter, who brings the comfort of which our text speaks. And when you have thus realized the patience and the comfort of the Scriptures, oh, what a hope you will have!