“15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation.”
Christians are called to be a people who are not afraid to empathize with, and act in service to, people who are broken and hurting. Paul doesn’t qualify what it takes to get help from a Christian, just that Christians ought to come alongside those who are weeping and weep with them. Job gives an example of how he, a righteous man, would serve others in this way, yet when poverty and destruction came upon him, there was no one to weep with him.
“Yet no one would stretch out his hand against a ruined person when he cries out to him for help because of his distress. Have I not wept for those who have fallen on hard times? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?” — Job 30:24-25
The same should be true of Christians when we are with those who are rejoicing. Jesus’ parable of the woman who swept her house looking for a lost coin, finds it, and rejoices by celebrating with her community comes to mind.
“‘Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the silver coin I lost!’” — Luke 15:8-9
The predominant theme in this parable is that Christians ought to rejoice over each soul that is saved by Christ Jesus through the gospel. Christians should be a people who are quick to rejoice in this way.
Paul often ends his letters to the churches with a call to unity and harmony. While he’s addressing how Christian’s are to live in service to one another, he brings it up here in verse 16. “Live in harmony with one another…” (v. 16) Along with his call to remain unified, he reminds his Roman readers to be humble. Remember Paul’s warning to the Gentiles back in chapter 11, that they ought not think more highly of themselves over the Jews?
“I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” — Romans 11:25
It might appear that God is favoring the Gentiles and has rejected His people, the Jews. Paul reminds us that this is only for a short time, “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” (Romans 11:25) Not only that, but the Gentiles have no way by which to save themselves. It is by grace, through faith that they are saved.
Paul has called for unity and humility to prevail at the church in Rome a number of times in this letter, and he will continue to do so. Probably the ethnic and cultural differences between the Jews and Gentiles in the Roman churches contributed to the potential for conflict. Christians reading this in the twenty-first century, though, should not write this off as a warning only for the Romans. Unity in the church is of utmost importance. It is our love for one another, our service to each other, our willingness to sacrifice our own desires, and our willingness to forgive others that shows the world how we are different. The church is on display for the world to see, and it ought to be a city on a hill that shows the world the love of Christ Jesus. We cannot do this well when there is no unity between believers. We are called to love each other with the same self-sacrificial love with which Christ loved us.