Paul is winding up his letter to the Romans.

Last week we saw how Paul was summing up his encouragement to the church to learn to get along with each other and to accept one another. As we saw last week, we are to follow Jesus’ example. Since He received us, we ought to receive one another. Paul then goes on to talk about how Jesus has received us. All of us. Not just Jews, but even dirty, pagan Gentiles.

minister – diakonos – one who executes the commands of another, esp. of a master, a servant, attendant, minister

circumcision – peritome – circumcised; the act or rite of circumcision, "they of the circumcision" is a term used of the Jews

to confirm – bebaioo – to make firm, establish, confirm, make sure

promises – epaggelia – announcement; promise

(Rom 15:8 NLT) Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises he made to their ancestors.

Jesus came to the Jews to fulfill the prophecies concerning Him.

Gentiles – ethnos – a multitude (whether of men or of beasts) associated or living together; a tribe, nation, people group; Paul uses the term for Gentile Christians

to glorify – doxazo – to think, suppose, be of opinion; to praise, extol, magnify, celebrate; to honour, do honour to, hold in honour; to make glorious, adorn with lustre, clothe with splendour

mercy – eleos – mercy: kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them

confess – exomologeo – to confess; to profess; acknowledge openly and joyfully; to one's honour: to celebrate, give praise to

sing – psallo – to pluck off, pull out; to cause to vibrate by touching, to twang; to touch or strike the chord, to twang the strings of a musical instrument so that they gently vibrate; to play on a stringed instrument, to play, the harp, etc.; to sing to the music of the harp; in the NT to sing a hymn, to celebrate the praises of God in song

Jesus came also for the Gentiles, so that we Gentiles might give glory to God for His mercy, to save a people that did not belong to Him.

Paul quotes,

Rejoice – euphraino – to gladden, make joyful; to be glad, to be merry, to rejoice; to rejoice in, be delighted with a thing. From the words "well" + "mind".

Paul quotes from,

Praise – aineo – to praise, extol, to sing praises in honour to God

laud – epaineo – to approve, to praise

Paul quotes from,

trust – elpizo – to hope; in a religious sense, to wait for salvation with joy and full confidence; hopefully to trust in. A better translation: "In Him shall the Gentiles hope".

Paul quotes lastly from,

The point in quoting these verses is to show that it was always God’s intention that the Gentiles also be included in salvation. There are some theologians, even today, who claim that the idea of Gentiles becoming saved was totally Paul’s idea. They say that it was Paul that made up the idea that Gentiles could be saved. Wrong. It was God’s idea all along.

hope – elpis – expectation of evil, fear; expectation of good, hope. This is the noun form of the verb used in verse 12.

fill – pleroo – to make full, to fill up, i.e. to fill to the full; to cause to abound, to furnish or supply liberally; to render full, i.e. to complete; to fill to the top: so that nothing shall be wanting to full measure, fill to the brim

joy – chara – joy, gladness

peace – eirene – a state of national tranquillity; peace between individuals, i.e. harmony, concord; of Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is

believing – pisteuo – to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in

may abound – perisseuo – to exceed a fixed number of measure, to be left over and above a certain number or measure; to abound, overflow; to be abundantly furnished with, to have in abundance, abound in (a thing), to be in affluence; "Abounding" is used of a flower going from a bud to full bloom.

power – dunamis – strength, power, ability. This is what Jesus promised would be given to us when the Holy Spirit comes upon us:

Our God is the God of hope. There is no hope apart from Him. Paul prays that this God of hope might fill the Christians with joy and peace in their relationship of trusting Him. The result of God filling us with joy and peace is that the Holy Spirit enables us to overflow with hope.

persuaded – peitho – persuad; to be persuaded, to suffer one's self to be persuaded; to be induced to believe: to have faith: in a thing; to trust, have confidence, be confident

full of – mestos – full; in reference to persons, whose minds are as it were filled with thoughts and emotions, either good or bad

goodness – agathosune – uprightness of heart and life, goodness, kindness

I think we sometimes can tend to look at others and question what they’re filled with. Paul was persuaded that they were filled with goodness.

filled with – pleroo – to make full, to fill up, i.e. to fill to the full; to cause to abound, to furnish or supply liberally; to render full, i.e. to complete

knowledge – gnosis – knowledge signifies in general intelligence, understanding

able – dunamai – to be able, have power whether by virtue of one's own ability and resources, or of a state of mind, or through favourable circumstances, or by permission of law or custom; to be able to do something; to be capable, strong and powerful

to admonish – noutheteo – to admonish, warn, exhort, literally, "to put in mind". It’s a word that can describe much of what we would call "counseling".