Paul continues his discussion about the renewed mind by grounding our thinking in the larger narrative of the Bible. We learn that being patient and learning not to use our maturity to injure the conscience of weaker brothers is tied to the truthfulness, faithfulness, and mercy of God.
As he mentioned at the opening of chapter 9, the Jews had the history and promises of God. For millennia, God had been working through them according to His promises. Now, with the coming of Christ, the Gentiles were being welcomed into the family of God. Yet this was not a new plan. As Paul demonstrates from the Scriptures, God had always intended for the nations to glorify Him.
Just as the early Jewish Christians, like Paul himself, patiently admonished and instructed Gentile believers as they were brought into the family of God, we who have matured in Christ should also be patient in instruction and humble in welcoming those who are younger in the faith.
Christ became a servant to the circumcised to confirm the promises of God, and through His mercy the Gentiles have also been brought to glorify God. And so, we follow His example. We welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us, for the glory of God.
Paul reminds us that this hope is not something we produce in ourselves. It is God who fills us with joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may abound in hope. Because Christ is the hope of the weak and the strong, the young and the old, the immature and the mature, the Jew and the Gentile, He is the Hope of all.
-steve