What is the joy and peace in believing (Romans 15:13)?

In Romans 15:1–13, the apostle Paul urges Christians in Rome to live together in unity. He presents the example of Jesus Christ, who “didn’t live to please himself” (verse 3, NLT). Jesus came to serve and build up others, accepting both Jews and Gentiles into the family of God. Paul closes this section with a gentle benedictory prayer: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (verse 13, ESV).

Paul knows that living in unity will be challenging for these believers, especially considering the long-held contempt between Jews and Gentiles. If they are to please God and submit to His purpose for the body of Christ, they will need supernatural help. Being filled with the Holy Spirit’s power is their only hope of learning to coexist peacefully and joyfully, loving and serving with people of diverse cultural and racial backgrounds.

Joy and peace in believing are fruits of the Holy Spirit (see Galatians 5:22). Joy describes an emotion of great happiness, delight, and pleasure. Peace is the absence of mental stress and anxiety, primarily a result of having a proper recognition of salvation’s worth (see Romans 5:1). The words translated as “in believing” in Romans 15:13 mean to have faith and trust in Jesus as contained in the content of the gospel. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,” renders the New International Version. “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit,” says Romans 15:13 in the New Living Translation.

The Spirit of God has the power to fill us with “joy and peace in believing” and cause us to “abound in hope,” even when, humanly speaking, we have no hope. Before Christ saved us, we lived in the world “without hope” (Ephesians 2:12). But now that we are born again into God’s family, we have “a living hope” (1Peter 1:3; see also Romans 5:2; Hebrews 3:6), the “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27; Philippians 1:21).

Hope is the absolute expectation and belief in the fulfillment of something good. Christian hope is firmly placed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:12–28). Since Jesus rose from the dead, we are spiritually alive in Him (currently) and will be raised (in the future) to live with Him forever (Romans 8:34; 1 Corinthians 15:51–58; Colossians 3:1). Why would we waste time divided and discontent in the church when we will spend all eternity worshiping Christ together in heaven?

One commentator writes of the life of faith: “It is a life bright and beautiful; ‘filled with all joy and peace.’ It is to show . . . Christ present, Christ to come. A sacred while open happiness and a pure internal repose are to be there, born of ‘His presence, in which is fulness of joy,’ and of the sure prospect of His Return, bringing with it ‘pleasures for evermore.’ . . . This joy, this peace, found and maintained ‘in the Lord,’ is to pervade all the contents of the Christian life” (Moule, H., “The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans,” The Expositor’s Bible: Luke to Galatians, ed. Nicoll, W., vol. 5, Expositor’s Bible, 1903, pp. 615–616).

Paul prays for the Romans and all future believers to step back and focus on the bigger picture. Because of our great hope in Jesus, because we have trusted in Him for our salvation, our lives are to be filled to overflowing with joy and peace in believing (Psalm 16:11; Romans 5:1; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 4:7). Paul wrote, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). If we yield to God’s Spirit, He shares all the blessings of joy and peace in believing, and He fills us with hope. Our part is simple—to maintain a relationship of trust in God and to continue believing in Him. We know that His promises are true (Joshua 21:45; Romans 4:20–21; Hebrews 10:23) and that He never fails (Deuteronomy 7:9; Matthew 24:35; John 17:17; Hebrews 13:5).