📜WEB · Romans 15:13
What does Romans 15:13 mean?
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit."
— Romans 15:13 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Again he says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”
Again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him.”
Again, Isaiah says, “There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope.”
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others.
But I write the more boldly to you in part, as reminding you, because of the grace that was given to me by God,
that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Good News of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Explanation
Romans 15:13 is a benediction—a prayer-blessing—that the apostle Paul offers near the close of his letter to the Roman church. In plain language, Paul is asking God to fill believers so completely with joy and peace that hope overflows from them, and he identifies the Holy Spirit's power as the source that makes this possible. Notice the structure: God is the giver, joy and peace are what fills the believer, "believing" or trusting is the channel through which this happens, and abounding hope is the result, empowered by the Spirit.
Paul wrote this letter around AD 57, near the end of his missionary work in the eastern Mediterranean, to a church he had not personally founded or visited. The Roman congregation was a mixed community of Jewish and Gentile believers who had experienced real tension over matters like dietary laws, holy days, and who truly belonged to God's people (this is the very topic Paul addresses just before this verse, in Romans 14 and 15:1-12). Having spent chapters urging Jewish and Gentile Christians to accept one another as Christ accepted them, Paul closes that section with this prayer, essentially asking God to seal the unity he has been calling for with supernatural joy, peace, and hope. It functions as a capstone to his argument: doctrine and practical exhortation give way to worship and blessing.
Theologically, the verse reveals several important truths. First, Paul calls God "the God of hope," meaning hope is not a human achievement but flows from God's own character and promises. Second, joy and peace are not produced by willp
Compare translations
Go deeper with ScriptureCompanion AI
Ask questions about any verse, follow reading plans, write personal prayers, and track your daily habit — all grounded in verified scripture text.