In Greek these two verses are one sentence and form a doxology. The introductory expression may God is often restructured as an expression of prayer—for example, “I pray to God,” followed by direct discourse, or “I pray that God,” followed by indirect discourse.
Paul’s literal expression “the God of patience and encouragement” means God, the source of patience and encouragement (New English Bible “God, the source of all fortitude and all encouragement”). An American Translation* translates this as “God, from whom steadfastness and encouragement come.” The source of patience and encouragement is best treated as a causative: “God who causes us to be patient and who causes us to have courage.” Note that in verse 4 the Scriptures have already been cited as fulfilling the function of causing patience and courage, but there is no real contradiction here, since it is God who is ultimately responsible for causing believers to be patient and to have courage.
“To think the same thing among one another” is taken by the Good News Translation to mean to have the same point of view among yourselves; other translations take this in the sense of “enable you to live in perfect harmony with one another” (New American Bible). It is true that the purpose of this exhortation is to encourage the Christians to live in harmony with one another, but that seems to be understood best as the result of having the same point of view among themselves.
May God … enable you to have the same point of view among yourselves may likewise be expressed as a causative: “May God cause you to think the same thing” or “May God cause you to agree among yourselves.” It may be more appropriate in some languages to speak of “living together peacefully” as the result of such agreement.
By following the example of Christ Jesus (An American Translation* “in following the example of Christ Jesus”; New English Bible “after the manner of Christ Jesus”) is literally “according to Christ Jesus.” By following the example of Christ Jesus is an expression of means, but it is often indicated in languages as cause: “because you follow the example of Christ Jesus.” The expression following the example may be rendered as “to do as Christ Jesus did” or “to imitate Christ Jesus.”
All of you together translates one word in Greek, which originally meant something like “with one mind” or “of one accord.” This word is used frequently in Acts (1.14; 2.46; 4.24; 7.57; 8.6; 12.20; 15.25; 18.12; 19.29), and it seems quite likely that by New Testament times it had become weakened to mean simply “together.”
After the expression all of you together it may be not only superfluous but misleading to translate with one voice (Greek “with one mouth”), since if one says “so that all of you together may praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” that is certainly equivalent to “speaking as with one voice.” In some languages one can say “may praise as if with one voice.”
In a number of languages one cannot speak of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The use of and in such a phrase would suggest that there were two individuals, not one. Therefore, one must translate “God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” or “God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (a construction with apposition). It is possible to interpret this expression in the Greek text as “both the God of our Lord Jesus Christ” or “God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .