diff --git a/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_sparkSQL.R b/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_sparkSQL.R
index 135c7576e529..c8bb15bd8cab 100644
--- a/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_sparkSQL.R
+++ b/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_sparkSQL.R
@@ -62,6 +62,10 @@ mockLinesComplexType <-
 complexTypeJsonPath <- tempfile(pattern="sparkr-test", fileext=".tmp")
 writeLines(mockLinesComplexType, complexTypeJsonPath)
 
+test_that("calling sparkRSQL.init returns existing SQL context", {
+  expect_equal(sparkRSQL.init(sc), sqlContext)
+})
+
 test_that("infer types and check types", {
   expect_equal(infer_type(1L), "integer")
   expect_equal(infer_type(1.0), "double")
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/api/r/SQLUtils.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/api/r/SQLUtils.scala
index b3f134614c6b..67da7b808bf5 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/api/r/SQLUtils.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/api/r/SQLUtils.scala
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ private[r] object SQLUtils {
   SerDe.registerSqlSerDe((readSqlObject, writeSqlObject))
 
   def createSQLContext(jsc: JavaSparkContext): SQLContext = {
-    new SQLContext(jsc)
+    SQLContext.getOrCreate(jsc.sc)
   }
 
   def getJavaSparkContext(sqlCtx: SQLContext): JavaSparkContext = {