Romans 15: 1 – 33
Pastor just follow the instructions
1 We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. 3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” 4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. 8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, 9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: “For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, And sing to Your name.” 10 And again he says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!” 11 And again: “Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!” 12 And again, Isaiah says: “There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him the Gentiles shall hope.” 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 14 Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. 15 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, 16 that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. 18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient— 19 in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. 20 And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, 21 but as it is written: “To whom He was not announced, they shall see; And those who have not heard shall understand.” 22 For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. 23 But now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you, 24 whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while. 25 But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. 26 For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. 27 It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. 28 Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. 29 But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. 30 Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, 31 that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you. 33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Today’s topic is, Pastor, just follow the instructions. As you have probably realized these instructions are from our Precious Holy Spirit Who inspired the apostle Paul to reveal to us in the Second letter to Timothy.
2 Timothy 3, “16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 4, “1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
To unfold the command we will ask first, what the "Word" is and second what it means to "preach" it.
Our Great and Holy God keeps things simple. He does not complicate things too hard for us to follow. "Scripture" means simply "writing" or "letter." This means that the Word of God has come to us in a written form. It is now in a book. His word is alive. All we must do is let it out and let it does it owns work.
We are all not that gifted or so special that our Holy God needs us to teach His children what His message to them is.
In 2 Timothy 4:3 we see our Holy Spirit give the reason for preaching the Word: "FOR the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine." The Word to be preached is "sound doctrine."
Now what does this "sound doctrine" refer to? 2 Timothy 1:13 gives us the answer: "Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me." Sound doctrine in 2 Timothy 4:3 refers to a "standard of sound words" transmitted to Timothy by the apostle Paul. "Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me."
Notice two things: the word "standard" or "pattern," and the phrase "from me."
There is a "standard" or a "pattern" of sound teaching. This means that in the early church there was developing a body of fixed doctrine (or teaching) under the care of the apostles that was being faithfully passed on from church to church. That's what "from me" indicates in 1:13. Paul delivered his authoritative "standard" of truth.
To put it most simply and relevantly, this "pattern of sound words" or "sound doctrine" is what came to be recorded in the New Testament. Just as with the Old Testament, we needed to have the apostles' doctrine written down to preserve it from corruption—that is, to keep it "sound," to keep it healthy.
So to "Preach the Word" is, preach the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Know His book. Don’t just select various sermons. Give the full book to His people.
Remember that the book is about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God’s people do not have to hear a grocery list about a human being whom God had a great impact. His children do not need to hear a list of how someone needs to ‘Dare to be a Daniel’ or ‘How to be an overcomer’. The whole bible is His Story. The story of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He Is the One Who deserves all honor and praise.
People need to go away from your church service feeling more in love with Jesus Christ not feeling how short them come up to God’s standards.
In today’s study the verse that leaped at me is verse 4, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
Paul now brings out the underlying lesson, that among believers those who are strong should have consideration for weaker brothers and sisters. They should be pleasing to their brothers and sisters in order that they might ‘at one’ together, and might help to build each other up, in the same way as Christ did not please Himself but bore our reproach. He did not put self-interest first. He could have continued in Heaven and not subjected Himself to the awful hatred of men, but instead He chose to come among us, pleasing not Himself but men by whose standards He lived.
1 We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Paul starts off with the general statement, to be read in the light of the previous chapter, that ‘we who are strong’ ought to have consideration for the ‘powerless’, by ‘bearing their infirmities’, just as Christ ‘bore our infirmities’ (Isaiah 53.4). The phrase Paul uses probably has Isaiah in mind. This will include living among their weaker brothers and sisters in subjection, while among them, to the things that they in their weakness see as necessary for religious living, but it also has wider application. Paul is drawing out a general lesson from the situation. We are to seek to please others rather than ourselves in all things which are matters of relative unimportance to ‘bear their infirmities’.
2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.
The aim behind this is the pleasing of our neighbor in order to achieve ‘the good’. That does not mean putting the pleasing of our neighbor before our pleasing God. The point is that by achieving ‘the good’ we will be pleasing God, for the idea behind the good is of what God sees as good. The good includes the good result of sustaining the weaker brothers and sisters, but probably also includes the final good resulting on the widest scale from obeying what had become Christ’s commandment based on Leviticus 19.10, to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’. By loving one another we sustain one another.
3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”
In so pleasing others for the good of all, we will be following the example of Christ Who also did not please Himself in order that He might achieve the good of others. The citation is from Psalm 69. Such Psalms were regularly seen as Messianic, and thus as referring to Jesus, the greater David. And the main point being drawn from this Psalm is the example of the One Who Was willing to take reproaches on Himself, rather than pleasing Himself, because He was seeking to achieve the good. He thus allowed men’s reproaches of God to fall upon Himself, and it was because He stood firm for what was good. If the Messiah could demonstrate such self-abnegation, then those whom He has made strong should also be willing to do so.
Paul probably had in mind here the reproaches that Christ suffered at the cross as those gathered around railed on Him. They did not realize that they were reproaching God, says Paul, but in fact they were.
The reason that He suffered those reproaches was for our sakes, so that we, the powerless, might be made strong.
In view of the greatness of what the Messiah was willing to suffer for us, how can we possibly complain at having to undergo a few voluntary restrictions on our liberty, for the good of those for whom Christ died.
4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
We should take heed to this because what was written in former time was written in order to teach us how to respond to situations, enabling us to endure patiently and obtain encouragement through the Scriptures as they provide us with confident hope for the future.
5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The source of this patient endurance and encouragement obtained through the Scriptures is in fact God, for He Is the God of patient endurance and encouragement (comfort). And Paul prays that He, as such a God might grant to them to be of the same mind one with another, giving them patient endurance and encouragement, thereby enabling them to bear with each other’s weaknesses and to demonstrate a unity that results from consideration towards one another, ‘in accordance with Christ Jesus’, that is, by following His example and being like Him.
The hoped-for consequence is that they might in full accord and speak as one as they glorify the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ laid great emphasis on the need for such unity. It was to be the wonder of the world as people said, ‘see how these Christians love one another’. It was a result worth making sacrifices for. The aim was so that they would concentrate on what was important, the united worship of God and the bringing home to the world of the glory of God and the glory of Christ.
God’s people as a mixture of Jew and Gentile are to receive one another as the Messiah ‘has received them’. For the Messiah both ministered to the circumcision (the Jews) in order to confirm the promises given to the fathers and has ministered to the Gentiles so that they might find mercy as they partake in God’s promises through Him as the Root of Jesse (verse 12).
7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.
The thought is the same as in 14.3, that Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians might receive each other because God’s Messiah, has received them. And this to the glory of God. This would serve to confirm that in 14.3 Jew/Gentile distinctions were in mind. The change from ‘God’ to ‘the Messiah’ was necessary to connect with what follows where Paul will demonstrate that the Messiah came on behalf of both. It is a continuing plea for essential unity.
8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,
The Messiah has been made a minister of the circumcision (the Jews) in order to establish among them the truth of God, so that He might confirm to those who have accepted that truth, the promises given to the fathers. Thus, the promises are confirmed in that they have been fulfilled with regard to all who responded to the Messiah, that is, to ‘the elect’. This might be confirming that 11.28 also refers only to the elect. The promises had not been overlooked, they were to be fulfilled in the elect. Please note the emphasis on the fact that the Messiah brought ‘the truth of God’. It is only to those in acceptance of that truth that the promises apply (the argument in chapters 9-11).
9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: “For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles and sing to Your name.”
He has also come in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, something which Paul now demonstrates by citing several Scriptures which confirm the acceptance of the Gentiles and lead up to their also benefiting from the Root of Jesse.
The Root of Jesse has produced the holy branches of the true Israel, composed of both Jews and Gentiles, who will now glorify God together. The point being made is rather that the believing Gentiles glorify God and benefit from the Root of Jesse.
The first reference is taken from Psalm 18.49, where David’s own rulership over the Gentiles as ‘the anointed one’, and that of his seed forever (Psalm 18.50), are proclaimed, a rulership which results in him and his successors glorifying God before the Gentiles. Paul thus sees it as indicating that the Gentiles will submit themselves to the Messiah, the Anointed One and seed of David, Who will glorify God to them.
10 And again he says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!”
Here the Scriptures are supplying the voice of God (‘He says’). This testimony is taken from Deuteronomy 32.43. While there is no Messianic connection there it advances the previous theme of the Gentiles glorifying the God of Israel, while including the extra thought that they will do so along with God’s own people. The two are to be united in their praise of God. That is why it was important that Jewish and Gentile Christians showed consideration for each other as described in chapter 14.
11 And again: “Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!”
This truth is taken from Psalm 117.1. The advance in thought here is concerning the universal nature of the praise. All the Gentiles and ‘all the peoples’ are to praise Him indicating the widespread nature of the spread of God’s truth. So what began as praise being brought to the Gentiles through the Messiah, has been expanded to indicate that both Gentile and Jew will praise God together, and has again been expanded to indicate worldwide praise. Thus, what is seen as predicted is the spread of the Gospel through the ministry of the Messiah, first to Gentile nations, then to both Jews and Gentiles, and then to Gentiles worldwide (‘all the peoples’), causing all to glorify God.
12 And again, Isaiah says: “There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him the Gentiles shall hope.”
Isaiah 11.10 emphasizes on the Messiah, the root of Jesse, and the fact that the Gentiles will look to Him. So Paul opens and closes his citations with a reference to the Messiah Who will rule over the Gentiles also, and will be the One in Whom the Gentiles ‘hope’, that is, the One to whom they will look for blessing and eternal life.
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Having described the hope that the Gentiles will have in the Messiah (verse 12), and the confirmation of the promises to ‘the circumcised’ (the Jews - verse 8), Paul now speaks of God as ‘the God of hope’. In verse 5 He was the God of patient endurance and encouragement (comfort), now He Is seen as the God of hope. It is from Him that all His people receive their hope, and it is He Who will, while bringing that hope to completion, fill them with all joy and peace in believing (in the Messiah - verse 12), so that they might abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit. For the feature of being under the Kingly Rule of God is righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (14.17), as we look forward with confident hope to the redemption of our bodies (8.23-24) in the day of final transformation.
Paul sees his own ministry as an extension of the ministry of Christ, the Messiah (verse 16). He has gone out in the Name of the Messiah to minister the Gospel of God to the Gentiles, offering up to God the Gentiles who believe, as they are made acceptable to God through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. And he has done this as the Messiah has wrought through him by word and deed, and by the power of signs and wonders in the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing about the obedience of the Gentiles. The consequence is that the Gospel has been preached in places never reached.
14 Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.
Paul, as he approaches the end of his long letter, approaches the Roman church tactfully as he is about to speak of his own ministry. He knows that to most of them he is unknown, except possibly by reputation, and he recognizes that he cannot speak to them in the same way as he could to a church which he has founded. They did not look to him as their ‘father-figure’. Thus, he assures them that he has a high opinion of them as those who are ‘full of goodness’ and ‘full of knowledge’ and thus able to admonish one another both lovingly and wisely, in accordance with what he has been describing in chapter 14.
His statements are slightly exaggerated as such statements must be if they are not to be bogged down in a thousand qualifications. The word for ‘goodness’ is a rare one and signifies uprightness, kindness, generosity. He sees them as well-meaning and benevolent. When he speaks of them as ‘filled with all knowledge’ he does not, of course, see them all as advanced theologians. Rather he sees them as well taught Christians, soundly based in the fundamentals of the faith. That is why he has felt able to write to them as he has. And it was these two attributes which demonstrated why they were fully capable of admonishing one another so that they did not need his admonishment. Indeed, the list in chapter 16 indicates the quality of their leadership.
15 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, 16 that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Nevertheless, he does see himself as having a right to address and guide them because he considers that he has been appointed as a kind of ministering-priest by God on behalf of the Gentiles, who constituted the majority of those in the church at Rome. Therefore, he feels that he can write to them with a measure of boldness reminding them, of his God-given ministry. For just as when the Messiah came He was a ministering-servant of the circumcision (Mark 10.45), so now he, Paul, was like a ministering-priest of the Messiah Jesus to the Gentiles, fulfilling the prophecies in 15.9-12. For although Jesus had undoubtedly spoken to many Gentiles in the later part of His ministry as he preached in places like Decapolis (Mark 7.24-8.10), His main ministry had been to the Jews. Paul’s main ministry on the other hand, on behalf of the Messiah, was to the Gentiles, for he had been officially confirmed as an Apostle (on behalf of the Messiah) to the Gentiles (Galatians 2.8-9).
Paul likens his ministry to the Gentiles on behalf of the Messiah as ‘ministering like a priest’ the Good News that has come from God, as he has offered up (as an offering to God) the Gentiles, who have been made acceptable to God through the effectiveness of the Good News. And they are an offering which has been ‘sanctified (separated off and made holy to God) by the Holy Spirit’. And of course, because they are an offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit, they are accepted and received by Him (14.3).
It is because we are such an offering to God that we as Christians are to offer ourselves up as living sacrifices to God (12.1). We offer ourselves because we are already an offering made to Him.
Paul thus sees the Temple offerings as having been replaced by the offering to God of all who believe in the Messiah Jesus, in the same way as the Levitical priesthood has been replaced by believers offering their spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2.5; Hebrews 13.15), and the Temple seen as God’s dwelling place has been replaced by the whole body of true believers (1 Corinthians 3.16; 2 Corinthians 6.16).
‘Because of the grace that was given me of God’ is the basis of all that he is saying. He is not boasting of himself but is making clear the ministry that God in His unmerited active favor has bestowed on him, and wrought through him. It was God Who in His grace chose him from his mother’s womb for this task (Galatians 1.15; Acts 9.15-16). And it was that task that he had sought faithfully to fulfil.
17 Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God.
That is why he has something to glory of in the Messiah Jesus (9.1) in things pertaining to God, because his ‘offering up’ of Gentile believers won through his ministry has been successful and widespread, as the Messiah has wrought through him in his ministry (verse 18).
We should note here that Paul is not seeking to exalt himself but is rather seeking to lay down the basis of his authority for writing in the way that he has to the Church at Rome. He is presenting his credentials.
18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient— 19 in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
Paul assures them that he is making no claims apart from what pertains to his own ministry. He is only presenting to them the facts of what the Messiah has wrought through him, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles to the Gospel of Christ. And he then stresses the widespread and full nature of what the Messiah has wrought through him as a Messianic messenger:
. He has wrought through him in word and deed, that is in preaching and behavior, and powerful activity (Luke 24.19).
. He has wrought through him in the power of signs and wonders, which are confirmatory of God’s powerful Messianic activity through him (Acts 2.22, 43; Matthew 11.2-6).
. He has wrought through him in the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12.28).
The outcome of this has been that the Gospel of the Messiah has been fully and effectively preached from Jerusalem and roundabout, even as far as Illyricum. Illyricum was north and north-west of Macedonia and was thus apparently the farthest region that Paul reached.
Paul had not just proclaimed the Messiah, he had ‘Fully preached.’ ensuring that the whole truth about Him was conveyed in an intensive ministry.
He had in mind that it was in Jerusalem that he received official recognition of his ministry from the Apostles (Galatians 1.18; 2.7-9).
‘Signs and wonders’ were a feature of the ministry of the Messiah (Acts 2.22; Matthew 11.2-6)), and of His Apostles in His Name (Acts 4.30; 2.43; 5.12). Paul could describe them as ‘the signs of an Apostle’ (2 Corinthians 12.12).
20 And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation,
Paul declares that his missionary purpose was always to preach the Gospel in places where the Name of Christ had never reached, so that he would not be building on another man’s foundation. This would serve to indicate why his presence in these regions was so essential and explained why he had never had time to visit Rome.
21 but as it is written: “To whom He was not announced, they shall see; And those who have not heard shall understand.”
This missionary purpose was in accordance with Scripture as found in Isaiah 52.15. Here Paul makes clear his identification of the Messiah with the Servant of YHWH Who would suffer and die on behalf of His people. His proclamation of the Gospel had come to those who had not previously received tidings, and to those who had not previously heard, so that they might see and hear.
Paul now confirms the unity of Jewish and Gentile Christians by describing his coming ministry to the church in Jerusalem in providing them with a means of sustenance, as provided by Gentile Christians, at a time of great famine. Those who had been converted under his ministry saw the church as one whole as they sought to pay their debt to the church from which the Gospel had come forth to them (verse 19). The engrafted branches of the olive tree were bringing renewed life to the natural branches.
22 For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you.
It was because of his ministry in places unreached by the Gospel that he had been hindered ‘many times’ from visiting Rome. His responsibility to the churches that he had founded had been too great for him to leave them.
23 But now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you,
But now things were different. He no longer had any place in these regions. This may have been because of the antagonism that his presence now aroused everywhere, especially because he was so hated by zealous or it may have been because he had now handed on this responsibility to his trained assistants. Or indeed it may have been both.
He emphasizes again how much he has longed to meet up with Christians in Rome, many of whom were his friends who had gone there before him. We need not doubt his sincerity in this. As the center of the Empire Rome would necessarily appeal to Paul’s sense of responsibility as the Apostle to the Gentiles.
24 whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.
Paul explains that his next aim is to take the Gospel to Spain, and explains that at that stage he intends to visit Rome, and indeed is hopeful of their assistance in different ways in speeding him on his way once he has spent a good time of fellowship with them. Thus, he links together his ambition to visit Rome with his intention to reach out further into places where Christ has not been named.
25 But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints.
But first he has a ministry to fulfil in Jerusalem, ministering in material things to ‘the saints’ there. That he had determined personally to go there indicates his deep concern for the unity of the whole church. To him this enterprise was a way of uniting the whole church, and possibly of fulfilling Scripture (the treasures of the Gentiles being brought to Jerusalem). In 1.16 the Gospel had been ‘to the Jew first’ as a people whose past had prepared them for the coming of the Messiah. Now he is also ministering to the Jews on behalf of the Gentile churches. The Jews, as represented by the elect, were not forgotten.
26 For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. 27 It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.
He then explains to the Roman Christians about the goodwill gesture of the churches which he has founded, towards the Jerusalem church. Partly at the urging of Paul (1 Corinthians 16.1-2; 2 Corinthians 8.1-3; 9.1-14), they had put together a sizeable sum for the relief of the poor in the Jerusalem church. He was remembering what had been urged on him by the Apostles in Jerusalem years before, ‘to remember the poor’ (Galatians 2.10), and this he sought constantly to do. And the great famine would have made many poor. But he emphasizes also the willingness of the Gentile churches in the venture (it has been their good pleasure), before pointing out that it is also a matter of debt, for the Gentiles having been made partakers in spiritual things as a consequence of the ministry of the Jerusalem church (as the source of the Gospel through which they have benefited, and especially through Paul’s ministry), it was right that they should minister to them in physical things. Macedonia and Achaea are probably mentioned as being at the forefront of, and the greatest contributor towards, the ‘collection’. He did not want to go into a detailed list which might have included Galatia and Ephesus.
Paul’s description of the indebtedness of the Gentile churches to the church at Jerusalem, from which the Gospel had first issued forth, (wholly a moral debt, there was no specific obligation) is a further indication by him to the Romans of the attitude which the majority Gentile Christians among them ought to have towards the Jews, an attitude that he had emphasized in 11.18-25, and in chapter 14. This is all a part of his continual emphasis to the Roman church on what their attitude should be towards Jewish Christians and towards Jews in general. Although necessarily having to draw attention to the way in which the Jews had failed in their responsibility towards the Messiah, he has always wanted them to recognize the debt that they owed to them as the preservers of the Scriptures (3.2) and the source from which the Messiah sprang (9.5), and of their responsibility to now evangelize them (11.23-24).
28 Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain.
He assures them that once he has accomplished this ministry, and has made fully clear to the Jerusalem church both the source of the contribution, and the love that lay behind it, (‘sealed to them this fruit’), he will go on via Rome to Spain.
29 But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
Paul feels that once he has delivered the contribution of the Gentiles to the Jerusalem church and has emphasized the love that the Gentile Christians have for the Jews, hoping thereby to have it reciprocated, he will have experienced ‘the fullness of the blessing of the Messiah’, for it was ever the stress of Jesus that believers be as one (John 17.20-23), and to some extent it was a fulfilment of Scripture where the Gentiles were to contribute towards Jerusalem in material things (Isaiah 60.5-7). And in that fullness of blessing he will come to the Christians in Rome, hoping to find the same unity among them.
30 Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, 31 that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,
This plea, in the context of the whole letter, makes clear that there is no outstanding leading figure in the church at Rome currently. Here he addresses his plea to brothers and sisters simply the church.
He pleads with them ‘by our LORD Jesus Christ and by the love shed abroad in their hearts by the Spirit’ (5.5) that they strive together (the word is a strong one - ‘agonize together’) in their prayers for God to him as he seeks to fulfil his ministry in Jerusalem. Possibly he is aware of evil spiritual forces at work. He is concerned about two things, firstly to be delivered from his antagonists (‘those who are disobedient’ i.e. disobedient to the Messiah) in Judaea, and secondly to present the gift of the Gentile churches to the church in Jerusalem in a way which will be acceptable to them. There were still elements in the Jerusalem church who were suspicious of the liberties offered to the Gentiles. As we know, the former fear would be realized, while his ministry to the saints would on the whole be successful.
32 that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you.
And part of the reason for his prayer is that once those hurdles have been overcome he may be able to come to the Roman Christians with joy through the will of God (which will be determined by whether God answers their prayers), and together with them ‘find rest’. For Paul life had been a constant struggle with the burden of all the churches, and at this current time apprehension as to what might happen at Jerusalem. He hopes to find some relief from this during his stay in Rome, prior to further exertions in Spain. He would in fact find that rest, but in a way totally different from what he expected, when he lived in his own hired house in Rome under guard (Acts 28.30).
33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
He comes to the end of the main part of the letter with a prayer that ‘the God of peace’ will be with them. We can almost see him relaxing into this idea having asked them to pray for his deliverance from the antagonism of the Jews, and for the acceptability to the Jewish church of the gift from mainly Gentile churches. Foreseeing a tough period ahead he hopes eventually to find rest among the Christians in Rome, in the presence of the God of peace.
