A. Personal narrative (15:14–33)
Epilogue (15:14–16:27)
A. Personal narrative (15:14–33)
Paul assures the Roman Christians that the teaching in his letter has not been given because he imagined they were incapable of teaching one another. He is well aware of their moral and intellectual quality and what he has written is more by way of a reminder of what they already know than by way of instruction in the elements of Christianity. Moreover, although he is not the founder of their church, he is the apostle to the Gentiles, and it is in that capacity that he has written to them. He views his apostleship as a priestly service and his Gentile converts as the acceptable offering which he presents to God.
For over twenty years now Paul had exercised his apostleship, and although his task was not yet complete, he had no reason, as he looked back over those years, to be dissatisfied with the work that Christ had accomplished through him. From Jerusalem to Illyricum he had preached the gospel: in the principal cities along the main roads of Galatia, Asia, Macedonia and Achaia there were communities of believers in Christ to bear witness to Paul’s apostolic activity. His aim had been throughout to preach the gospel where it had not been preached before; and now that he had finished his work in the east he looked to the west and proposed to evangelize Spain. His journey to Spain would afford him an opportunity to realize his long-cherished desire of seeing Rome, and he looked forward to meeting the Christians in the capital and being refreshed by their fellowship.1
First, however, he had to pay a visit to Jerusalem. The collection for the Jerusalem church which, for the past two years or so, he had been organizing in his Gentile churches was now ready to be handed over to its recipients, and Paul proposed to accompany the delegates appointed by the churches to deliver their gifts. His presence in the holy city would be for him the occasion to render an account of his stewardship thus far to the Lord who had commissioned him.
Only when his Aegean ministry had been thus ‘sealed’ would he take his journey to Spain and visit Rome on the way. He has already told the Romans of his eager desire to preach the gospel in their city and see some fruit for his apostolic work there, and now he speaks of his confidence that his visit to them will be attended by great blessing on his preaching. For the present, he asks for their prayers. He was under no illusion about the trouble which he might have to face in Jerusalem. How much he needed their prayers that he might be ‘delivered from the unbelievers in Judaea’ (verse 31) is clear from the narrative of Acts 21:27ff. He may even have had misgivings about the welcome which he and his Gentile companions might receive from the Jerusalem church, and the way in which their gift would be accepted (if indeed it was accepted at all); at any rate he asks the Romans to pray that the gift might be acceptable.
Here the narrative of Acts (21:17–25) makes it plain—the more so because we are dealing with a ‘we’ section—that Paul and the Gentile delegates did meet with a welcome when they visited James and his fellow-elders. But it is equally plain that James and his fellow-elders were anxious about the reaction of the ordinary members of their church—some thousands strong, and zealots for the law—in view of reports that had reached them about Paul’s teaching and practice in the lands of the Dispersion. In their anxiety to appease those zealots they suggested to Paul a course of action which, as it turned out, led to his arrest and imprisonment, and to his eventual coming to Rome in circumstances quite different from those he envisaged when he sent this letter.2
14. Able to instruct one another. As evidently they were doing, unlike the recipients of the letter to the Hebrews, who had to be told, ‘by this time you ought to be teachers’, whereas in fact they needed to be taught the rudiments of the gospel all over again (Heb. 5:12).
15. On some points I have written to you very boldly. ‘Very boldly’, since the Roman church was not of his planting and he did not feel able to address it with the freedom which he used in writing (say) to the church of Corinth.
The grace given me by God. Cf. 1:5; 12:3.
16. To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable. These clauses are full of the language of worship: Paul is a ministrant (leitourgos);3 his proclamation of the gospel is a ‘priestly service’ (hierourgeō); his Gentile converts are the offering which he presents to God.
Sanctified by the Holy Spirit. There were some, no doubt, who maintained that Paul’s Gentile converts were ‘unclean’, because they were not circumcised. To such cavillers Paul’s reply is that his converts are ‘clean’, having been sanctified by the Holy Spirit who has come to dwell within them (cf. verse 19, ‘by the power of the Holy Spirit’). ‘We are the true circumcision,’ he says in another letter, ‘who worship God in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh’ (Phil. 3:3). The judaizers, who did glory in the flesh (i.e. in the privileges inherent in Jewish birth), were less sanctified than Gentiles who had learnt to glory in Christ alone (cf. Rom. 8:8). Similarly, Peter at the Council of Jerusalem reminds his Jewish fellow-believers how, when Gentiles heard the gospel, God gave them ‘the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith’ (Acts 15:8–9).
18. To win obedience from the Gentiles. To win their obedience to Christ (cf. 1:5), in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies of the nation’s yielding allegiance to the son of David (cf. Gen. 49:10, and see comment on verse 12, above).
19. From Jerusalem. Paul began his career as a Christian preacher in Damascus and in Nabataean Arabia (Acts 9:19–22; Gal. 1:17). His more extended ministry as apostle to the Gentiles was based at first on Syrian Antioch (Acts 13:1–14:28; Gal. 2:11). Why then should he mention Jerusalem here as the starting-point of his ministry? He may conceivably have had some particular occasion in mind, such as the vision described in Acts 22:17–214 or (less probably) the conference with the Jerusalem leaders which he relates in Galatians 2:1–10; but it is more likely that he regards Jerusalem as the starting-point and metropolis of the Christian movement as a whole (cf. Luke 24:47; Acts 1:4, 8), substance being thus given to the vision of Isaiah 2:3b and Micah 4:2b.
As far round as Illyricum. The province bordering the Adriatic Sea on the east. Illyricum is not mentioned in Acts or in any of the Pauline letters up to this time. But the interval between the end of Paul’s Ephesian ministry and his setting out on his last journey to Jerusalem, while compressed into brief space in Acts 20:1–6, probably covered the best part of two years. At some point during this period Paul appears to have traversed Macedonia from east to west along the Egnatian Way and turned north into Illyricum. To spend some time in a Latin-speaking environment (such as he would find in Illyricum) would be a helpful preparation for his planned campaign in Spain.
I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. ‘I have completed the preaching of the gospel of Christ’ (NEB). He had done this by preaching it in every province between Judea and Illyricum (not to every individual), and had thus discharged his apostolic commission in that part of the Gentile world.
20. Lest I build on another man’s foundation. His practice is stated in 1 Corinthians 3:10, ‘like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it.’ It is plain that he did not always appreciate the activity of that ‘other man’, whoever he might be; and he had no desire to incur comparable disapproval himself from other foundation-layers. There is no direct reference here to the Roman church or to its founder.
21. ‘They shall see who have never been told of him, and they shall understand who have never heard of him.’ Quoted from Isaiah 52:15 (LXX). The Hebrew text (rendered ‘for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand’) refers to the surprise of nations and their kings when they see the exaltation of the Suffering Servant whom formerly they had despised. The Greek version lends itself well to Paul’s statement of his pioneer policy in preaching the gospel. Ample evidence has already been provided in this letter of the use made of Isaiah 40–66 as a source of gospel testimonia (see pp. 78, 206).
22. I have so often been hindered. Cf. 1:13.
23. I have longed for many years to come to you. It was not just recently that Paul had a vision of the part which the Roman church could play in the expansion of the gospel, in fellowship with (and, eventually, in continuation of) his apostolic service. See pp. 20–21.
24. And to be sped on my journey there by you. Without saying so expressly, Paul hopes that the Roman church will provide a base for his advance into Spain.
25. With aid for the saints. The members of the church of Jerusalem are ‘the saints’ par excellence (cf. verse 31; 1 Cor. 16:1; 2 Cor. 8:4; 9:1, 12). But Paul’s converts and other Gentile Christians have become their ‘fellow citizens’ (Eph. 2:19), so he makes a point of regularly referring to them also as ‘saints’, the holy people of God (see note on 1:7). The phrase ‘with aid’ renders the present participle of the verb diakoneō, ‘serve’ (cf. 12:7; 15:8; 16:1).
Further details about this ‘aid’ are supplied in 1 Corinthians 16:1–4 and 2 Corinthians 8:1–9:15. Paul speaks more freely about it to the Roman Christians, because they were not directly involved in it. The contributing churches were those which Paul himself had planted, and it is evident that the enterprise was one to which he attached the highest importance.
For one thing, as he tells the Romans, it was a means of bringing home to the Gentile Christians their indebtedness to Jerusalem. It was from Jerusalem that the gospel had spread, first into the provinces adjoining Judea (such as Syria, with its capital Antioch on the Orontes) and then to more distant territories (such as those which Paul had been evangelizing for the past ten years). It was a small return on the part of the Gentile churches if they were invited to contribute to the material need of the mother-church of Christendom.
For another thing, Paul envisaged it as a means of cementing the fellowship that ought to be maintained between Jerusalem and the Gentile churches. He knew that many of the stricter brethren in Jerusalem looked with grave suspicion on his Gentile mission. Some of them, indeed, thought it their duty to win his converts over from his teaching to a conception of Christian faith and life more in keeping with that which obtained among the rank and file of Jerusalem believers. Even when matters were not pushed to such an extreme, a cleavage between Jerusalem and the Gentile mission could do no good to the cause of Christ. Nothing could hope to overcome such a cleavage but a generous gesture of brotherly love.
The collection for Jerusalem marked no innovation in policy on Paul’s part. A decade earlier he and Barnabas had brought a similar gift from the Christians in Syrian Antioch to the Jerusalem church in time of famine (Acts 11:30; 12:25). When the Jerusalem leaders gave Paul and Barnabas their blessing for the work of Gentile evangelization to which they had manifestly been called, they urged them to go on remembering ‘the poor’ (see comment on verse 26 below)—‘which very thing’, says Paul as he relates the incident, ‘I was eager to do’ (Gal. 2:10).
But was the sending of gifts to ‘the poor’ in the Jerusalem church understood by both sides in the same sense? For Paul, it was a spontaneous gesture of brotherly love, a token of grateful response on the Gentiles’ part to the grace of God which had brought them salvation. In the eyes of the Jerusalem leaders, however, it may have been a form of tribute, a duty owed by the daughter-churches to their mother (comparable, perhaps, to the half-shekel paid annually by Jews throughout the world for the maintenance of the Jerusalem temple and its services).
In Paul’s eyes it was not only his Gentile converts’ recognition of their spiritual indebtedness to Jerusalem; it was not only calculated to forge a bond of fellowship and brotherly love. It was, in addition, the climax of Paul’s Aegean ministry, an act of worship and dedication before he set out for his new field of ministry in the west. It was indeed the outward and visible sign of that ‘offering of the Gentiles’ which crowned his priestly service thus far. The presence in Jerusalem of Gentile believers bearing gifts was a token that Paul’s apostleship thus far had not been exercised in vain—a token not only to the Jerusalem church but in the sight of God. Paul perhaps planned to consummate his thanksgiving for the past and his dedication for the future by an act of worship at that very place in the temple where the Lord had once appeared to him and sent him ‘far away to the Gentiles’ (Acts 22:21).
26. Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased. Paul mentions these two provinces probably because he had been in close touch with the churches there for several months past. According to 1 Corinthians 16:1 he had organized a similar contribution in the churches of Galatia, and the presence of Tychicus and Trophimus with him on the journey to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4; cf. 21:29) indicates that the churches of Ephesus and other cities of proconsular Asia also had a share in this ministry.
The poor among the saints at Jerusalem. The Jerusalem believers apparently referred to themselves as ‘the poor’ (cf. Gal. 2:10, where the same word, ptōchoi, is used as here), and the designation, in its Hebrew form ’ebyōnîm survived among those Jewish Christians of later date who were known as Ebionites. It is unnecessary to suppose, with K. Holl,5 that Paul uses the expression to conceal his embarrassment over the fact that the collection was destined for the Jerusalem church as a whole; his repeated reference to ‘the contribution for the saints’ or the like suggests that he felt no embarrassment on this score.
27. Indeed they are in debt to them. The contribution was a voluntary gesture on the part of the Gentile churches (except that Paul kept them at it when their zeal faltered); yet it was the acknowledgment of a debt—a moral debt, not a legal one.
They ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. The view that this was not simply a charitable act, but a tribute which the mother-church had every right to expect from Gentile Christians,6 may represent well enough the attitude of the Jerusalem church, but it was not Paul’s attitude. He insists that it is an act of grace and not of formal obligation on the part of the contributing churches (cf. 2 Cor. 8:6–9). Perhaps, too, by this material token of the grace of God among the Gentiles he hoped more particularly to stimulate that salutary ‘jealousy’ of which he speaks in 11:14.7 The verb ‘be of service’ here is leitourgeō (cf. the noun leitourgos in verse 16, with note; also 2 Cor. 9:12, where the contribution is called a leitourgia, ‘service’).
28. And have delivered to them what has been raised. Lit. ‘and have sealed to them this fruit.’ Paul uses a formal business expression; cf. NEB, ‘delivered the proceeds under my own seal’. Perhaps, however, it is not Paul’s own seal that is in view, but the seal of the Spirit; here is conclusive evidence of his work among the Gentiles (cf. verse 16).
29. The fulness of the blessing of Christ. This blessing (eulogia, used of the Gentiles’ contribution in 2 Cor. 9:5) would be shared by Paul with the Roman Christians, and communicated through them to others (cf. 1:11–15).
30. By the love of the Spirit. That is, the love which the Spirit imparts and maintains (cf. 5:5).
Strive together with me. ‘Be my allies in the fight’ (NEB). Perhaps he seeks their co-operation not only in prayer regarding the delicate situation awaiting him in Jerusalem, but also in his wider ministry.
33. The God of peace be with you all. Amen. The title ‘the God of peace’ recurs in 16:20 (cf. Phil. 4:9; 1 Thess. 5:23; also Heb. 13:20; and 2 Cor. 13:11, ‘the God of love and peace’). For the possibility that one early edition of the letter came to an end with this benediction, see p. 27.