Romans 1:8-15
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established—that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
Welcome back to our study on Romans! In a ‘normal’ breakdown of Romans, the introduction is generally considered to go through to verse 17 – and the ‘topical’ writing starts from there. But I still think there is plenty we can gain just from his introductory words!
Straight up, the first bit I glean from here is that Paul is giving thanks to God for the Roman churches. I guess in this context Rome was the ‘center’ of the civilized world to many, certainly the head of the empire – maybe we should be giving thanks for the churches in Washington DC or Brussels! Moving along though, there are many people that God puts in our lives – for better and for what seems to be worse. We should be thankful for all these people – some provide friendship, some encouragement, some challenge, and some offer plenty of opportunity for spiritual growth (patience, longsuffering, you get the picture).
Secondly, the faith of the Roman churches was spoken about throughout the world. Just as now we might speak of the faith of the Chinese church, or the church in Afghanistan, or maybe Turkmenistan. Certainly – I have lived in Australia and the USA, and we really don’t have many problems at all – except for our own timidity and pride (and we will come to that tomorrow when we hit vs 16). What does it mean in these days to have our faith spoken of ‘throughout the world’? I am truly not sure – but I know that it means that we would have to have a total reliance on Jesus, and be totally in His will, that we were making such a difference in this world that people would stand up and take notice…. Something to think upon……
Another short message we get from verses 11 and 12 is that of the importance of fellowship – see Hebrews 10 for more on that one. I will get there one day on this blog!
Moving to verses 13-15. It is obvious that Paul wanted to visit Rome much earlier – but that it was not the Will of God yet. Paul also mentions that he is ‘ready to preach the Gospel to you who are in Rome also’. To me I read a couple of things here – Paul is ready to preach the Gospel – not just to the Romans, but to anyone – but he specifically wanted to go to Rome to do that. Are we ready to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Secondly – God prevented Paul from visiting Rome up until this point – despite his desire there ‘to do good’. It would be very easy to justify this trip to ourselves ‘I am going to Rome to do God’s work, to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all those in Rome who need to hear!’ You can see here how easy it would be to create that justification in our own minds, and then begin to act on it. But until this point – it has not been God’s will. Paul has been ‘hindered’ until now to visit Rome. I am sure he could have gone off and done his own thing – and preached in Rome – but that would have been outside God’s will and timing, and whilst God could have used it anyway, it would not have been as effective as Paul going when the time was right.
Next we move onto Verses 16 and 17, which will be plenty for another post!
God, I pray you continue to give us understanding and revelation into your word, speak to our hearts through your Holy Spirit, in Jesus Name, Amen.
Ready to Preach – Romans 1:8-15