Romans 1:8–15 (ESV)✞: Longing to Go to Rome
Passage
In the last passage we looked at the introduction of Paul’s letter to the Romans and in this passage it’s clear that yes, we’re still reading a letter. The full text can be read here (ESV)✞, but let’s go through it bit by bit.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
There’s a very practical point assumed here that Christians might sometimes take for granted, but Paul says that he thanks God “through Jesus Christ.” The reason we’re able to approach the God of the Universe is that Jesus did the work He did, allowing sinful creatures such as ourselves to approach a Holy God and not be destroyed.
But obviously the main point Paul is making here is the content of those prayers: he thanks God for the faith of the Christians in Rome, because it’s so widely proclaimed. Since Rome is the capital of the Roman Empire the Christians living there have a unique opportunity to make their faith known throughout the known world, because people will be traveling to and from Rome on a regular basis.
9 For God is my witness, … that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
verses elided
Paul’s prayers not only include thanks for the Romans’ faith, but also a request that Paul could visit them. And despite the power Paul has exhibited in the book of Acts, and the knowledge he clearly demonstrates in all of his letters, it’s interesting to note that God doesn’t just immediately grant this request and send Paul to Rome.
In fact, if I have my timeline straight, he’s still not going to go to Rome for years after writing this letter – and when he finally does he’ll do so in chains, which might not be the way he was hoping to go! We shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that there are “super Christians” who always get their prayers answered, or that lack of answer to a prayer means lack of faith. The Apostle Paul himself had to pray “without ceasing” for an opportunity to visit the Christians in Rome, and the only answer he got for years was the need to be patient.
But let’s look at those verses again, adding back in the part I elided before:
9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
emphasis added
It seems Paul can’t go more than a few verses without reminding his readers, again and again, that he serves Jesus. When we read that Paul serves Jesus with his spirit we shouldn’t take that as being a contrast to serving Jesus with his actions; Paul clearly does both. But for Paul it starts with a willing and eager spirit which leads to action.
Paul then gets back to his desire to visit the Christians in Rome:
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
When I think of Paul wanting to visit Rome, my first thought is that he probably wants to teach them. Maybe expand upon this letter that he’s sending them (even though he must have known at the time that he was writing something pretty impressive in scope, in terms of explaining the Gospel). And that’s true, we’ll get to that idea in a sec, but it’s not what he says here; what he says here is that the “spiritual gift” he longs to “impart” to them is that Paul and the Christians in Rome be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.
13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented),
Again, Paul talks about the fact that he’s been wanting to come to Rome but for whatever reasons God has thus far “prevented” him from doing so. I have to wonder if the reason God is preventing Paul from going to Rome, at least in part, is that He knows the delay will cause this very letter to be written, thus becoming a core part of Christian theology for thousands of years. I don’t think that’s a stretch!
… in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
This is an interesting phrase. Paul has often intended to come to Rome, and he said a moment ago that he wanted mutual encouragement between himself and the Christians in Rome, but here he’s also talking about reaping a harvest among them. What harvest? The people he’s talking to are Christians, so he’s clearly not talking about a “harvest” of people who are coming to faith in Jesus. (Maybe there will be some of that, too, but the people Paul’s writing to are already Christians.) So what would the “harvest” be that he would “reap” when he visits the Christians in Rome?
The ESV Study Bible suggests that he’s talking about increased maturity, and, given the content of this letter, I think that’s a valid assumption. They say, “Paul’s ministry is like bringing ripened crops as a gift to God. Paul neither ‘planted’ nor ‘watered’ the church at Rome (cf. 1 Cor. 3:6), but its increased maturity and obedience would be a harvest nonetheless.”
Which brings us to:
14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
Part of the reason Paul wants to come to Rome is to preach the Gospel, which he needs to do – he even phrases it as an “obligation.” And who is he preaching to? Everyone, Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish.
I believe “barbarians,” in this context, just means non-Greeks, so when he says “both to the Greeks and to barbarians,” he just means “everyone” – both to the Greeks and to the non-Greeks. I don’t think Paul means this in a negative way (though I think Romans sometimes looked down their noses at “barbarians,” and the word definitely has negative connotations in today’s world, essentially meaning “unrefined and unsophisticated”).
He also says, however, that his obligations extend to both “the wise and to the foolish,” and “foolish” definitely would have had negative connotations! We tend to think of the word “foolish” as meaning something like “dumb”—something purely mental in nature—but in the Bible it also has connotations of spiritual failure. So, interestingly, Paul is saying that some people who haven’t accepted the Gospel have been foolish in rejecting it – yet he’s still “obligated” to preach to them!
And notice again that Paul is talking about preaching the Gospel to these people who are already Christians. For Paul, preaching the Gospel isn’t something you do once, at the beginning of a person’s spiritual journey, and then set aside as you get into more advanced topics. No, for Paul preaching the Gospel is something that happens over and over again, throughout a Christian’s life.
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