Romans 1:8-15
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, 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 in my prayers, asking if there is any way that now, after all this time, I might successfully come to you in the will of God. For I long to see you, so that I might impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established; that is, that I may comforted together with you by our mutual faith, both yours and mine. I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that I have often purposed to come to you—but have been prevented so far—that I might have some fruit among you as I do among the other Gentiles. I am in debt both to Greeks [i.e., the educated] and foreigners [i.e., the uneducated], to the wise and the unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are in Rome also.
A Faith Spoken of Throughout the Whole World
What follows is one of the most important things on this whole web site!
First, Paul thanks God for the Romans' faith being spoken of throughout the world. We greatly underestimate this because though we evangelicals focus so strongly on evangelism, we really don't know anything about it. We think evangelism is either personal witnessing or public preaching. It can be, but those are extremely minor forms of evangelism. At least, they are now. They weren't in Paul's day because there were no churches. He and the other apostles had to go form the churches so that proper evangelism could be done.
Churches today would be transformed if they understood evangelism. I'm sure if you hunt around enough, you can find a book or story about a church that was transformed by properly understanding evangelism. I know I read about a church that suddenly grasped what it is they were supposed to be doing, and it changed their whole city. This is despite the fact that they didn't cure some very major problems inherent in modern Evangelical Christianity, like rampant division and the lack of the type of closeness and commitment that marked apostolic Christianity. Hey, you have to start somewhere, and I commend those who have started because God always blesses them. They're empowered people, and they're worth looking up to and encouraging.
To understand evangelism we need to start with the Thessalonians so we can get a picture. Paul writes, “You were examples to the believers in Macedonia and Achaia, for from you the Word of the Lord sounded out not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith towards God has gone out, so that we don't need to speak anything” (1 Thess. 1:7-8). We underestimate what Paul means when he says, “so that we don't need to speak anything.” He really means that they didn't need to say anything. Let me explain because this is very important.
We all know that the Bible says we are to let our light shine (Matt. 5:16). We even sing a song, “This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.” The problem is, our individual little lights are not what we are told to shine. In context, the light that's supposed to be shining is a corporate light, the light of a city that is so great it cannot be hidden. You know how on cloudy evenings you can see the lights of a city from a long distance shining against the clouds? That's the kind of light Jesus was talking about. That's why he used a plural “you” in Matthew 5:16. In English, we can't tell a singular “you” from a plural one, but in most other languages there's a difference. (There used to be a difference in English as well, so it's good for Christians to have one copy of a King James Version Bible around. The thou's, thee's, and thy's are all singular. The ye's, you's and your's are all plural.)
The normal way for evangelism to happen is for people to see our good works—ours together, not ours individually— and glorify our Father in heaven. That's why Jesus prayed to his Father that we would all be one “so that the world may know that you sent me” (Jn. 17:20-23). The world is supposed to be convinced by our unity and love. It is our love for one another, not our preaching, that lets the world know we are his disciples (Jn. 13:34-35). That is why Paul can say we should especially be doing good to each other rather than to those outside (Gal. 6:10). That's contrary to our way of thinking because we don't understand evangelism. We need to show the world the love of Christ, but the first and foremost way they will see it is by our unity and love to one another, not by our service to them. We do need to serve them, but “especially” we should serve each other. Those who are built up in this love will naturally serve and love everyone they run into in the world because they will have learned to be loving and serving people to one another.
In the first century, we know about the apostles, Stephen, Philip and others who preached the Gospels and turned large numbers to Christ. The second century church left us even more writings than the first century church did; a lot more. Despite this, we don't read about great individuals who went about turning cities to Christ. They didn't need to. In the 2nd century, the Roman empire had churches in most of their major cities. Those churches, who had learned from the apostles to love one another with a divine love and to live in unity, had a major impact on the Roman empire. Like Jesus said, they could not be hidden! Tertullian tells us the Romans used to comment, “Behold, how they love one another"” and “How they are ready to give their lives for one another!” (Apology 39)
The result was that Romans were turning to Christ at an amazing rate. Tertullian went on to tell the Roman emperor that if he were to drive the Christians out of his empire, he'd have no one to rule over. “The more often we are mowed down by you, the more we grow in number,” he told him (ibid. 50). Their evangelistic power was phenomenal.
However, that power did not come from preaching. Justin Martyr spoke of the way that Romans were coming to Christ. He mentioned three things that had converted Romans. They were changed “by the constancy which they witnessed in their neighbors' lives, by the extraordinary forbearance they observed in their fellow travelers when defrauded, and by the honesty of those with whom they have transacted business” (First Apology 16).
So it is for no small reason that Paul gives thanks that their faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. This is the power of the Gospel. Don't wait around for a great evangelist to come to your city. You have far more power than he does. You simply need to begin loving one another in the power of the Spirit, laying down your lives for one another, and ensuring that there is no need in your midst. If you do those things, the world will stand up and take notice. They won't be able to avoid it. You won't have to show it; it won't be able to be hidden. “Arise, shine! For your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. . . . Gentiles shall come to you light and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Is. 60:1,3; The KJV has “thy light” [“thy” is singular] because Isaiah is addressing Jerusalem as an individual city. It's still the light of the city he means.)
Unceasing Mention in My Prayers
I don't have too much to say on this. May God grant me to be the kind of praying and caring man that Paul was. He was able to wish that he was accursed from Christ if that would save his Jewish brethren (Rom. 9:3). He was able to tell every church he wrote to that he never stopped praying for them. One of the sufferings he listed among shipwrecks, scourgings, beatings, and stonings was his daily care for the churches. May I become like that. May we all become like that. We may not have Paul's gift of apostleship, but we can share in his care for the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Since I have lived at Rose Creek Village, I understand a lot better what it means to pray without ceasing. I know what it means to carry someone around in your heart, offering a constant groaning on their behalf to God. That has been a product of church life and of making religious activities less important. Prayer is not in and of itself a religious activity. In the last paragraph, I just said that I wish all of us prayed as much as Paul did. However, prayer can be a religious activity when it is an act of righteousness rather than an act of care and concern. We love to build up our own righteousness with religious activities. God wants us to forget about ourselves and our own righteousness and get busy obeying him and serving others. We love to keep track of whether we're ‘doing it well enough.’ We time our prayers, count the chapters we've read in the Bible, etc. God isn't interested in those sort of religious activities. Yes, he wants you to read the Bible. No, he doesn't want you to count the chapters nor keep track of your spiritual accomplishments.
Dropping those attempts at spiritual accomplishments leads to spiritual accomplishments. When I quit praying for righteousness' sake and started praying for the sake of God and those for whom I'm praying, not only were my prayers more effective, but I cared more. As I cared more, my heart stayed much more focused on keeping those prayers before God. At the same time, I learned more than ever that I am supposed to live as a spiritual person. My heart has to be attuned to God. Just because something is “right” doesn't mean I'm supposed to do it. We live by the tree of life, not by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is those who obey the Spirit who are the sons of God (Rom. 8:14), not those who obey a new testament law that we've set up for ourselves.
Enough about that. I want to be the man of prayer that Paul was. His letters convict and exhort me.
Imparting Spiritual Benefit
Paul wanted to come to them so that he might impart some spiritual gift. I'm a relatively passive person by nature. I'm prone to following Moses in an area where Moses sinned terribly. I say, “Oh, God, you know I'm not very good at that. Get one of your more spiritual and wonderful children to do that. I'm just a sinner saved by grace.” That's basically what Moses told God at the burning bush. “Here am I, Lord — send Aaron.” God wasn't impressed with Moses' humility. In fact, he was pretty irritated at it.
Paul didn't mess around with that sort of false humility. “I'm coming to help you out; I'm coming to impart a spiritual gift. You'll be better off if I come to you.” You go, Paul! God isn't fooled by our attempts to be humble. You'll never be humble on your own. All that speaking less of yourself than how you really feel about yourself is a joke, and it doesn't help anyone. Try jumping up to the plate and doing your best. That's what God likes. Real humility comes from the heart, and it makes a real assessment of what you can and can't do, not an incorrectly low one. I've never seen that fake humility help anyone or accomplish anything.
Look around at who God works with. You'll find that primarily he works with guys like Elijah, Peter, and Paul. They're his favorites. They wanted to be great, and they wanted to go forward. “Don't put limits on me, I'm going forward with God. I want to be great!” Isn't it worth noting that the “special three” among the apostles, who got to go places the others didn't, were the two guys who asked about sitting on his left and right hand in the kingdom (Mark 10:37-40) and Peter? Don't miss that. He corrects the over-zealous, but he loves to be with them.
I'm in Debt
Paul said he's in debt to both Greek and foreigner, to both wise and unwise. Now, perhaps I'm misunderstanding Paul, but what I think he's saying is that he obtains benefit when they benefit. He didn't mind going after a crown, and he knew that crown was tied to their belief (Php. 4:1; 1 Thess. 2:19; 2 Tim. 4:8). He appreciated their response, as it helped both them and him.
He ends our passage above by saying, “ . . . so I'm ready to preach the Gospel to you that are in Rome also.” He knew he could benefit them, because God had made him and his companions “able servants” of the New Testament (2 Cor. 3:6), and he knew that their growth would bring him a crown as well. He added earlier that both he and the Romans would be encouraged by their mutual faith. Paul was not only after a crown. He loved the saints, and you can see the fondness of his love for them not only in the care and concern in his letters, but also in the greetings at the end of them. He thinks of them and mentions them by name. Paul was a passionate man, and we can learn from his boldness and passion.
See you next time. We get to start with Romans 1:16, what a great verse!
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