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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 14 and 15 ch. 14:1 to 15:13 ch.15:14-22 ch. 15:23-32 The
Weak And The Strong (ch. 14:1
– 15:13) Verse
1 says, “accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on
disputable matters”. What
are these disputable matters that Paul is talking about in chapter 14
verse 1? One disputable matter
is eating meat. In verse 2 to
4 Paul says that some eat
everything, while others eat only vegetables.
Verse 5 speaks of some people esteeming one day being more sacred
than another, while others consider all days alike.
In verse 21 Paul mentions the drinking of wine to be one of these
disputable matters as well. I
am sure that you and I could add all sorts of things to this list.
The idea here is that there are some things that are not important
enough to divide over. The
things that we should divide over are the essentials of the gospel.
That is, the truths that make up the gospel cannot be compromised.
Paul says this very clearly in Gal. 1:8. “But even if we or an
angel from Heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to
you, let him be eternally condemned!”
These are pretty strong words, but we do not compromise the
essential truths of the gospel. Yet
on secondary issues, non essential issues to salvation,
we should not divide over. We
should keep the unity of the Body of Christ.
You may debate secondary issues with great vigor, but you should
not let these issues separate you from your brother.
The
difficulty in today’s world, as well as in the past, is that we have
stress our distinct doctrines to such a degree that we have become
exclusive and have separated ourselves from one another in the church.
Yes, I do believe Christians are exclusive and not inclusive.
We are exclusive to the world and to other religions.
We do not compromise the gospel.
But we are inclusive when it comes to others in the Body of Christ
who may hold to a different way of thinking in the non essential
doctrines. Once again,
essential doctrines are those doctrines that make up the gospel, that
which is needed to bring salvation to a person.
End time teaching for example, is not essential to our salvation.
Believing in a pre-trib rapture, or a post-trib rapture, is not
what makes us a Christian. That is, we do not have to believe in a
pre-trib rapture in order to be saved. Another
aspect to “essential doctrines”, or those things that are “not
disputable” are things that scripture clearly speaks about as being sin.
Such things are, getting drunk, committing adultery, and killing,
among other such things. We cannot hold to our own thinking on these
matters. We must believe and
do as the Bible teaches. Paul,
in 1 Cor. 5:9 says that we should not associate ourselves with a brother
who is living immorally. We
can divide over such things as these.
So
there appear to be at least two types of indisputable matters, essential
doctrines of salvation and clearly worded moral commands of Scripture.
We can, and at times are even told to divide over these issues.
Everything else is disputable, and therefore we cannot divide over.
Paul
says, “accept those who are weak in the faith”.
He means, “accept those who have a hard time trusting Jesus”.
It is interesting to note who the weak in faith really are.
Verse 2 says, “one man’s faith (or trust in Jesus) allows him
to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only
vegetables”. The vegetarian
is the one with weak faith. Paul
tells us not to pass judgment on him.
Even if he is a vegetarian, with weak faith, that faith is still
directed to the Lord. So also,
the one weak in faith should not condemn the one who eats everything.
Each person will stand or fall in the face of his own Master, who
is Jesus. (ch. 14:4) “And he
will stand”, says Paul, “for the Lord is able to make him stand”.
Paul is saying, trust Jesus for your brother.
Jesus is able to keep him. Did
you ever wonder how a Roman Vegetarian Christian might have felt after
hearing these words. Paul, who
tells us not to pass judgment is making a judgment himself by telling
these people they are weak in faith. Many
Christians feel that it is wrong to judge because of this verse and
others. That is not the case.
If we judge others, then we can expect others to judge us back in
like fashion. That is what
Jesus is saying in Mat. 7:1 – 7. Judging
is not always a negative action. We
judge daily in many small areas of life.
For example, we go to the grocery store to buy onions.
We may squeeze them to make sure none are rotten.
We choose the best ones to buy.
We are making a judgment and decide from that judgment what onions
to buy. This may be what Paul
is doing here. He is surveying
the situation and making a neutral judgment, although there is a good
chance the Roman Vegetarian Christians did not feel that way after hearing
his words. What Paul tells the
strong in faith to do is, “not to pass judgment” on the weak in faith
. I think Paul is telling the
strong in faith not to think
less of the man who does not eat meat.
Paul calls the vegetarian weak in faith, but he doesn’t think any
less of the vegetarian. He is making a neutral judgment, not a negative
judgment. He loves them just the same. We
should note that the judging we aren't supposed to do in these verses has
to do with someone's faith. There
are many other areas of one's life that we are permitted to judge,
immorality being one such example. Faith,
or trust in Jesus is personal to one.
I think this is what Paul is getting at when he says that each man
will stand or fall before his Lord. I
do believe we can judge a man with no faith, but little faith we can't,
and again, we're talking only about faith here.
In
verse 5 we see that some men consider one day sacred, while others
consider all days sacred. Paul
says that each man must be “fully convinced” in his own mind what is
right. So there is nothing
wrong with being fully convinced, or positively sure of what you believe
is right. Yet in these
secondary issues, don’t pass judgment, don’t split over them, but
still be “fully convinced” in your own mind.
There is nothing wrong with being fully convinced.
It is what Paul tells us to be.
Being fully convinced of anything in this day and age is becoming
old fashion, especially concerning these secondary issues.
Even in Evangelical circles we tend to not want to be fully
convinced in secondary issues. We
need to remember that Jewish people had many Sabbaths.
Many Jewish Christians felt it mandatory to keep these Sabbaths or
else they would lose their salvation.
You can understand why they would believe this.
Many times in the Old Testament you will see that if Jews did not
keep the Sabbath's, they would be cut off from Israel. One
main reason why God had Babylon conquer Israel and destroy Jerusalem was
over this very issue. Israel
refused to keep the Sabbaths and God judged them as a result, so it would
only be natural for Christian Jews to think that they would lose their
salvation if they did not hold to special days.
Paul clearly thought differently, and he was an expert in the Law
of Moses as well as the Rabbinical laws.
In
verses 6 through 8 Paul says that whether we meat eat or drink wine, we do
it to the Lord. Whether we
hold one day as important, or all days the same, we hold our opinions to
the Lord. As Paul says, “if
we live, we live to the Lord. If
we die, we die to the Lord...we belong to the Lord”. (ch.14:8)
That is the key. Whatever
we do, we do in good conscience to the Lord Jesus.
If we drink wine, we thank Jesus for it and drink in His presence.
If we abstain from drinking wine, we thank Jesus for the cup of tea
that is in our hand. Verse
9 stays “for this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that
He might be both Lord of the dead and the living.”
Paul is saying that the very reason why Jesus died, rose from the
dead, and ascended into heaven was to be our Lord, and that is whether we
are alive or dead. He is our
Lord, so whatever we do we due out of reverence to Him, even if our faith
in Him is week, we still live life out of reverence and fear of the Lord.
In
verses 10 and 12 Paul says that there is no use in judging our brother in
these matters. Once again, we
are talking about disputable matters.
There is a place for us to judge people.
Yet in these disputable matters, there is no place for judgment
because we will all stand before the Lord one day and give account of our
lives. “Every knee will bow,
and every tongue confess to God.” We
are not the judge over our brothers in the Lord.
This is something the church should remember, especially that part
of the church that likes to exercise much authority over those under them,
as they call it. In
verse 13 Paul goes on to say that we should not put a stumbling block in
the way of our brother. He is
speaking of the unity of the Body of Christ here.
Our unity is based on our common faith and trust we have in Jesus.
It is not based on anything else.
It is definitely not based on non essential doctrines, no matter
how convinced we are in our minds. We
want the Body of Christ to be strong.
We don't want to make it weak by causing our brothers to become
even weaker in the faith than they already are.
This is what would and does happen when we are over critical of
those with weak faith. I
would like to note that there is a place in the church to be critical of
false doctrine, and if the doctrine is bad enough you can mention names.
But to be critical of a weak brother is another thing altogether.
In
verse 14 Paul says that “he
is fully convinced that there is no food that is unclean”.
We see here where Paul stands on the eating issue.
He can eat anything, therefore he would say that his faith is
strong. Paul is showing the
Roman Christians what he has just told them.
He is showing them that he is strong in his thinking and what he
believes. Everyone knows where
Paul stands on these things. In
verse 14 he goes on to say that “if anyone considers anything to be
unclean, to him it is unclean.” Paul
may try to explain his liberty to his weak brother, but he will not
condemn him for what he doesn’t eat.
So it is a matter of conscience.
Someone's conscience may not allow him to eat or drink certain
things, so they shouldn't. That
being said, Paul would say, as I believe he is saying in this chapter,
that our conscience should sooner or later be lined up with what the Bible
says, what the truth of the gospel says.
Once that takes place, your conscience will not bother you when you
eat or drink that which you once didn't eat or drink.
Verse
15 says, “if your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are
no longer acting in love.” Paul goes on to say, “do not destroy your
brother for whom Christ died.” The
whole point here is the good spiritual health of your brother in Christ.
Jesus died for him. That
is the important thing, and if you destroy that brother, and if he falls
from faith, Jesus died in vain for him.
That is one very sad thing. All
that being said, in verse 16 Paul says that you should not allow what you
consider good to be spoken evil us. This
too is what Paul is talking about in this chapter.
Paul believes in eating met, and there are some who were speaking
evil of him as a result. That's
partly why he is writing these words.
He is defending himself in what he believes.
He is not allowing others to judge him for his freedom. He doesn't
want people judging him for what he believes, and he doesn't want those
who believe like him to judge those who
oppose them. In
verse 17 Paul states what the important things are.
They are righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
By "righteousness", Paul
means to live a holy life. By
"peace", he is speaking of peace in the Body of Christ.
By "joy in the Holy Spirit", he is speaking of a life
full of the Spirit that produces an attractive
joy for all to see. In
verse 18 Paul says that if you serve God in this way, you will please God
and man as well. What way is
Paul speaking of here? Paul is
simply saying that if you seek, righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy
Spirit, and don't judge your brothers in secondary issues, that will
please God. It will also
obviously please your brothers n Christ because it will lesson the
conflict. Verse
19 is somewhat of a conclusion as well as an admonition.
Paul says to do our best to keep peace with all men.
I think that is a rule to live by, but there is one caution.
Striving for peace should not include compromising the primary
truths of Scripture. Some
things are worth separating over. We
see that throughout the New Testament.
We don't compromise Jesus in order to maintain peace.
Jesus Himself said that at times we will have enemies because of
our association with Him.
In
verse 20 Paul says, “do not destroy the work of God.”
over such secondary issues as eating
certain meat, but that is what we've done in the church for
centuries. We're always
destroying the church, the work of the Lord by arguing and splitting over
these kinds of issues. No
wonder we aren't attractive to the world.
In
verse 21 Paul just says, that if eating certain foods will cause a brother
to fall, then don't eat the food. I
suggest what Paul is saying is, don't eat the food in front of the weak
brother. The context clearly
shows that Paul would eat the food if the brother was not around. Before
going further I need to define with more clarity what weak in faith means.
Paul is speaking about people’s consciences in this chapter.
If your conscience tells you that you should not drink wine, then
Paul says that you are weak in faith, because your conscience is not
lining up totally with what the gospel teaches.
If a person does not drink wine because he is a recovering
alcoholic, his choice not to drink has nothing to do with his conscience.
This man’s choice has everything to do with living a healthy lifestyle
for himself. Therefore he
should not be considered weak in faith.
This man is most likely is very strong in faith.
The whole idea of weakness here is all about one’s conscience,
and nothing else. Let
me make another point concerning wine. If you don’t drink wine because
you don’t like the taste, or simply choose not to, this
does not mean you are weak in faith either.
Your choice in this situation is not based on conscience. It is
based on likes and dislikes. You
may also choose to be a vegetarian for reasons not based on conscience.
In this case, you too would not be classified as weak in faith. Paul
is using there three examples, eating meat, drinking wine, and Sabbath
days because they were issues in his day.
We may have other issues in our day that could easily fall into
this discussion. Paul
says in verse 20 that all food is clean.
There is no food that is unclean.
In the same context he affirms that drinking wine is not a sin.
If we do either, or anything else that causes a man to stumble or
fall away from the Lord, this is wrong.
At this point we need to understand what the word “stumble”
really means. If I believe in
drinking wine and another Christian is merely upset because I drink wine,
is his being upset stumbling? I
don’t think so. Many
Christians are fully convinced that drinking wine is a horrible sin.
That is fine, according to what Paul is saying here in Romans 14.
Yet I can be equally convinced that drinking wine is okay.
That too is fine according to this chapter.
So if a strong Christian who doesn’t drink wine gets upset with
me and doesn’t fall from the Lord, I don’t believe I have caused him
to stumble. I don’t need to
stop drinking wine just because someone gets upset with me.
Simply being upset or maybe even indignant is not “stumbling”.
On
the other hand if I drink wine in front of a recovering alcoholic and he
decides to drink, and as a result falls back into his alcoholism and in
turn falls away from the Lord; I am causing that man to stumble.
This is be wrong, and this is what Paul says not to do. Let
me explain the process of stumbling. Our conscience plays an important
role in the stumbling process. Part
of Christian growth is lining our conscience up with the Word of God.
This is a process and we are all in different places on this path.
Sometimes our conscience can make us feel as if we are doing wrong
when in reality we aren’t. For
example, I have crossed the U.S Canada border many times.
The first number of times I felt guilty when talking with the
immigration inspectors, even though I had nothing to feel guilty about.
The very presence of these people and the situation made me feel
guilty. That feeling went away
after crossing the border a few times.
Our conscience is not always a true measure of what is right and
what is wrong. Therefore as
time goes on in our lives as Christians, we need to align our conscience
to God’s Word. In
the opposite way our conscience can be misleading as well.
For example, someone might steal something and their conscience
doesn’t condemn them for it. Paul
says that some peoples conscience’s is seared, as with a hot iron. (1
Tim. 4:2) Here too, the
conscience needs to fall in line with God’s Word. Paul
is saying that a man who is weak, who doesn’t eat meat, if forced to eat
meat, is going against his conscience.
When someone goes against their conscience, this presents a problem
within them. This can easily
lead to confusion, misunderstanding and discouragement that could cause
them to fall from faith. Paul
is saying that we should not put a brother in such a position as this.
Yet on the other hand Paul makes it very clear that there is
nothing wrong with eating meat. (ch.
14:14) Paul would in quiet
humility try to explain and even encourage the vegetarian that it is okay
to eat meat. But Paul would
not force him to do so. He
would not push him in this matter. Conscience
play an important part in the stumbling process.
Paul
clearly says that all things are pure and clean when it comes to food.
He also says in verse 22 to have this liberty between yourself and
God. Paul is not telling us to
stop drinking wine, nor is he telling us to be vegetarians.
He is saying not to make a public display of it in such a way that
it would effect someone to fall away from the Lord.
The important thing is unity, and not destroying a man, or the work
of God. In
verse 22 Paul says “blessed is the man who does not condemn himself for
the things he approves”. If
we drink wine, and our drinking does not cause someone to stumble, then we
are blessed. Yet on the other
hand, if you doubt while you drink your wine, then you’re drinking is
not in faith. Be fully
convinced that what you are doing is right.
A
key verse that I have mentioned before is the latter half of verse 23,
“..and whatever is not done in faith is sin.”
You can drink wine in full confidence that you are doing right.
That is good. If you
drink wine but are full of doubt, you are doing wrong.
You are actually sinning. This
can apply to anything, not just eating and drinking.
Everything we do should be done from our faith in Jesus.
Anything that is not done from faith is sin.
Remember, faith is simply trusting in Jesus.
All our actions should be based on our trust in Jesus, based on the
relationship we have with Him. That
is why I say, you can teach Sunday School and be sinning.
If you are not trusting Jesus as you teach, but depending on your
own self effort, then that is sin. This
definitely broadens our definition of sin.
Using this definition, no one can escape.
We all have sinned. We
are all presently sinning in one way or another.
We pray as time goes by that this will change, and all that we do
will be a result of our trust in Jesus, and not our own human effort. In
chapter 15, verses 1 to 3 Paul says that, “we who are strong ought to
bear with the failings of the weak.”
Once again, who are the strong, and who are the weak?
Paul counts himself as strong.
He eats all food and drinks wine.
It may seem hard to understand why Paul makes this judgment, but he
does. Yet after saying this,
he tells us not to please ourselves, not to think of ourselves first.
He tells us “to please our neighbour”, please others, including
the weak in faith. This was
the mission of Jesus Paul says. His
life was an example of pleasing others, first His Father, then His
neighbour. Who is our
neighbour? Whoever is with us
at any given time. It may be
our wife or husband. It may be
a fellow worker. It's the
whole idea of forsaking self and putting others first, that is hard for us
to do. I've always said that
the mark of a good Christian is his ability to serve. In
verse 4 Paul says that everything written in the past, that's the
Scriptures as he says, the Old Testament, was written for all of us to
learn from. Understanding the
Old Testament will help us to have endurance , and will help us be
encouraged, that will in the end bring hope. This shows us the importance
of the Old Testament. Many
Christians just read the New Testament, but if that is all you understand
of the Bible, you don't understand the Bible.
You cannot understand the New Testament fully if you don't
understand the Old Testament. The
New Testament is built on the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament there is lots for us to learn, even from the
Law of Moses that no longer applies to us.
We can learn lots from Israel's success and failures in the Old
Testament. The church is no
different than Israel. We've
succeeded and we've failed, just like Israel.
How God dealt with Israel of old is no different than the way He
deals with the church in the present.
One
of the most misunderstood things in Christendom is how the New Testament
relates to the Old Testament. Another
way to put it is, "how do New Testament Christians live in light of
the Old Testament?" This
is a subject in itself that I will not speak to now since I've done that
elsewhere.
In
verses 5 and 6 Paul goes on to say, “May the God who gives endurance and
encouragement, give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow
Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and one mouth you may glorify the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is a hard verse. The
church has not been able to fulfill this as yet.
We have been divided and are presently in the process dividing even
more. Paul
says that “we should glorify God with
one heart and one mouth” What
does this mean? Does this mean
that we need to all believe the same thing, thus speaking the same thing?
I don’t think so. Paul
has already allowed for diversity in thinking when he said that each of us
should be fully convinced in our own mind on secondary issues.
So I really don’t think he is telling us to always agree and
think alike. He says we should
be unified in our hearts. The
Holy Spirit joins us together. There
is a heart-felt love and concern for one another, as we strive to please
each other instead of ourselves. He
says that we should be unified in our mouth, or our speech.
If you take these words alone you will come to the conclusion that
we all need to think alike so we can all say the same thing, and not be in
disagreement. If I, who am a
drinker of wine, and my brother who is not a drinker of wine, can stand
together and say, “we differ in our thinking concerning wine, yet we
choose to walk together to further the cause of Christ”, I believe we
are unified with our speech, even though we differ in our thinking.
I believe we can be unified in speech, differ in thinking, and walk
together in unity. This is real unity. The problem is that this seldom
happens. Therefore,
in verse 7 we to need “accept one another”.
Accepting one another in Paul’s day was difficult to do, as it is
in our day. The Jewish/Gentile
problem still persisted in Rome as well as other parts of the Christian
world. Paul says that this
acceptance of one another will bring praise to God.
If that is so, then the opposite is true.
If we don't accept one another, then we bring disgrace to God, and
that is what the church has done so much of over the years with all of our
divisions. In
verse 8 Paul says that “Christ has become a servant of the Jews on
behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the
patriarchs…” What were
these promises? One part of
these promises were that God would bless the “whole world” through
Abraham. This means the
Gentiles would be brought into the family of God, and of course this took
place as a result of Jesus and His act of grace.
It also means that at the end of this age, both Jesus and Israel
will be a blessing to the world when Jesus rules from Jerusalem for one
thousand years. Verse
9 is a restatement of Paul's point in chapter 9 through 11.
God honoured His promises to the patriarchs of Israel that resulted
in the salvation of the Gentiles. This
came true in the promises made to the offspring, who is Jesus.
Remember, the promises were made to Abraham, his descendents
Israel, and his offspring Jesus.
Verses
9 through 12 give Old Testament Scriptures showing that the Gentiles
indeed would become part of the great Abrahamic family called the family
of God. Paul already spent three whole chapters dealing with this truth,
yet he has a hard time getting away from it.
He just had to mention it again. There
is one phrase concerning end time prophecy in verse 12.
The quote tells us that Jesus will rule over the nations of the
world. This is the theme of
the book of Revelation. Jesus,
at the end of this age will rule on earth over all the nations.
He will not destroy the nations.
They will still exist, but they will submit to Him, and if they
don't, He will deal with them immediately.
Paul ends this section by saying, “may the God of hope fill you with great joy and peace as you trust in Him”. Of course, “trusting in Him” is the definition of faith. As we trust Jesus, or have faith in Him, we will have joy, peace, hope, and the power of the Holy Spirit, in the midst of anything that comes our way. We see here that Paul links hope to faith. They go together. Some Christians don't put much stock in hope because they view hope as weak faith, but that's not so. Christians have a lot to hope for because we have not received all that God has promised us.
Paul,
The Minister To The Gentiles
(ch.15:14 – 22) Verse
14 begins with the words "I myself".
The word "myself" really doesn't have to be in this
sentence but Paul puts it there, most likely to emphasize the point he is
about to make.
He is about to say that he is convinced that the Roman Christians
are competent to instruct one another.
When speaking of the Roman Christians he uses the same emphasis
that he used for himself.
He said, "you yourselves" are competent.
He is stressing the point that these people were well capable of
teaching one another the things they needed to know.
This shows you the importance of horizontal relationships in the
Body of Christ.
I don't believe Paul is saying the Roman church leaders weren't
capable of teaching.
I believe he was saying that the ordinary Christian was capable of
instructing other ordinary Christians.
This is the way it should be.
We too often emphasize leadership's ability to teach, when in fact,
leadership should be training their people to teach.
I once had a pastor friend tell me that his job was to teach his
way out of his job of pastoring, meaning, he should train the people
sufficiently that they did not need him any longer.
In
verses 15 and 16 as Paul begins to end his letter to the Romans he
re-asserts his ministry to the Gentiles.
His motivation and inward drive was to preach the gospel to the
Gentiles “so that they might become an offering acceptable to God.”
Paul is bringing back a memory from the Old Testament by using the
word “offering”, yet the offering to God is not a lamb.
The offering
is a great nation of people consisting of Gentile Christians.
As in Romans 12:1, the New Testament offerings are living people,
not dead animals.
We
also see the word "priestly" in verse 16, another Old Testament
word.
This tells us the "priestly" nature of those who are
committed and called to preach the gospel of Jesus.
They represent Jesus to those they are preaching too.
That is why Paul views himself as a priest.
Priests are representatives of God.
The New Testament states that in one sense of the word, we are all
priests, that is, as long as we belong to Jesus. In
verse 17 Paul speaks of "his service to God".
In his service, he says that he will glory in Christ Jesus.
This simply means that He will speak of, up lift, and promote Jesus
to everyone he comes in contact with.
He feels that is his calling from God, a service he must perform.
The word service here suggests that Paul is a servant, and we
certainly know that he viewed himself as a servant, or a slave to God. In
verse 18 Paul states that he will not speak of anything else, other than
what God has done through him.
He could speak about all sorts of things if he wanted.
Paul was quite educated.
He could most likely out debate anyone.
He used to be a prominent Pharisee, but all that he counted as
nothing.
So he spoke only of Jesus and how Jesus used him to bring the
gospel to the Gentiles.
Paul on many occasions had to defend himself before his fellow Jews
for bringing the gospel to the Gentiles.
The biggest problem the early church had was the gospel being
presented to the Gentiles.
Many Jews wanted Gentile believers to become Jews in order to
become Christians.
Paul said that was not the gospel of Christ.
In
verse 19 we see that Paul was used by the Lord by performing miracles.
This was one mark of a real apostle.
Jesus told the twelve in the last few verses of Mark that they
would preach the good news, and that He would work through them by
performing miracles that would be signs to encourage people to believe.
The miracles that Jesus performed were signs that God the Father
had sent Him.
The miracles Jesus' followers performed were also signs to prove
that Jesus had sent them.
Paul was truly sent by Jesus.
His miracles prove that, and of course, Acts 9 clearly states that
Jesus called him to work for Him.
In
verse 20 we see the heart of Paul.
He wanted to preach the gospel where no other man had preached.
He wanted to get the message out to those who had never heard.
This shows us the necessity of preaching the gospel to those who
know it not.
Paul did not want to build on another man's
work.
He did not want to go into a city and preach where someone else had
already preached and begin a work of God. He did not want to bring
confusion to anyone by speaking where another man had already spoke.
In
verse 21 Paul quotes from Isaiah 52:15 in his defense.
Isaiah speaks of those who had never seen will see, and those who
had never heard, will hear.
Paul believes that he is fulfilling Old Testament prophecy by
preaching the gospel to the Gentile world, and so he is.
We would be doing the same as we preach the gospel to the Gentile
world.
Paul
closes this section by saying that "this is why I have often been
hindered in coming to you."
Paul wanted to preach the gospel so bad to those who had never
heard that he laid aside his own desires, as strong as they were.
He really wanted to see the Roman Christians, but if he had the
chance to preach to those who had never heard, he would do that instead.
Many of us would follow our own desires.
Paul’s
Plan To Visit Rome (ch. 15:23 – 32) Paul
had collected money from the Christians in Macedonia and Achaia for the
Christian Jews in Jerusalem who were extremely poor due to Roman
persecution.
In verses 23 and 24 we note that Paul, after giving these Jewish
Christian’s their gift, he would work his way west once again.
He was hoping to visit Spain and preach the gospel there to those
who had never heard.
On his way he would spend some time in Rome with the Christians
there.
He would also hopefully receive financial support for his trip
beyond Rome to Spain. Paul's goal was to visit Spain.
Some people say he reached Spain, while other say he didn't.
I don't really know if Paul got to Spain or not before he was
killed. In
verse 25 we see the confirmation that Paul at this point in time was on
his way to Jerusalem with the gift for the poor saints.
Paul had lots on his plate, so to speak.
He wanted to preach the gospel to those who had never heard, he
wanted to encourage the believers, and he wanted to financially help the
poor Christians.
In
verse 26 we see Paul mentions Macedonia and Achaia.
In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul speaks of how generous
the Macedonian Christians were.
They were very poor people, but out of their extreme poverty, they
gave lots to the poor saints in Jerusalem.
Paul actually uses them as an example to spur the Corinthians on in
their giving.
Verse
27 is interesting and important.
Paul states that the Gentiles have shared in the Jews spiritual
blessing, and if that be so, then the Gentiles should be willing to share
in the Christian Jews material blessing.
This is important because we see the blessing of salvation that the
Gentiles received from God, was actually a Jewish blessing.
It was a blessing first to the Jews.
The Gentiles simply got to receive the blessings originally offered
to the Jews.
This shows the Gentile Christian world that their heritage is found
in Jewish culture, that is, godly Jewish culture.
I would suggest the same be true today.
I believe that Gentile Christians should support their Jewish
brothers in whatever way they can.
In
verse 28 Paul states his intentions again to visit Spain.
Once he delivers the money to the poor saints in Jerusalem he would
head west to Spain. Once again, there is debate among scholars whether
Paul actually got to Spain or not.
Paul
says in verse 29 that when he came to Rome that "he would come in the
full measure of the blessing of Christ."
This means that Jesus would have given him much to pass on to these
Roman Christians.
You can be sure that Paul was not boasting, or merely hoping.
More than any other man, Jesus would use Paul with all sorts of
miracles.
These Roman Christian should have been anticipating Paul's visit to
them with great expectation In
verse 30 Paul asks for prayer in his struggles.
Preaching the gospel for Paul was not like preaching the gospel for
many preachers today.
He went through many struggles.
The are well accounted for in his second letter to the church at
Corinth.
Paul did not have an easy life.
He did not come to Jesus and live happily ever after.
He struggled lots for Jesus, just as Jesus told him would be the
case.
In
verses 31 to 33 Paul asked the Romans to pray for him that he would be
rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, and that this gift would be
acceptable to the Christians there.
All of Paul’s prayers seemed to be answered but not necessarily
as he might have expected.
The Jewish Christians did receive the gift joyfully. (Acts. 21:17
– 20)
Paul’s prayer concerning him being kept safe from the unbelievers
did not get answered.
He was attacked by the Jews, causing a great riot in Jerusalem. As
a result of the riot
Roman soldiers arrested Paul. (Acts 21:27 – 36)
Another part of Paul’s prayer did get answered.
He did end up in Rome, but as a prisoner, where he was in house
arrest for two years. (Acts 28:16 + 30)
Some say that Paul was released from this house arrest in Rome and
did make one more missionary trip to Spain as he hoped for.
They believe the letters to Timothy and Titus were written from
Spain.
Others say he went back to Macedonia.
In
64 AD Paul was put to death by the Roman authorities.
The
Romans tortured and killed Christians.
Sometimes they would wrap them up in animals skins and feed them to
dogs.
Sometimes they would burn them on poles, making human torches of
them, giving light to their gardens in the evening.
Tradition holds with confidence that Paul was executed by the sword
in 64 AD. Concerning
Nero, Emperor of Rome at the time, it is said that he may have caused the
fire of Rome that spread through the city on July 18 and 19 of 64 AD.
If true, this is an example of the kind of man he was.
This was the man to whom Paul told the Christians to submit to in
Romans 13:1
It is said that when he was out of town he had the city set on fire
so he could rebuild it in his own way.
Approximately
one third of the city was next to destroyed, while another third
was heavily damaged.
It is said that Paul was soon killed after this fire for his faith.
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