Paul’s Commitment to the Saints at Rome – Romans 1:8-15
We are often reminded that
Christians have a commitment to the world.
And we do. Paul himself tells us
that he was utterly committed to bringing the gospel to all men: “I am under obligation
[a debtor] both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the
foolish” (1:14). We should not interpret
this sense of obligation in merely psychological terms, for Paul’s obligation
had its source in our Lord’s commission.
The same is true of all Christians, and though we are not apostles like
Paul, yet we are still committed by our Lord’s Great Commission to make
disciples of all the nations (Mt. 28:18-20).
We are supposed to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth
(Mt. 5:12-14).
However, the church cannot
adequately do this unless it is the
church. That is to say, Christians
need Christians to fulfill our great calling.
We are not supposed to do this on our own. So our commitment to the world is grounded in
our commitment to each other. It is as
Christians love each other that they are built up and enabled to love the
world. We live in an age in which
because of the prevalence of sin the love of many has grown cold (Mt.
24:12). Like the penguins of the South
Pole, we live in a morally icy and frozen environment and if we wander off we
are likely to become spiritual ice-cycles.
We need the warmth of the spiritual gifts of other believers in order to
thrive and live productive lives.
We see this dynamic here in
Paul’s opening words to the Roman Christians.
Apparently, there has been a lot of ink spilled over the seeming tension
between the apostle’s words here in the first chapter, where he expresses his
desire to minister to an established church, and his words in chapter 15, where
he claims that he makes “it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ
has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation”
(15:20). However, we need to keep in
mind that Paul’s intention in coming to Rome is not to camp out there and put
his face on everything. Rather, his
intention was to bring the Christians there alongside as partners in his
missionary efforts to go to places where the gospel was not yet named,
specifically, Spain. He needed them to
help him reach the lost.
Paul is seeking to recruit them
for the sake of the gospel among all the nations for God’s name and glory
because Paul is sure that they share the same desire for the spread of the
gospel as he did. We see this in verse
8, when Paul reminds them that their faith is spoken of throughout the Roman
empire. He senses in them a kindred
spirit. And this draws out Paul’s heart
to them.
Therefore in these verses we see
an expression of Paul’s commitment to the believers at Rome. And we see how this commitment was fleshed
out in terms of the apostle’s intentions.
It is a beautiful picture of what our commitment to other believers in
the world-wide church and to each other in our own local church is supposed to
look like. And that is what I want to
focus on as we look at this text together.
We see it in four ways. Like the
apostle Paul, our commitment to each other is expressed through mutual praise, faithful
prayer, personal presence, and gospel proclamation.
Now I could not think about the
apostle Paul’s longing to visit Rome and not think of Martin Luther’s
experience at Rome almost 1500 years later.
When Luther went to Rome, the church has grown worldly and corrupt. Though it was ostensibly the center of the
Christian world, it had also become a sinkhole of iniquity. Luther wrote:
“Where God build a church, the
Devil puts up a chapel next door. … It is almost incredible. What infamous
actions are committed at Rome; one would require to see it and hear it in order
to believe it. It is an ordinary saying that if there is a hell, Rome is built
upon it. It is an abyss from whence all sins proceed. … Rome, once the holiest
city, was now the worst. Let me get out of this terrible dungeon. I took onions
to Rome and brought back garlic.”[1]
It is a reminder that to be that kind
of church that can further the kingdom of God in the world, we need to
continually resist becoming like the world.
The same church that Paul visited in the second half of the first
century had lost all semblance of its past by the sixteenth century. I’m saying this to remind us of the fact that
our commitment to fellow believers in terms of fellowship and community cannot
be divorced from a mutual commitment to God’s unchanging truth. The commitment that we have to other Christians
must not supersede the priority of our commitment to Christ and his
gospel. But as we hold to the common
faith, as Jude puts it, we then must reach out to each other in terms of these
four things: praise, prayer, presence, and proclamation.
Mutual
Praise
The apostle begins, “First, I thank my
God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in
all the world” (8). Here we have an
expression of praise. It is cast, of
course, in terms of Paul’s thanksgiving to God for them. But in letting them know about his heart of
gratitude to God, the apostle is essentially praising them for the proclamation
of their faith. He is letting them know
how much he appreciates their work for the Lord. Like Paul, we too ought to let others know
how much we appreciate who they are and what they have done for the Lord and
for us.
Now it is true that we should not put
too much stock in what people think of us.
This is true also of other Christians.
The fact of the matter is that other believers can praise you when you
don’t deserve it; they can also blame you when you don’t deserve it. The fact is, ultimately our allegiance is to
Christ, and his opinion of us (which is always 100 percent accurate!) is what
we should aim at more than anything else.
A word of affirmation from our Lord ought to be worth more than all the
praises that all the world could heap on us.
However, that doesn’t mean that we
should go around withholding praise from others, especially when praise is
due. We don’t want to become slaves to
human opinion, true; but the fact of the matter is that we all need a word of
affirmation from time to time, a hand on the shoulder, a slap on the back. If all you hear from someone is blame when
you go wrong but never praise when you do right, you are probably going to
develop a sense of distrust and suspicion towards that person. This is true of the relationship of parent
and child; it is also true of the relationship of believer to believer. Notice what Paul will say much later in this
epistle: “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo
one another in showing honor” (12:10).
This is especially true if a brother or sister is “fainthearted.” Such people really need to be encouraged (cf.
1 Thess. 5:14), and often the best way to do this is to show them honor through
praise.
The failure to be this way is probably
a signal that we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (cf.
12:3). People who give too little praise
with their mouths almost certainly harbor too much pride in their hearts. We shouldn’t want to be first; we shouldn’t
be waiting until we feel like we have been shown the appropriate honor before
we show honor to others. It is important
that other believers know that we value them; it draws us closer to each other
and makes the kind of fellowship that builds up more likely and possible.
It’s important for us to be able to
praise others because if we don’t we will inevitably focus on the wrong
things. We will tend to blow out of
proportion their bad qualities while we ignore their good qualities. We might even forget they have any!
It is also important to learn to
praise others because in doing so we are not only showing love to them, but we
are also imitating our heavenly Father.
If our Lord is willing to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,”
we should not hesitate to praise them as well.
Remember that Christ receives us freely and completely by grace. He receives us, not because of our moral
worth, but despite all our moral warts.
And yet, despite all our past titanic failures and shortcomings, he is
willing to forget it all and give us praise when we are faithful in our little
ways. Let us do the same with each
other. In the final analysis, this is
the outworking of the relationship as members of God’s family. As such, we are committed to each other, and
we partly show that commitment by mutual praise and encouragement.
Faithful
Prayer
Next, Paul writes, “For God is my
witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without
ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I
may now at last succeed in coming to you” (9-10). Paul had expressed his praise as thanksgiving
to God. This implies that he prayed for
them. Thus he writes, “For . . . without
ceasing I mention you always in my prayers.”
Paul’s commitment to the Roman Christians meant that he prayed for
them. But not only did he pray for them,
but did so “without ceasing” and “always.” Such was his commitment to them that
when he prayed, the Roman Christians were never far from his thoughts.
Paul’s witness to this is God himself:
“for God is my witness.” When Paul
prayed, he was confident that God listened.
This is the key to persevering prayer.
And I think the reason why the apostle was so confident God listened was
because he served him “with my spirit in the gospel of his Son.” Paul’s life, and his prayer life, was lived
in the service of God and the gospel.
His prayers therefore weren’t selfish laundry lists of wants and
wishes. They were messengers sent to the
heavenly Capitol City for the advance of the God’s kingdom and will upon the
earth. And that meant that his prayers
included praise and supplication for the saints.
Now we don’t pray for the saints
because God needs the information we give him in our prayers. Nor is God somehow dependent upon our prayers
as if they were some kind of magic potion that gives God the power to fulfill
his will upon the earth. No, rather, God
allows us in prayer the privilege of cooperating with him in advancing his
kingdom. When God does this, it is not
because he needs us, but because he loves us – there is nothing more exciting
and invigorating than getting in on the one thing that will last into eternity. And so the Lord allows us to help each other
through prayer: “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks
on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many” (2 Cor.
1:11).
I can think of few expressions of love
more powerful than faithful and persevering prayer for one another. When you care for someone and want to help
them with some problem, you will want to recommend them to someone who can help
them, if you can’t yourself. Perhaps
they have some medical problem and you know a doctor that will help them. Maybe you even ask the doctor yourself on
behalf of your friend. In some ways that
is what prayer is like. There are so
many ways in which we cannot help others.
But God is able when we cannot.
He is strong when we are weak, wise when we are foolish, and all-seeing
when we are blind. And so we bring our
friends in prayer to the throne of grace.
Let us therefore pray for each other.
It is an enduring expression of our love and commitment to each other.
Personal
Presence
One of the things the apostle had been
praying is that he could be with them in person: “that somehow by God’s will I
may now at last succeed in coming to you.
For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to
strengthen you – that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s
faith, both yours and mine. I want you
to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus have
been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as
among the rest of the Gentiles” (10-13).
I suppose that Paul could have
accomplished his purpose in soliciting the help of the Roman believers for the
work of missions in the West by correspondence only. But he is not content with that. He desperately wants to come to them and be
with them in person. The apostle
recognized what we all know intuitively: that personal presence is really
important if we want to establish and maintain community and friendship. There are ways that we can only build each
other up by being present. The apostle
John also recognized this: “I had much to write to you, but I would rather not
write with pen and ink. I hope to see
you soon, and we will talk face to face” (2 Jn. 13-14). Face to face is always better than pen and
ink. It is also better than Twitter,
Facebook, or a text message.
In particular, Paul wants to be
“mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine” (12). This can only happen, according to the
apostle, by being personally present. I
think it is important to notice that the apostle saw his own personal need of
this. He began verse 11 by saying, “For
I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen
you” – and then he says that they are not the only ones who will be
strengthened; he too will be encouraged and strengthened as well. Now if the apostle, with all his giftedness,
saw the need to be encouraged by other saints, and believed that this could
only happen by being with them, then we should see the folly of thinking that
we can do just fine without the church.
We need each other. We need
community. We simply cannot be committed
to each other in real, meaningful ways unless we are willing to be with each other.
There is a greater temptation in our
day, I think, to get along without being with other believers and just “do
church” by watching a service on the internet.
Now I do not want to discount the blessing of being able to do just
that. But beware of replacing the church
with the internet. God did not ordain
the internet to do the work of the church; he ordained the church to do the
work of the church. Beware of acting as
if you are wiser than God. You cannot
replace the church with technology, as good as the technology might be.
However, I am afraid that a lot of
people go to church without ever doing church. In other words, they go to a place to watch
an event without ever becoming part of a community. Here’s the deal: if you are not ministering
to others and being ministered to, then you are not really personally present
in the way the apostle is thinking of here.
And think about it: if the apostle thought he needed this, how much more
do we?
Gospel
Proclamation
Paul saw it as his obligation to come
to Rome, not to advance his cause but his blessed Lord’s. Thus he wanted to come to preach the gospel:
“I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and
to the foolish. So I am eager to preach
the gospel to you also who are in Rome” (14-15). I love the way the KJV expresses verse 15:
“as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel.” The apostle strained every nerve in his body
and soul to faithfully preach the gospel to all men.
Now, the interesting thing in this
context is that Paul is saying this because he wants to preach the gospel in
Rome to other believers. I assume he wanted to reach the lost in Rome
as well, but his main mission in Rome is to bless those who had already
embraced the gospel with the gospel. He
wants to have a “harvest among you as
well as among the rest of the Gentiles” (13).
That is very important.
It is important to notice this because
we sometimes think the gospel is only for the lost. However, it is for believers of all stripes,
at every level of spiritual maturity. We
never outgrow the gospel; we never reach a place where we do not need to hear
it anymore. It is crucial for our
spiritual growth and sanctification to keep constantly in our mind who we are
in Christ and what resources we have in him.
The gospel is not just for the initial embrace of Christ by faith; it is
for every step along the way. We must
never forget that Romans was not written for unbelievers, but for
believers. The “Roman Road” may be a
good evangelistic tool, but the initial intention behind it was to bless the
saints. The apostle Peter implies that
it is a loss of this vision that is responsible for spiritual declension: “For
whoever lacks these qualities [faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control,
steadfastness, godliness, brother affection, and love] is so nearsighted that
he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (2
Pet. 1:9). I take this to mean that when
we forget what we have been saved from, we inevitably forget what we are saved
to. A failure to keep embracing the
gospel is a recipe for spiritual disaster.
I don’t think the apostle only thought
of himself as communicating the gospel to the Romans. It is implied, I think, in being mutually
encouraged by each other’s faith – a faith that is in the gospel – that this
preaching of the gospel is in some sense mutual. Thought it is true that not all are called to
preach the gospel in an official capacity, yet we should all strive to remind
each other of gospel realities. In doing
so we are encouraged (12) and strengthened (11).
Let me give you an example of how Paul
does this in this epistle. In Romans 6,
after reminding us that in Christ we have died to sin and risen to
righteousness (which is at the heart of what the gospel is all about), then he says,
“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ
Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” (6:11-12). In other words, Paul is telling them to let
the logic of the gospel move them to mortify sin. If you believe the gospel, you are going to
kill the sin in your life. If you do not
believe the gospel, if you forget its truths, you are going to be more
vulnerable to sin. We need to be
reminding each other of these truths.
I am so thankful that the Lord has put
us in each other’s lives. We all need
each other. I do not have all the
spiritual gifts; I need yours and you need mine. However, the way we help each other and
express our mutual commitment is by doing what that apostle indicates in this
text: by encouraging each other through praise, by holding each other up
through prayer, by building each other up by personal presence, and by
reminding each other of gospel realities by proclaiming its truths.
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