Romans — Chapter 15

Authorship & Background

Map & Geography

• Jerusalem (v.19, v.25, v.26): Capital of Judah; the holy city where the Temple stood.

Places on this map

• JerusalemJerusalemA hill town about 2,500 feet up in the central spine of Judah, roughly 35 miles inland from the Mediterranean and 15 miles west of the Jordan. It sits on no trade route and has no river, which is why it mattered as a fortress and a sanctuary rather than as a market. Wikipedia

Towns sit on their excavated or traditional site. Regions, rivers and seas are ringed rather than dotted, because for those a single point is only an anchor. Coastlines from Natural Earth.

Deep Dive

Setting: Paul writes from Corinth in the winter of about AD 56–57, during the "three months" in Greece of Acts 20:3, to a church he has never visited. Chapter 14 dealt with a dispute in Rome between the "strong," who felt free to eat any food and treat every day alike, and the "weak," whose consciences held them to food laws and special days. Paul told both sides to stop judging and told the strong not to wreck a brother's faith over a meal. Chapter 15 finishes that argument (14:1–15:13 is one unit) by pointing to Christ, then widens the lens: Jew and Gentile praising God together was the goal of Scripture all along. From v14 the letter turns personal, with Paul's calling, travel plans and the relief gift he is about to carry to Jerusalem. Acts 20–21 tells what happened next: the journey with the collection, the warnings on the way, and Paul's arrest in the temple.

The Example of Christ (vv1–7)

• "We who are strong" (v1). Paul counts himself among the strong (14:14). So the line in Rome was not simply Jew against Gentile. Some Jewish believers, like Paul, were strong, and some Gentiles who had come to faith through the synagogue kept Jewish scruples.
• "Bear with the failings of the weak" (v1). "Bear" is bastazō, to carry a load, the word in "Bear one another's burdens" (Gal 6:2) and of Jesus carrying his cross (John 19:17). The strong do not just tolerate the weak. They carry them. Strength is measured by what it lifts, not by what it is free to do.
• "Please his neighbor for his good" (v2). This is not people-pleasing, which Paul rejects (Gal 1:10). The test is "to build him up," the other person's growth, not everyone's comfort.
• "Christ did not please himself" (v3). Paul argues from a person, not a principle, quoting Psalm 69:9, a psalm the Gospels use repeatedly for Jesus' sufferings (John 2:17; 15:25; the vinegar of Ps 69:21). "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me": the insults aimed at God landed on Jesus. If he took that, the strong can give up a meal.
• "Written for our instruction… that we might have hope" (v4). This is why Paul can apply a psalm of David to Christ and then to a church dispute. The Old Testament was written for this age too (1 Cor 10:11), and its endurance and encouragement produce hope.
• "The God of endurance and encouragement" (v5). The two gifts of Scripture in v4 become names for God, their source. "Encouragement" is paraklēsis, exhortation, encouragement or comfort, as in "the God of all comfort" (2 Cor 1:3). Paul's wish is a prayer: unity is something God must grant, and its goal is not identical opinions about food but praise "with one voice" (v6).
• "Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you" (v7). "Welcome" is proslambanō, to take someone to oneself. It is the verb that opened the discussion ("welcome him," 14:1), so the two uses frame the section. The standard is Christ's welcome, given before anyone had their opinions sorted out. Some manuscripts read "welcomed us," as the KJV does; the meaning is the same.
• Commentators: Guzik reads "bear" as bearing up, actively supporting the weak, which the lexicon's "carry" supports. Citing Leon Morris, he adds that real concern for the weak aims to make them strong, and the Tyndale notes likewise say the strong should help the weak live their faith with integrity. JFB: the strong "ought to think less of what we may lawfully do than of how our conduct will affect others." Matthew Henry: "The self-denial of our Lord Jesus is the best argument against the selfishness of Christians." On v7 he urges, "Receive one another into your affection, into your communion, and into your common conversation."

Christ the Hope of Jews and Gentiles (vv8–13)

• "Christ became a servant to the circumcised" (v8). "Servant" is diakonos, servant or attendant. Jesus was born a Jew under the law (Gal 4:4) and ministered almost entirely to Israel (Matt 15:24). Mostly Gentile "strong" believers should not look down on Jewish scruples, since their Lord came as a servant of the Jews.
• "To show God's truthfulness… to confirm the promises" (v8). "Truthfulness" here means faithfulness. In Jesus God kept his word to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, picking up chapters 9–11 (11:29).
• "That the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy" (v9). For Israel, Christ's coming was God keeping promises. For Gentiles, who had none of their own (Eph 2:12), it was pure mercy. Both end in praise.
• Four quotations, one chain (vv9–12). Paul draws from every part of the Hebrew Bible: Psalms (18:49), Law (Deut 32:43), Psalms again (117:1) and Prophets (Isa 11:10). The chain builds: someone praises God among the Gentiles, the Gentiles rejoice with Israel, all Gentiles praise God, and finally the Gentiles hope in Israel's king.
• "I will praise you among the Gentiles" (v9). Psalm 18 is David's thanksgiving after rescue from his enemies (also 2 Sam 22:50), ending with God's "steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever." Paul hears David's greater Son praising God among the nations.
• "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people" (v10). From the end of the Song of Moses, with a textual story behind it. Paul follows the Greek Old Testament, which has four lines here. The standard Hebrew is shorter, and a Dead Sea Scroll of Deuteronomy has another, longer form. The ESV translates Deuteronomy 32:43 from the Qumran reading ("Rejoice with him, O heavens"), so Paul's line is not in an ESV Old Testament, though it matches the standard Hebrew in substance. Hebrews 1:6 quotes another line of the same Greek verse.
• "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles" (v11). Psalm 117, the shortest psalm. Its reason is God's "steadfast love" and "faithfulness," the same mercy and truth as vv8–9.
• "The root of Jesse… in him will the Gentiles hope" (v12). Isaiah 11 pictures a shoot from the stump of Jesse, David's father: a cut-down royal line growing again. Paul follows the Greek "will hope," where the Hebrew has "of him shall the nations inquire" (Isa 11:10), and two Qumran scrolls agree with the Hebrew. Nations seeking the Messiah are nations hoping in him. Jesus calls himself "the root and the descendant of David" (Rev 22:16).
• "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing" (v13). Isaiah's last word is "hope," and Paul picks it up at once. Hope runs through the passage: from Scripture (v4), in Christ (v12), from God, abounding "by the power of the Holy Spirit" (v13). This prayer closes the argument begun in 14:1 and, in effect, the teaching body of the letter.
• Commentators: JFB calls "servant to the circumcised" "a remarkable expression," meaning "the Father's Servant for the salvation of the circumcision (or, of Israel)," sent to "make good the veracity of God towards His ancient people." It notes "some difficulty in the Hebrew" of Deuteronomy 32:43, which fits the textual evidence. Henry: "Let not any think hardly or scornfully therefore of those that were originally Jews." Guzik hears Jesus himself praising among the Gentiles in Psalm 18:49. The Tyndale notes read vv8–12 as the climax of the Jew–Gentile question running through chapters 9–11 and 14.

Paul the Minister to the Gentiles (vv14–21)

• "I myself am satisfied about you" (v14). Paul did not found this church and has not visited it, so he is tactful. He calls them "full of goodness" and "able to instruct one another," as at the letter's start (1:8–12). He writes "by way of reminder" (v15), and his right to write "very boldly" is "the grace given me by God," his call as apostle to the Gentiles (1:5; Gal 2:9).
• "A minister… in the priestly service of the gospel" (v16). Every key word is temple language. "Minister" is leitourgos: in classical Athens a citizen who funded a public service at his own expense, then any public servant. In the Greek Old Testament its word family is used above all for priests and Levites. "Priestly service" is hierourgeō, found only here in the New Testament, meaning to perform sacred rites or minister as a priest. "Offering" is prosphora, a sacrificial offering, the word for the temple offerings Paul pays for in Acts 21:26.
• "So that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable" (v16). On Paul's altar are the Gentile believers themselves, "sanctified by the Holy Spirit," made holy by God's Spirit, not by circumcision or food laws. The picture is Isaiah 66:20, where messengers bring "your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD." The irony is sharp: months later Paul is nearly lynched for supposedly bringing a Gentile into the temple (Acts 21:28–29).
• Priestly language and ministry. Catholic and Orthodox Christians have often seen here support for a priestly character in the ordained ministry. Most Protestants read it as metaphor: the gospel is the priestly work, and all believers are priests (Rom 12:1; 1 Pet 2:9). Both agree Paul's preaching aims at people given wholly to God.
• "What Christ has accomplished through me" (vv17–18). Paul's boast is "in Christ Jesus," and only in what Christ did through him, "by word and deed." Message and power go together (1 Thess 1:5).
• "By the power of signs and wonders" (v19). Acts records miracles through Paul at Lystra, Philippi and Ephesus, and he appeals to them in 2 Corinthians 12:12. Some manuscripts read "Holy Spirit" or just "Spirit" for "Spirit of God," a minor difference.
• "From Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum" (v19). Illyricum was a Roman province on the east coast of the Adriatic, roughly modern Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia. Paul's work traced an arc through Syria, Galatia, Asia, Macedonia and Achaia. Acts never puts Paul in Illyricum. The likeliest moment is Acts 20:1–2, when he "had gone through those regions" of Macedonia, perhaps west along the Via Egnatia toward the Adriatic. Others think Illyricum simply marks the edge of his territory. Titus later goes to Dalmatia, part of the same province (2 Tim 4:10).
• "I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel" (v19). Not that everyone had heard, but that churches were planted in the key cities and could carry on (1 Thess 1:8). His pioneer job there was done.
• "I make it my ambition" (v20). Philotimeomai, literally to love honor, then to aspire. Paul's ambition was laying foundations where "Christ has not already been named" (1 Cor 3:10). This was his calling, not a rule for all ministry, since he also sent Timothy and others to strengthen existing churches. It also explains his care with Rome: someone else laid its foundation.
• "Those who have never been told of him will see" (v21). Isaiah 52:15 opens the fourth Servant Song (52:13–53:12): nations and kings stunned to see the exalted Servant. Paul quoted the next verse in 10:16. His mission statement comes from the song of the suffering Servant.
• Commentators: The lexicon confirms Guzik's point, drawn from John Murray, that the priestly verb in v16 occurs nowhere else in the New Testament and means to minister as a priest. JFB agrees that leitourgos "is commonly employed to express the office of the priesthood," rendering the phrase "ministering as a priest in the Gospel of God." Henry: "Paul gathered in souls by his preaching, not to keep them to himself, but to offer them up to God." The Spirit, not the preacher, makes them acceptable: "None are acceptably offered to God but those that are sanctified." JFB puts Illyricum at "the extreme northwestern boundary of Greece." Guzik and the Tyndale notes agree that v20 does not fault those who build on others' work.

Paul's Plan to Visit Rome (vv22–33)

• "So often been hindered" (v22). The eastern pioneer work kept him away (1:13). Now, with "no longer any room for work in these regions" (v23), he can look west.
• "As I go to Spain" (v24). Hispania was the whole Iberian Peninsula, the far western edge of the known world, roughly a thousand miles past Rome. It was Latin-speaking, and there is little evidence of Jewish communities there in Paul's day, so no synagogues to start from. Some scholars think Isaiah 66:19 shaped Paul's map. It names distant lands where God's messengers will declare his glory, starting with Tarshish, often identified with Tartessus in southern Spain. The Tyndale notes connect the Spain plan to Isaiah 66:19–20.
• "To be helped on my journey there by you" (v24). Propempō, to send someone forward, almost a technical term for supporting missionaries with provisions, money and companions (1 Cor 16:6; Titus 3:13; 3 John 6). Antioch had been Paul's base in the east. He hopes Rome will be his base in the west, which is part of why he lays out his gospel so fully in this letter.
• "At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem" (v25). First, east. Paul had spent years gathering this collection (1 Cor 16:1–4; 2 Cor 8–9), honoring the apostles' one request: "remember the poor" (Gal 2:10). Jerusalem's believers had been poor since the famine of Acts 11:27–30, and many likely lost work and family support for following Jesus.
• "Macedonia and Achaia… some contribution" (v26). Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea, and Corinth and its region. "Contribution" is koinōnia, usually "fellowship," and the lexicon lists this verse under "contribution," the outward result of fellowship. Money given across the Jew–Gentile line was fellowship made visible. Galatia gave too (1 Cor 16:1), and Acts 20:4 names delegates from several regions.
• "Indeed they owe it to them" (v27). Freely given ("they were pleased," twice) and yet a debt, since the Gentiles share Israel's spiritual blessings (9:4–5; 11:17–18). "Be of service" is leitourgeō, the same word family as v16: Paul's priestly service brings Gentiles to God, and their service brings a gift back to Jerusalem.
• "Delivered to them what has been collected" (v28). Literally "sealed to them this fruit." The lexicon files this sphragizō under sealing "for security," used figuratively: Paul means to hand the gift over safely and in full, with witnesses (2 Cor 8:20–21).
• What actually happened. Paul reached Jerusalem with the gift ("to bring alms to my people," Acts 24:17) but was seized in the temple about a week later (21:27–36). He came to Rome some three years later as a prisoner appealing to Caesar (25:11; 28:16). Acts ends with him there two years, preaching "without hindrance" (28:31).
• Did Paul reach Spain? Acts does not say, and no letter of Paul mentions it. Tradition holds that he did. Clement of Rome, writing about AD 95, says Paul reached "the limit of the West" before his martyrdom (1 Clement 5:7), and the Muratorian Fragment (usually dated late second century, though some place it later) speaks of his journey to Spain. Scholars are divided. Some read Clement as meaning Spain, the natural sense for a writer in Rome. Others think he may mean Rome itself or is speaking loosely. Many think the Pastoral Letters imply a release and further travel, though their stops are eastern (Crete, Nicopolis, Troas). No church in Spain can be securely traced to Paul. It is possible, and the early church thought so, but it is not certain.
• "In the fullness of the blessing of Christ" (v29). He did come with that blessing, though not as he pictured. The KJV's "of the gospel" follows later manuscripts.
• "Strive together with me in your prayers" (v30). Synagōnizomai, used only here, from the language of athletic contests: to strive together or help. Paul asks a church he has never met to join his struggle in prayer, appealing "by the love of the Spirit," the love the Spirit creates among believers.
• Three requests (vv31–32). Deliverance "from the unbelievers in Judea" (he knew the danger, Acts 20:23). That his "service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints," since a Gentile gift brought by a man rumored to oppose Moses might be refused (21:20–21). And that he might come to Rome "with joy and be refreshed."
• How God answered. Each was granted, on God's terms. Paul escaped the temple mob and a plot by forty men sworn to kill him (21:31–32; 23:12–24), but by Roman soldiers and in chains. The Jerusalem brothers "received us gladly" (21:17), though Luke never says how the gift itself was received. And at the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns believers came out to meet him, and "Paul thanked God and took courage" (28:15).
• "May the God of peace be with you all. Amen" (v33). For a divided church, "the God of peace" is the fitting name (16:20). Some manuscripts lack "Amen." One early papyrus (P46, about AD 200) places the doxology of 16:25–27 here, which once led a few scholars to think the letter ended at 15:33. Most now think chapter 16 belonged to it from the start, as do the Tyndale notes.
• Commentators: Henry doubts the Spain trip: "It is not certain whether ever he fulfilled his purpose," and "Many of the best expositors think he did not." Guzik leans the other way, while granting this passage does not say so. JFB says the question "has been much disputed," since no record survives. Henry calls the gift voluntary, "they did it of their own accord," and adds, "We cannot expect too little from man, nor too much from God." JFB glosses "sealed" as "delivered over safely," in line with the lexicon, and sees the gift as a "cement" between the two groups. Guzik renders synagōnizomai "agonize together" and links it to Gethsemane, where the disciples failed to pray with Jesus. The lexicon supports a shared contest or struggle, not anguish in the modern sense, so the Gethsemane link is application, not word meaning.

Pointing to Christ

Romans 15 keeps pointing back to Christ. He did not please himself and took the insults aimed at God (v3). He welcomed people before they were ready (v7) and became a servant to Israel so that God's promises would prove true and the nations would sing of his mercy (vv8–9). He is the root of Jesse in whom the Gentiles hope (v12), and the suffering Servant whom nations that never heard will see (v21). Even Paul's plans follow that pattern: he carries a gift to Jerusalem, asks for prayer against those who want him dead, and reaches the city he longed for by way of chains. A self-giving Lord makes a self-giving church, and Jew and Gentile praise God "with one voice" because the same Christ welcomed both.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik examines Christ's example, the purpose of Scripture, Paul's missionary philosophy, and his travel plans.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• Crossway: crossway.org On the whole letter: why Romans has carried the weight it has in church history.
• Crossway: crossway.org Why Paul's own story of being overtaken by grace is the right way into the letter.
• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Romans -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

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Reflection

• The Strong Should Bear With the Weak (v.1) — Paul calls mature believers to carry the weaknesses of others rather than simply pleasing themselves. How are you using your own spiritual maturity to serve weaker believers instead of judging them?
• Scripture Written for Our Encouragement (v.4) — Paul says everything written beforehand was meant to teach believers and give them hope through endurance. How much are you actually drawing on Scripture, especially the Old Testament, for patience and hope?
• Receive One Another as Christ Received You (v.7) — Paul sets Christ's acceptance of undeserving people as the standard for how believers should accept each other. Who is there that you're struggling to receive the way Christ received you?
• The God of Hope Fills Us Through Believing (v.13) — Paul's prayer ties joy and peace directly to faith, not to circumstances. If joy and peace feel absent right now, might the real issue be what you're actually believing about God's promises?
• Paul's Ambition to Reach the Unreached (v.20) — Paul describes his drive to preach where Christ's name had never been spoken, rather than build on others' work. What is your own ambition for the gospel — comfortable maintenance, or genuine advance?
• Asking Others to Pray (vv.30-31) — Even the apostle Paul asked believers to strive together with him in prayer for his safety and mission. Who is currently praying for you, and who are you regularly praying for in return?