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This prayer is further detailed so as to show his intense desire to visit them, which had
in view:--
3. The stablishing of the saints by the imparting of some spiritual gift.
This is very graciously expanded to include the comfort also of the apostle, "by the
mutual faith of you and me". Moreover the apostle desired fruit from these Gentiles as of
others.
4.
To show that his long delay was prompted neither by fear nor laxity he declares that
he was a debtor to preach the gospel to all men, Rome included, and that
5.
He was not ashamed of the gospel, because it was the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth.
This leads on to the theme of the epistle, viz., 1: 17. Why did Paul feel it necessary to
call upon God as a witness concerning his prayer for the Romans? When he called upon
God to bear witness that he had not used flattering words, nor a cloak of covetousness
(I Thess. 2: 5), it must have been because some had falsely accused him of these things.
When he claimed to be a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith
and truth he was compelled to say, "I speak the truth in Christ and lie not" (I Tim. 2: 7),
the reason being that his apostleship had been challenged. When he heads the
dispensational section of Romans with the words, "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my
conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 9: 1), the reason is that his
zeal as the apostle of the Gentiles had been misrepresented and he had been accused of
having lost his love for his own people, which was grossly untrue. So in Rom. 1: 9. Paul
knew that enemies were busy defaming and misrepresenting him. He says in effect that
no man can be said to be either afraid or neglectful of whom God will bear witness that
unceasingly he prays for the opportunity of visiting them and of being a means of
blessing to them in the hands of God.
The apostle desired by his visit to impart some spiritual gift "to the end ye may be
established". The apostle's attitude to spiritual gifts was of preference for those that
edified the church rather than drew honour and credit to the possessor. Gifts were
confirmatory (I Cor. 1: 6, 7, and II Cor. 1: 21). He desired to establish the saints at
Rome. The apostle had one gift that was perhaps greater than all put together, the gift of
love that "vaunteth not itself and is not puffed up", and he immediately follows the
statement which makes him the dispenser of the gift by one that makes him the sharer
with others, viz., "the mutual faith of you and me", a blessed echo of the words and spirit
of Matt. 17: 27. He who could say with clear conscience that he remembered all the
saints without ceasing was not above publicly asking the prayers of those to whom he
ministered, including such humbling requests as "utterance", "boldness", and grace to
speak "as he ought". It takes a great spirit to be so humble. What pigmies we are as we
compare ourselves with this man of God!
Moreover the apostle wanted fruit, "fruit unto holiness" (Rom. 6: 22), which was not
exclusive of the contribution to the poor saints at Jerusalem, which he called "this fruit"