Romans 15: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul tells the strong believers in Rome to bear with the weaknesses of the weak and to accept one another as Christ accepted them, and he lines up Scripture quotations showing that Gentiles were meant to praise God along with Israel. He then describes his own work as a servant of Christ to the Gentiles, preaching where Christ was not yet known, from Jerusalem around to Illyricum. He lays out his travel plans: first to Jerusalem with the money collected in Macedonia and Achaia for the poor believers there, then to Rome on his way to Spain. He asks the Roman believers to pray that he will be kept safe in Judea and that his gift will be welcomed.

Claim by Claim

1. 15:1
   • Those who are strong are obligated to bear the weaknesses of those who are not strong.
   • Those who are strong ought not to please themselves.
   • Paul includes himself among the strong.
2. 15:2
   • Each one of us should please his neighbor.
   • Pleasing the neighbor is to be for the neighbor's good.
   • Pleasing the neighbor is to be aimed at building him up.
3. 15:3
   • Christ did not please himself.
   • It is written that the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.
   • The scriptural quotation is given as the reason Christ did not please himself.
4. 15:4
   • Whatever things were written beforehand were written for our instruction.
   • The purpose of that writing is that we might have hope.
   • That hope comes through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures.
5. 15:5
   • God is the God of endurance and encouragement.
   • Paul asks God to grant the readers to have the same mind toward one another.
   • That like-mindedness is to be according to Christ Jesus.
6. 15:6
   • The purpose of that like-mindedness is that they may glorify God with one accord and with one mouth.
   • God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7. 15:7
   • The readers are told to receive one another.
   • Christ received us.
   • The receiving of one another is to be as Christ received us.
   • This is to be to the glory of God.
8. 15:8
   • Paul says that Jesus Christ became a servant of the circumcision.
   • Christ became that servant on behalf of the truth of God.
   • The purpose was to confirm the promises made to the fathers.
9. 15:9
   • A further purpose was that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.
   • It is written: for this reason I will confess to you among the Gentiles.
   • The same scripture says: and I will sing to your name.
10. 15:10
    • Scripture says again: rejoice, Gentiles, with his people.
11. 15:11
    • Scripture says again: praise the Lord, all you Gentiles.
    • The same scripture says: and let all the peoples praise him.
12. 15:12
    • Isaiah says a further word.
    • Isaiah says there shall be a root of Jesse.
    • Isaiah says one shall arise to rule over the Gentiles.
    • Isaiah says the Gentiles shall hope in him.
13. 15:13
    • God is the God of hope.
    • Paul asks God to fill the readers with all joy and peace in believing.
    • The purpose is that they may abound in hope.
    • That abounding is by the power of the Holy Spirit.
14. 15:14
    • Paul is himself persuaded concerning the readers.
    • Paul calls them his brothers.
    • Paul is persuaded that they are full of goodness.
    • Paul is persuaded that they are filled with all knowledge.
    • Paul is persuaded that they are able to admonish one another.
15. 15:15
    • Paul has written to them the more boldly in part.
    • He wrote so as to remind them.
    • He wrote boldly because of the grace given to him by God.
16. 15:16
    • The grace was given so that Paul should be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.
    • Paul serves as a priest in the gospel of God.
    • The purpose is that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable.
    • That offering is sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
17. 15:17
    • Paul therefore has cause to boast in Christ Jesus.
    • That boasting concerns the things pertaining to God.
18. 15:18
    • Paul will not dare to speak of anything that Christ has not accomplished through him.
    • What Christ accomplished through Paul was to bring the Gentiles to obedience.
    • That was accomplished by word and deed.
19. 15:19
    • It was accomplished by the power of signs and wonders.
    • It was accomplished by the power of the Spirit of God.
    • Paul has fully preached the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum.
20. 15:20
    • Paul has made it his ambition to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named.
    • His reason is so that he would not build on another man's foundation.
21. 15:21
    • It is written: those to whom he was not announced shall see.
    • The same scripture says: and those who have not heard shall understand.
22. 15:22
    • For this reason Paul has been hindered many times from coming to them.
23. 15:23
    • Paul now has no more place in these regions.
    • Paul has had a great longing to come to them for many years.
24. 15:24
    • Paul says he will come to them whenever he journeys to Spain.
    • Paul hopes to see them while passing through.
    • Paul hopes to be sent on his way there by them.
    • This is conditioned on his first being somewhat filled with their company.
25. 15:25
    • Paul is now going to Jerusalem.
    • He is going to minister to the saints.
26. 15:26
    • Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a certain contribution.
    • The contribution is for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.
27. 15:27
    • They were indeed pleased to do it.
    • They are debtors to them.
    • If the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, then the Gentiles are obligated to minister to them in material things.
28. 15:28
    • Paul will complete this task.
    • Paul will seal this fruit to them.
    • After that Paul will go by way of them into Spain.
29. 15:29
    • Paul is sure that when he comes to them he will come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
30. 15:30
    • Paul urges the brothers.
    • He urges them by our Lord Jesus Christ.
    • He urges them by the love of the Spirit.
    • He urges them to strive together with him in prayers to God on his behalf.
31. 15:31
    • One purpose of the prayer is that Paul may be delivered from those in Judaea who do not believe.
    • Another purpose is that Paul's service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints.
32. 15:32
    • A further purpose is that Paul may come to them with joy.
    • That coming is by the will of God.
    • A further purpose is that Paul may be refreshed together with them.
33. 15:33
    • God is the God of peace.
    • Paul asks that God be with all of them.
    • Amen.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

15:1

"Strong" and "weak" carry on the argument of the previous chapter, where the dispute was about food and about treating certain days as holy. The "weak" are those whose conscience will not let them eat everything; the "strong" are those who feel free to. The words are not a verdict on anyone's character or courage. "Infirmities" in 1611 English covered weakness of any kind, not just illness.

15:2

The King James says "edification." That old word means building someone up, like building a house. Here it means helping a friend grow stronger inside.

15:3

The quotation is Psalm 69:9, from a psalm in which a sufferer tells God that the hostility aimed at God has landed on him instead.

15:4

"Written aforetime" means the Jewish Scriptures, the writings later called the Old Testament; these were the only Scriptures Paul had. In the King James Version "patience" usually means endurance under pressure rather than calm waiting, and "comfort" means strengthening and encouragement rather than soothing.

15:7

"Receive" translates a word for welcoming someone into your home and to your table. After a whole chapter of argument about shared meals, the instruction is practical: eat together.

15:8

"The circumcision" is shorthand for the Jewish people, named for the mark of the covenant given to Abraham, the cutting away of the foreskin of every male child. "The fathers" are the ancestors to whom God made those promises: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their line.

15:9

The quotation is Psalm 18:49, which also appears as 2 Samuel 22:50. In the King James Version "confess" often means to acknowledge or declare openly, and here to praise, not to admit a fault.

15:10

The quotation is from Deuteronomy 32:43, the closing song of Moses.

15:11

The quotation is Psalm 117:1. That psalm is only two verses long, so Paul is quoting half of the shortest psalm in the collection.

15:12

The quotation is Isaiah 11:10. "Esaias" is simply the Greek form of the name Isaiah. Jesse was the father of King David, so "a root of Jesse" pictures a fresh shoot growing out of David's family tree. The same Greek word, ethne, lies behind both "nations" and "Gentiles" here: it means the peoples other than Israel.

15:13

"Holy Ghost" is the King James wording for what modern versions call the Holy Spirit. In 1611 "ghost" simply meant spirit, with none of its present sense of a haunting.

15:14

"Admonish" means to warn or correct someone, firmly but as a friend rather than as a judge. "Brethren" is the old plural of brother and covers the whole church, women included.

15:15

"The grace that is given to me of God" does not mean general kindness here. Paul means a specific assignment handed to him, the commission to work among non-Jews, which he spells out in the next verse.

15:16

Paul describes his own work in temple vocabulary. The word behind "ministering" is used of a priest carrying out his duties at the altar, and the Gentiles he brings to God are the offering laid on it. "Sanctified" means set apart for God's use, the way an animal or object was set apart for sacrifice.

15:17

"Glory" used as a verb in the King James Version means to boast or take pride in something.

15:19

"Signs and wonders" is a fixed Old Testament phrase for acts of power that point beyond themselves to their source. Illyricum was a Roman province on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, covering roughly modern Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia; it marked the northwestern limit of Paul's travels.

15:20

"Where Christ was named" means where his name had already been spoken publicly, that is, where another preacher had already worked.

15:21

A quotation from Isaiah 52:15.

15:23

"No more place in these parts" does not mean everyone in the eastern provinces had heard. Paul means he has established communities across each region there, so his own pioneering job in the east is finished and he can turn west.

15:24

Spain was the far western end of the Roman world, about as far from Jerusalem as a traveler could get by land and sea. "To be brought on my way" refers to a recognized custom: a congregation would send a traveler off equipped, with money, supplies, letters of introduction and sometimes companions for part of the road. Paul is asking the Romans to back the Spanish trip.

15:25

"Saints" in the King James Version means the ordinary members of the Christian communities, God's set apart people, not a special class of exceptionally holy individuals. That is why Paul can speak in the next verse of "poor saints".

15:26

Macedonia and Achaia were the two Roman provinces of Greece, northern and southern: Philippi and Thessalonica lay in the first, Corinth and Athens in the second. The "contribution" is a relief fund Paul spent years collecting from his largely non-Jewish congregations for the impoverished believers in Jerusalem.

15:27

"Carnal" in 1611 meant bodily or material, anything belonging to physical life, and carried none of today's sexual sense. Paul is setting money and goods over against spiritual benefits.

15:28

"Sealed to them this fruit" uses the language of trade. A shipment was sealed to certify its contents and prove it arrived untouched. The "fruit" is the money collected, so Paul means he will see the fund delivered, intact and verifiably.

15:30

"Strive together with me" translates a word from the wrestling ground and the games, meaning to labor alongside someone in a contest. "The love of the Spirit" can mean either the love the Spirit produces in believers or the love the Spirit itself has; the Greek allows both readings.

15:31

Paul's request is concrete, not formal. He expected physical danger from opponents in Judea, and he was genuinely unsure whether his relief money would even be accepted by the Jerusalem believers, some of whom distrusted his work among non-Jews. Acts reports that he was in fact seized and arrested shortly after reaching Jerusalem.

15:33

"Amen" is a Hebrew word that means "yes, let it be so." People said it at the end of a prayer to agree with it.