ACC ~ Romans 15 v14 - 22

OVERVIEW:

Paul praises the Roman church, not because it is perfect but because in many ways it sets an example for others. All the more reason, therefore, to go on toward perfection, so that this example may be the best it can possibly be. In admonishing the Romans on certain points, Paul is fulfilling the ministry given to him by God. The Fathers noted how wisely he did this, not alienating his hearers in the process. Paul takes time in Romans 15:17 to remind the Romans of the mighty work God has done through him. The Fathers respected his many achievements and held them up as a sign of his God-given authority. At Romans 15:22 Paul returns to a theme he has already mentioned in the opening chapter—the fact that he has so far been prevented from going to Rome. The Fathers were concerned to point out that he was not hindered by the devil but by the wider plan of God, who wanted to make use of him elsewhere. Paul’s calling is authenticated by the signs and wonders accomplished by the Spirit in his mission to the Gentiles.

15:14 | Paul Encourages His Readers

THE RELATIVITY OF HUMAN GOODNESS. ORIGEN: This fullness is relative. Paul and those like him are full of goodness, etc., in comparison with their fellow believers, but naturally they are still vastly inferior to the perfection of God. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

EXHORTING ONE ANOTHER. AMBROSIASTER: These are words of encouragement. By praising them he is exhorting them to better understanding and behavior. For one who sees himself praised develops the works he has been given, so that the things which are said might be true. Therefore he did not say that they should teach one another but that they should exhort one another. Exhortation normally occurs when it becomes clear that something is undermining the mind or that it has grown slack. The rest is clear and needs no explanation. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

SATISFIED ABOUT YOU, MY BRETHREN. CHRYSOSTOM: This applies to the exhortation just given [in the preceding verses]. It is as if Paul was saying: “It was not that you were cruel or haters of your brethren that I gave you that exhortation to receive and not to neglect or destroy the work of God. For I am aware that you are full of goodness.” HOMILIES ON ROMANS 28.

THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF PRAISE. PELAGIUS: As a good teacher Paul rouses the people to further progress by praising them, so that they might blush for not being the sort of people the apostle thought they were. He is careful not to appear as if he has sternly rebuked the quarrelsome, the dissident or the foolish. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

15:15 | A Reminder

BECAUSE OF THE GRACE GIVEN ME BY GOD. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says he has been given authority by the grace of God, to embolden him to write to all the Gentiles, exhorting and confirming their calling in Christ, so that he might show his concern in the service of the gospel as a teacher of the Gentiles and so that their sacrifice might be reckoned acceptable because of their sanctification in the Holy Spirit. For whatever is offered with a pure faith and a sober mind is purified by the Holy Spirit. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

WRITTEN BOLDLY. CHRYSOSTOM: Note how humble and how wise Paul is. He cut deep in the first part of his discourse, and after obtaining what he wished, now he turns to kindliness. Even without the rest of what he said, his confession of boldness would be enough to calm their anger. … He often does this in his epistles, but here even more than usual. For the Romans were of a higher rank than the others, and Paul had to bring them down to size. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 29.

[PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: In this passage Paul is either humbling himself or else is saying that he is bold enough to preach to those who already possessed the preaching of Peter. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: Paul means: “I had greater confidence to write because I knew that you were sensible people, ready to accept a reasonable argument.” … Paul wrote to them not because of earthly obligations or to earn praise but to discharge the task he had received. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

BY WAY OF REMINDER. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Paul is telling them that he has not received anything new or wonderful which he is writing to teach them. Rather, he is just reminding them of things they have already learned. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

15:16 | In Service of the Gospel

JUSTIN MARTYR: We are the true high priestly people of God … for everywhere among the Gentiles well-pleasing and pure sacrifices are presented to God. DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO 116.

IN THE PRIESTLY SERVICE OF THE GOSPEL. ORIGEN: The priests had to make sure when they offered sacrifices that there were no blemishes on the sacrificial victim nor faults of any kind, so that the sacrifice might be acceptable and pleasing to God. So also the one who makes a sacrifice of the gospel and preaches the Word of God must ensure that there is no blemish in his preaching, nor fault in his teaching, which might make him blameworthy at the judgment. Rather, he ought first of all to sacrifice himself, to strangle his own faults and to put to death the sins in his members, so that not only by his teaching but also by the example of his life he may make his sacrifice, which is the salvation of his disciples, acceptable to God. The Holy Spirit is the source of sanctification, and therefore the offering of the Gentiles which is made by Paul, in the role of priest, is said to be made acceptable to God by the Holy Spirit and not by the observance of the law. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

PAUL’S FORM OF PRIESTLY SACRIFICE. CHRY-SOSTOM: Now Paul raises his discourse to a loftier tone, speaking no longer of mere ministry only but of “priestly service” also. For Paul, his preaching and evangelizing were a priestly service. It was his form of sacrifice. Nobody would reproach a priest for desiring to offer the most perfect sacrifice possible. Paul says this both to lift up their thoughts and show them that they are a sacrifice and to explain his own part in the matter, because he was appointed to this office. My sacrificial knife, he says, is the gospel, the word of my preaching. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 29.

THAT THE OFFERING OF THE GENTILES MAY BE AN ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE. AUGUSTINE: The Gentiles are offered to God as an acceptable sacrifice when they believe in Christ and are sanctified through the gospel. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 83.

SANCTIFIED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. PELAGIUS: By his example Paul was showing that what he performed with so much fear is holy. For some pass off as human what they proclaim as divine, with the result that what is holy seems to be unholy, since it is not done in a holy way. … Following Paul, however, the Gentiles become an acceptable sacrifice to God, sanctified and exalted not by fire but by the Holy Spirit. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

15:17 | Paul’s Work for God

PROUD IN CHRIST JESUS. ORIGEN: To be proud of one’s work for God without Christ Jesus would be like saying one has glory in God’s eyes without righteousness, wisdom or truth. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

MY WORK FOR GOD. AMBROSIASTER: Believing and serving Christ Jesus with a pure conscience, Paul has made himself worthy in the sight of God the Father, to the point that he can say that there is nothing which Christ has not done through him for the encouragement of the Gentiles, by using him to perform signs and wonders that their power might support the preaching of the gospel. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: After humbling himself, Paul here raises the tone, so as not to become an object of contempt in the eyes of his readers. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 29.

GLORY IN GOD’S SIGHT. PELAGIUS: Paul has glory in the sight of God, even though he is de-famed and attacked in the public eye. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

15:18 | What Christ Accomplished Through Paul

THE PROOF OF HIS CALLING. CHRYSOSTOM: The miracles he performed and the obedience of the Gentiles were the proof that Paul had accomplished the purpose for which he was sent. … He does all he can to show that the whole thing was God’s doing, not his own. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 29.

WHAT CHRIST WROUGHT THROUGH ME. PELAGIUS: Paul has not tried to claim that he has done anything in his own strength. God did all these things through him. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

15:19 | Signs and Wonders by the Spirit’s Power

THE POWER OF SIGNS AND WONDERS. ORIGEN: Signs differ from wonders in that signs are miracles which point to some future happening, whereas wonders are just miracles. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AS FAR ROUND AS ILLYRICUM. CHRYSOSTOM: Count up all the places Paul had been—not just in the Roman Empire but beyond its frontiers as well. Phoenicia, Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia for a start, but also the back country—Arabia, Persia and Armenia. This is why he said “as far round as Illyricum,” so that you would not only think of the direct route from Jerusalem to Illyricum but consider also all the surrounding countries as well. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 29.

BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Here Paul shows that the strength and power of Christ, of God [the Father] and of the Holy Spirit are one and the same. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: Paul was talking not about words here but about miracles. The gospel is fully disseminated when the Gentiles also believe. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: When Paul says “as far round as Illyricum,” he means that he got to Illyricum in a roundabout way, via the eastern provinces, the Black Sea region, Asia Minor and Thrace. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

15:20 | Preaching the Gospel

WHERE CHRIST HAD NOT BEEN NAMED. AMBROSIASTER: It was not without reason that Paul says that he tried to preach in places where Christ had not been named. For he knew that false apostles went about sharing Christ in ways which were wrong in order to ensnare the people by some other teaching under the name of Christ, which was then very difficult to put right afterward. Therefore he wanted to get there first, in order to preach the right message. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

DIODORE: Paul was not trying to avoid the other apostles, but he thought it was wrong and unfair to steal the credit for what someone else had done. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

LEST I BUILD UPON ANOTHER MAN’S FOUNDATION. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul was preeminent in this also, in that he did not go to places where the gospel had already been preached. So far was he from forcing himself upon other men’s disciples that he even went to places where nobody had preached before. … He wrote all this to show that he was a stranger to vanity and to instruct them that it was not from any love of glory or of honor from them that he came to write but in order to fulfill his ministry, perfect his priestly service and love their salvation. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 29.

PELAGIUS: A man who builds on someone else’s foundation is not doing anything wrong, as long as he builds with gold and such. Here Paul is referring to those false apostles who always went to converts and never to the Gentiles because they could not work miracles. Paul also shows that he had done a good job, for he both laid the foundation and also built on top of it. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

WHY HE HAD NOT VISITED ROME. GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: The explanation as to why Paul had not yet managed to visit the Romans seems to be that he believed that Peter had already come to them as their teacher, so he went to places where as yet no one had preached the gospel of Christ. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

15:21 | Those Who Have Never Been Told

THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says that he was always quick to fill the Gentiles with the truth of the gospel, so that their understanding of the true Son of God might be correct and unshakable. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

NOTE WHERE PAUL GOES. CHRYSOSTOM: You see how Paul goes to where the labor is more and the toil greater. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 29.

PELAGIUS: Paul shows that his work was foretold. Christ was made manifest in the apostles through the miracles which they performed in his name. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

15:22 | Hindered from Coming to Rome

WHY HINDERED. ORIGEN: Paul was not hindered by Satan, as some think, but by the fact that he was too busy planting churches in places where nobody had ever preached the gospel before. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

WHY POSTPONED. AMBROSIASTER: Here Paul explains what he has already mentioned at the beginning of the epistle and excuses himself by saying that although he wanted to come to them, he was obliged to shut out the wicked teachings of the false apostles. . . .These false apostles would have found the journey to Rome difficult, so Paul thought that it would do no harm if he postponed his visit for a while. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

RETURN TO HIS BEGINNING THEME. CHRYSOSTOM: At the end of his epistle he returns to what he said at the beginning. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 29.