Romans 1:8-15 - Paul's Heart

As we continue looking at Romans 1 we have looked at the greeting style of Paul and here we enter the “Personal Message” phase of his greeting (Romans 1:8-15). 

First Paul refers to how thankful he is for them (Romans 1:8), that their faith is being proclaimed through the whole world. The use of the “whole world” is more than likely referring to the Roman Empire. We often want to skip over the greetings as they seem to have little value but this is very interesting. The Roman Christian’s faith was being spoken of throughout Rome. No little feat I’m sure. Paul then goes on to say that he is praying for them consistently (Romans1:9-10), as well as, make know his plan to visit them.

His purpose in visiting the Christians in Rome is to “apart some spiritual gift” on them (Romans 1:11-12). You can really interpret that to mean a wide variety of things. Was he a spiritual gift as in prophesy or tongues, or was it as simple as a teaching or encouragement. I think the later is more likely. He in fact says that he wishes to be encouraged as well as encourage them.

He ends this passage (Romans 1:13-15) making the point that he has wanted and made the plans to come to them on several occasions but had been prevented from doing so. He wanted to come and “obtain some fruit among you…” He ends this portion by saying that he is under no obligation to come to any of them but rather is eager to preach the gospel in Rome. 

Paul’s greetings I think show his heart. He desires to preach and teach and “obtain fruit”. There are other ways he communicates this but we will get to that in future posts.