Romans 15
15
1We who are strong in faith should help those who are weak. We should help them with their weaknesses, and not please only ourselves. 2Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to help him be stronger in faith. 3Even Christ did not live to please himself. It was as the Scriptures said: “When people insult you, it hurts me.”# Quotation from Psalm 69:9. 4Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that we could have hope. That hope comes from the patience and encouragement that the Scriptures give us. 5Patience and encouragement come from God. And I pray that God will help you all agree with each other the way Christ Jesus wants. 6Then you will all be joined together, and you will give glory to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7Christ accepted you, so you should accept each other. This will bring glory to God. 8I tell you that Christ became a servant of the Jews. This was to show that God’s promises to the Jewish ancestors are true. 9And he also did this so that the non-Jews could give glory to God for the mercy he gives to them. It is written in the Scriptures:
“So I will praise you among the non-Jewish people.
I will sing praises to your name.” Psalm 18:49
10The Scripture also says,
11Again the Scripture says,
“All you non-Jews, praise the Lord.
All you people, sing praises to him.” Psalm 117:1
12And Isaiah says,
“A new king will come from Jesse’s family.# Jesse was the father of David, king of Israel. Jesus was from their family.
He will come to rule over the non-Jews;
and the non-Jews will have hope because of him.” Isaiah 11:10
13I pray that the God who gives hope will fill you with much joy and peace while you trust in him. Then your hope will overflow by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul Talks About His Work
14My brothers, I am sure that you are full of goodness. I know that you have all the knowledge you need and that you are able to teach each other. 15But I have written to you very openly about some things that I wanted you to remember. I did this because God gave me this special gift: 16to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the non-Jewish people. I served God by teaching his Good News, so that the non-Jewish people could be an offering that God would accept—an offering made holy by the Holy Spirit.
17So I am proud of what I have done for God in Christ Jesus. 18I will not talk about anything I did myself. I will talk only about what Christ has done through me in leading the non-Jewish people to obey God. They have obeyed God because of what I have said and done. 19And they have obeyed God because of the power of miracles and the great things they saw, and the power of the Holy Spirit. I preached the Good News from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum. And so I have finished that part of my work. 20I always want to preach the Good News in places where people have never heard of Christ. I do this because I do not want to build on the work that someone else has already started. 21But it is written in the Scriptures:
“Those who were not told about him will see,
and those who have not heard about him will understand.” Isaiah 52:15
Paul’s Plan to Visit Rome
22That is why many times I was stopped from coming to you. 23Now I have finished my work here. Since for many years I have wanted to come to you, 24I hope to visit you on my way to Spain. I will enjoy being with you, and you can help me on my trip. 25Now I am going to Jerusalem to help God’s people. 26The believers in Macedonia and Southern Greece were happy to give their money to help the poor among God’s people at Jerusalem. 27They were happy to do this, and really they owe it to them. These non-Jews have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings. So they should use their material possessions to help the Jews. 28I must be sure that the poor in Jerusalem get the money that has been given for them. After I do this, I will leave for Spain and stop and visit you. 29I know that when I come to you, I will bring Christ’s full blessing.
30Brothers, I beg you to help me in my work by praying for me to God. Do this because of our Lord Jesus and the love that the Holy Spirit gives us. 31Pray that I will be saved from the non-believers in Judea. And pray that this help I bring to Jerusalem will please God’s people there. 32Then, if God wants me to, I will come to you. I will come with joy, and together you and I will have a time of rest. 33The God who gives peace be with you all. Amen.
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Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Romans 15
15
1-2Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”
3-6That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!
7-13So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! Jesus, staying true to God’s purposes, reached out in a special way to the Jewish insiders so that the old ancestral promises would come true for them. As a result, the non-Jewish outsiders have been able to experience mercy and to show appreciation to God. Just think of all the Scriptures that will come true in what we do! For instance:
Then I’ll join outsiders in a hymn-sing;
I’ll sing to your name!
And this one:
Outsiders and insiders, rejoice together!
And again:
People of all nations, celebrate God!
All colors and races, give hearty praise!
And Isaiah’s word:
There’s the root of our ancestor Jesse,
breaking through the earth and growing tree tall,
Tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope!
Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!
* * *
14-16Personally, I’ve been completely satisfied with who you are and what you are doing. You seem to me to be well-motivated and well-instructed, quite capable of guiding and advising one another. So, my dear friends, don’t take my rather bold and blunt language as criticism. It’s not criticism. I’m simply underlining how very much I need your help in carrying out this highly focused assignment God gave me, this priestly and gospel work of serving the spiritual needs of the non-Jewish outsiders so they can be presented as an acceptable offering to God, made whole and holy by God’s Holy Spirit.
17-21Looking back over what has been accomplished and what I have observed, I must say I am most pleased—in the context of Jesus, I’d even say proud, but only in that context. I have no interest in giving you a chatty account of my adventures, only the wondrously powerful and transformingly present words and deeds of Christ in me that triggered a believing response among the outsiders. In such ways I have trailblazed a preaching of the Message of Jesus all the way from Jerusalem far into northwestern Greece. This has all been pioneer work, bringing the Message only into those places where Jesus was not yet known and worshiped. My text has been,
Those who were never told of him—
they’ll see him!
Those who’ve never heard of him—
they’ll get the message!
* * *
22-24And that’s why it has taken me so long to finally get around to coming to you. But now that there is no more pioneering work to be done in these parts, and since I have looked forward to seeing you for many years, I’m planning my visit. I’m headed for Spain, and expect to stop off on the way to enjoy a good visit with you, and eventually have you send me off with God’s blessing.
25-29First, though, I’m going to Jerusalem to deliver a relief offering to the followers of Jesus there. The Greeks—all the way from the Macedonians in the north to the Achaians in the south—decided they wanted to take up a collection for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. They were happy to do this, but it was also their duty. Seeing that they got in on all the spiritual gifts that flowed out of the Jerusalem community so generously, it is only right that they do what they can to relieve their poverty. As soon as I have done this—personally handed over this “fruit basket”—I’m off to Spain, with a stopover with you in Rome. My hope is that my visit with you is going to be one of Christ’s more extravagant blessings.
30-33I have one request, dear friends: Pray for me. Pray strenuously with and for me—to God the Father, through the power of our Master Jesus, through the love of the Spirit—that I will be delivered from the lions’ den of unbelievers in Judea. Pray also that my relief offering to the Jerusalem believers will be accepted in the spirit in which it is given. Then, God willing, I’ll be on my way to you with a light and eager heart, looking forward to being refreshed by your company. God’s peace be with all of you. Oh, yes!
* * *
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.