Romans 15

There is no impersonal character, no pardon by proxy, no collective salvation. The work is for each. “Repent” is for each. “Take up the cross and come after me,” is for each. The apostolic view of practical Christianity as a “calling” individualizes, first, the Christian principle as having a place distinct from all other principles, and, secondly, individualizes the Christian life as having all its awful obligations, its joys and sanctions, centered upon each personal conscience and heart. F. D. H.

23. For “damned,” “condemned.” In hardly any place where this terrible word is used is its use justified, or is the meaning to be referred to a future life. A.—The very duties of religion, if self be the soul of them, are nothing but guilt. Where there is faith, there is humility; but where there is not faith, there is nothing but pride and self-deceit.

Therefore, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. G. B. C.—He that doubteth. In every undertaking our first care should be to have a clear conscience. Rectitude is a sacred and awful thing; and, as its eternal laws should never be despised by open and deliberate transgression, so the very possibility of invading them by rashness and imprudence should fill us with constant vigilance and unceasing caution. J. H. T.—Misgivings and doubts and scruples are intended to make us think, but not to make us waste all our energy on thinking; they are intended to make us pause, but not to make us stop; they are intended to make us repent, but not to make us give up everything else to fruitless sorrow. And if we can not attain peace or light all at once, we must not, for all that, complain, lag, or despair; we must simply obey and wait. F. T.

1. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please our- 2 selves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even 3 Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached 4 thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learn- 5 ing, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the 6 God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according 7 to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father 8 of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to 9 the glory of God. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the 10 truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might 11 glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the 12 Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his peo- 13 ple. And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people. And again, 14 Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; 15 in him shall the Gentiles trust. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in 16 believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. 17 And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, 18 filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brethren, I 19 have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the 20 grace that is given to me of God, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the 21 Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be ac- 22 ceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof I may glory through 23 Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of 24 those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word 25 and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that 26 from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. 27 Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build 28 upon another man’s foundation: but as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they 29 shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand. For which cause also I have been 30 much hindered from coming to you. But now having no more place in these parts, and 31 having a great desire these many years to come unto you; whensoever I take my journey 32 into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on 33 my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company. But now I 34 go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and 35 Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. It hath

27 pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things. 28 When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by 29 you into Spain. And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness 30 of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers 31 to God for me; that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judæa; and that 32 my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints; that I may come unto 33 you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

SELF-PLEASING always tends to meanness of character. It is clean against all that we understand by nobleness, magnanimity, courage, honor. It is against all the public virtues, such as patriotism, benevolence, and the charities of life. It always inflicts injury and misery upon others. Self-pleasing is enormously difficult to the self that is always seeking to be pleased, so difficult as to be ultimately quite impossible of realization. More and yet more must be had, until more is not to be had. Better and yet better, and, alas! better will not come. And Christian people ought to be constantly and watchfully on their guard against this thing. There is, absolutely, no one whom it will not beset. The vivacious will have it presented to them in forms of excitement and amusement, which, if indulged in, will draw them away from the important duties of daily life, as well as from some of the severer duties of Christian service. The quiet and retiring will have it presented to them in forms of sloth and ease—they will think that it can injure no one, and no precious interest, that they should take their rest. The busy will have it presented to them in the forms of avarice, and ambition, and fame, and honor; in fact, all the vices and all the faults are but different dresses which that protean character, the old self, puts on as it goes up and down the world, murmuring, “We ought to please ourselves!” Beware! brother; sister; young disciple; old disciple—beware! lest, unwittingly, ye fall into that soft and easy habit of pleasing self. Please the higher self and welcome. Please your conscience. Please the love that lies sleeping in you, deep, and vast, and far. Please the powers, and the sensibilities, and the activities of the Christian life; and then, not you alone, but angels and God himself, will be pleased. But as to pleasing that other self, that second you, that meaner creature you sometimes find yourself lapsing into, all danger and all soul-death lie that way. It is surely no irreverence to follow the figure that has been given us, and say, “Let that man be crucified.” Put fresh nails into the hands and the feet. Pierce that cold black heart with the soldier’s spear. The dear Christ died in his love and purity, and rose again, and revived, that that dark man of sin might die for ever. A. R.

1. The world abounds in wretchedness which can neither help itself nor make compensation for the help of others, and which appeals for relief to those who are able to render it. Here we have the law of unrequited or gratuitous service—the strong must serve the weak. Human need creates a lien on the ability to relieve it. Every man is debtor, as much as in him is, to use his superior power, of whatever kind, in uncompensated service to those who need. And the greater the power to serve, the greater the proportion of this kind of service that is due—preëminent ability, preëminent service; greatness, great service. Here we reach the Christian principle of stewardship—that men hold property and all means of influence, not for selfish ends, but in trust for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom and the promotion of the best interests of man. J. H.

The strong virtue that can go on its own way without being shaken by any ordinary temptation too often forgets the duty due to the weakness close to its side. By stern treatment of faults which were yet much struggled against, by cold refusal to acknowledge any except plainly successful efforts, by rejecting the approaches of those who have not yet learned the right way, but are really wishing in their secret hearts to learn it, those who are strong not unfrequently do much harm to those who are weak. F. T.

The ignorant and prejudiced, the contracted and infirm, generally expect that their weakness, ignorance, and infirmity (under other and of course finer names) are to give the law to the strong and to the free; and that no one ought to do either what they can not do or will not. Certainly it is the duty of the strong “to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please themselves”; but also it is the duty of the weak to become strong, and not to need to be pleased by being allowed the selfish luxury of putting restraints on the liberty of others. T. B.—Rather trying are the infirmities of the weak. Very tiresome is a continual touchiness in a neighbor, or the perpetual recurrence of the same faults in a pupil or a child. But if by self-restraint and right treatment God should enable you to cure those faults, from how much shame and sorrow do you rescue them, from how much suffering yourself!

In this form of effort there can never be total failure; in trying to cure the patient, the physician heals himself. In combating his bad temper, you are obliged to conquer your own; and, in order to expel from that other sullenness, self-indulgence, petulance, you are compelled to go to God, and beg for your own spirit a larger supply of sweetness, generosity, long-suffering, and all those noble radiant attributes which in the contest with depravity make the sun-like Christian more than conqueror. Hamilton.

2. “Good to edification” means good in the spiritual sense; the building up of the character in spiritual life. It is not that one Christian man is to yield to another simply because he wishes it. It is this: that a man in yielding must exercise an enlightened benevolence, and have a view to the real and lasting good of the person with whose desires, or wishes, or tastes, such compliance is made. And he, my neighbor, will see that I am yielding for Christ’s sake. He will see that it is the yielding of strength; that it is the yielding of love, in which all strength lies; and that will be to him like a very presence of Christ, and will do more to correct his errors, and supply his deficiency, and corroborate his feebleness, than the clearest statements and the firmest reasonings can do. A. R.

3. Some of the Roman Christians considered the meat that had been offered to idols unfit for Christian use, while others of them could partake of it without scruple. But, not contented with enjoying their own liberty, they set themselves to indulge in mutual recrimination. The one class considered the other unconscientious, while these retorted on them as weak-minded. It is a quarrel that, in some shape, has turned up ever since. The apostle Paul belongs unmistakably to the one side, that which saw no conscience in the matter, but he is not devoured by a zeal to bring all to his own mind. He sees that there are things infinitely more important than uniformity. Charity is greater, and liberty. Those who can not eat must believe in the good faith of those who can, and they who have no scruples must refrain from taunting those who have. Then from the whole controversy he rises to this great principle, which lifts the thing out of the local and temporary, and gives it a worldwide and permanent interest. In our intercourse with our fellow-Christians or fellow-men, we are not to make our own pleasure, but the pleasure of our neighbor, our chief end. This is the example set by Christ, our great Master: “He pleased not himself.” The violation of this principle has produced more unhappiness and sin than many other things that seem at first sight more deadly—has broken up the communion of the Church and the comfort of the social and family circle. Ker.

Even Christ. As the brightness of the Father’s glory, he discloses the love of God appearing under human limitations in service and sacrifice. As the ideal man, he reveals in service and sacrifice the image of God perfected in human character. The character expressed and developed in loving service is the highest and noblest type of character. Jesus reveals the divine in the human, and the human in its ideal perfection. That ideal is found in his life of service; he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. The conception of greatness by ministering is the conception of manly strength and power to serve, of resources given without impoverishment. So we assent to the words of Jesus, seeing therein our highest dignity: “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord.” J. H.

4. The words should stand, “that through the patience and the comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The verse is sometimes read as if “patience” were one thing by itself, and “comfort of the Scriptures” another by itself. But the two go together: it is “patience of the Scriptures and comfort of the Scriptures,” i. e., patience and comfort, both arising from the Scriptures, produced by their study. A.—The New Testament is to us and our successors the same precious inheritance its gospels and epistles and prophecies were to the first believers; with this only difference: that as prophecy gathers to fulfillment, as the shadowy outlines of prediction begin to fill and flush with the vivid colors of fact, the story of Christ the Redeemer and of the human heart as acted on by Christ—the Bible history of man—becomes still more authentic and still more valuable. Truly, “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope.” W. A. B.—We need no voice from heaven in order to make us happy. There is enough in the Bible to cause every heart in this wretched world to burn with joy. We are told of pardon for the guilty, sanctification for the polluted, rest for the burdened soul, salvation for the lost, Christ for a Comforter, heaven for a home. And we are told of these things for this express purpose: to give us consolation. C. B.

6. A grand end to live for. How many are the strong yet most tender, the common yet most sacred ties that bind us to it, no man can tell. We have more reason for living to God’s glory than any angel has. He made us, has preserved us in life and provided for our wants; to us he has been merciful and gracious, besides being abundant in goodness and in truth—having borne with us, pitied us, spared us, loved us, and, not sparing his own Son, redeemed us, as well, by his gracious Spirit, and called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. And so the warmest love to God should burn in human breasts, and in the heavenly choir the highest notes should be sung, not by angels, but those whom Jesus has redeemed to God by his blood out of every kindred, and nation, and people, and tongue. T. G.

13. We rejoice because our future is filled with hope—the hope of the glory of God. Joy comes then from hope; hope from the God of love; hope sure and steadfast; hope that maketh not ashamed; everlasting hope. Glory is ours in prospect—the glory of the new heavens and earth, the glory of resurrection, the glory of the kingdom, the very glory of Christ. And it is all ours, simply as those who have known and believed this free love of God. Hence the apostle’s prayer, “The God of (the) hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” Bonar.

—There is “peace in believing.” To the man of intelligent, heartfelt, yet childlike faith in the testimony of Jesus Christ, the principles and promises of that testimony are what the facts of nature are to the philosopher—absolute certainties, in which the mind may rest. He never is the subject of doubt, while his views of things are conformed to the disclosures of this testimony, and his feeling and course are in harmony with its requirements. In resting upon this word as the ultimate ground of certainty, in taking from it his ends, his rules, his motives, his encouragements—all the powers and elements of his nature work in harmony with each other; his conscience, his intellect, and his heart draw together. What the mind perceives to be taught here as true, conscience approves as right, and the heart loves as good. The man has never yet been found who felt that he was doing wrong in submitting himself in a spirit of implicit faith to the truth of Jesus Christ. His submission has always been the source of his peace; a peace as deep and refreshing and satisfying as his faith has been strong and decided. E. M.

16. The apostle represents himself as “acting the part of a priest in reference to the gospel of Christ,” and in the exercise of this office laying on the altar of God the converted Gentiles as a sacrifice acceptable to God. In plain language, the design of his apostleship was, that the Gentiles, being converted by the faith of the gospel through his instrumentality, and by the agency of the Holy Ghost, might devote themselves to God as his peculiar property. J. B.—The doctrine of Christ concerning the Holy Ghost (John 14-16) can be no other than this: that, after the body of Jesus should be removed from the Church, he should still continue to carry on the spiritual work of renewing, sanctifying, and saving souls—which is his eternal ministry—the Church itself thus becoming the body of his Spirit, that visible, but he indwelling, yet manifest still in the fruits of holy love and life; that, in thus acting on the spirits of believers in answer to prayer, the Son and the Father who sent him are together united in counsel and one in purpose; and that the agent by which they thus move and draw and change the heart is the Holy Spirit, but also known as the Comforter, the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, and the Holy Ghost. F. D. H.

19. “So that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” These words import that Paul had come to the confines of Illyricum, and that these confines were the external boundary of his travels. Paul considers Jerusalem as the center, and is here viewing the circumference to which his travels had extended. Illyricum was the part of this circle which he mentions in an epistle to the Romans, because it lay in a direction from Jerusalem toward that city, and pointed out to the Roman readers the nearest place to them to which his travels from Jerusalem had brought him. Illyricum adjoins upon Macedonia. If, therefore, Paul traversed the whole country of Macedonia, the route would necessarily bring him to the confines of Illyricum, and these confines would be described as the extremity of his journey. The account of Paul’s second visit to the peninsula of Greece is contained in Acts 20:2. Paley.

24. Into Spain. Clement, the disciple of Paul, mentioned Phil. 4:3, writing from Rome to Corinth, expressly asserts that Paul had preached the gospel “in the east and in the west”; that “he had instructed the whole world [i. e., the Roman Empire, which was commonly so called] in righteousness”; and that he “had gone to the extremity of the west” before his martyrdom. Now, in a Roman author, the extremity of the west could mean nothing short of Spain, and the expression is often used by Roman writers to denote Spain. Here, then, we have the express testimony of Paul’s own disciple that he fulfilled his original intention of visiting the Spanish peninsula, and consequently that he was liberated from his first imprisonment at Rome. C.