The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 15 -

Those of us believers who are sure that God allows us to do many more things than other believers think he allows them to do, we should be patient with them and allow them to inconvenience us. This is more important than our pleasing ourselves.

Each of us should do the things that please our fellow believers, and things that will help them, things that will encourage them to trust in Messiah.

We should please our fellow believers, since Messiah has set us an example. He did not do things to please himself. On the contrary, he tried to please God even when others insulted him. That was as the scriptures say: “When people insulted you, it was as though they were also insulting me.”

Remember that all the things written in the scriptures are there to teach us, so that we may become patient in hardship. In this way the scriptures will encourage us to expect that God will do for us everything that he has promised.

I pray that God give you patience and encouragement so that you all live in peace with each other, doing as Messiah Jesus did.

If you do this, you all will be praising God together, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ the Servant of Jews and Gentiles

So I say to all of you believers at Rome, accept each other. If you do that, people will praise God as they see you behave like Messiah. Accept each other just like Messiah accepted you!

I want you to remember that Messiah helped us Jews to know the truth about God. That is, he came to make come true everything that God had promised our ancestors that he would do.

But he also came to help the non-Jews, so they would praise God for his mercy. God’s mercy has produced what is written in the scriptures that David said to God: “So I will praise you among the non-Jews; I will sing and praise you.”

Moses also wrote, “You non-Jews, rejoice with us who are God’s people.”

And David wrote in the scriptures, “Praise the Lord, all you non-Jews; may everyone praise him.”

And Isaiah wrote in the scriptures, “There will be a descendant of King David who will rule over the non-Jews. They will confidently expect him to fulfill what he has promised.”

I pray that God cause you to be confidently expecting him to do what he has promised. I pray that he will cause you to be completely joyful and peaceful as you trust in him. The Holy Spirit will enable you to more and more confidently expect to receive what God has promised you.

Paul the Minister to the Gentiles

My fellow believers, I myself am completely sure that you yourselves have acted toward others in a completely good way. You have done that because you have known completely all that God wants you to know and because you are able to teach each other.

However, I have written to you quite openly in this letter about some things in order to remind you about them. I have written this because God has made me an apostle, although I did not deserve this.

He did this in order that I should work for Jesus Christ among the non-Jews. God has appointed me to act like a priest as I proclaim his good news in order that he may accept the non-Jews who believe in Messiah. They will be like an offering that the Holy Spirit has set completely apart for God only.

It follows that, because of my relationship with Messiah Jesus, I am happy about my work for God.

I will speak boldly only about the work that Messiah has accomplished through me that non-Jews might pay attention to the message about Messiah. These accomplishments came because of words and deeds

by showing signs and other things that convince people. I have done those things God’s Spirit has enabled me. In this way I have traveled all the way around from Jerusalem to the province of Illyricum, and I have completed my work of proclaiming the message about Messiah in those places.

As I proclaim that message, I am always eagerly trying to proclaim it in places where people have not already heard about Messiah. I do that in order that I might not be simply continuing the work that someone else already started. I do not want to be like a man who builds a house on someone else’s foundation.

On the contrary, I teach non-Jews, so that what happens may be like what was written: “The people who have never heard any news about the Messiah, they will see him. Those who have never heard of him will understand about him.”

Because I have attempted to preach the message about Messiah in places where they have not heard about him, I have been stopped many times from coming to visit you.

Paul’s Travel Plans

(1 Corinthians 16:5–9)

But now there are no more places in these regions where people have not heard about Messiah. Furthermore, for several years I have wanted to visit you.

So I hope to go to Spain, and I hope that you will help me on my journey. And I would like to pause on my journey for a while in order to enjoy being with you.

But I cannot visit you now, because I am about to go to Jerusalem in order to take money for God’s people there.

The believers in the provinces of Macedonia and Achaia decided to contribute money to help the believers in Jerusalem, God’s own people, who are poor.

They themselves decided to do this, but truly they owe something to God’s people in Jerusalem. The non-Jewish believers benefited spiritually from Jewish believers because they heard the message about Messiah from them, so the non-Jews should also help the Jewish believers in Jerusalem by giving them material things.

When I finish this task of delivering all this money that the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have given, I will leave Jerusalem and visit you in Rome while I am on my way to Spain.

And I know that when I visit you, Messiah will abundantly bless us.

Because we belong to our Lord Jesus Christ and because the Spirit of God causes us to love each other, I urge you all that you help me by fervently praying to God for me.

Pray that God will protect me from the unbelieving Jews while I am in Judea. And pray that the believers in Jerusalem will be glad to receive the money that I am bringing them.

Pray these things in order that God may be pleased for me to come to you, and that I may be able to rest among you, and you rest with me, for a while.

I pray that God, who causes us to have peace, will be with all of you and will help you. May it be so!

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up.

For even Christ didn’t please himself. But, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”(a)

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Now the God of perseverance and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,

that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ the Servant of Jews and Gentiles

Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you,(b) to the glory of God.

Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers,

and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.”(c)

Again he says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”(d)

Again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him.”(e)

Again, Isaiah says, “There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope.”(f)

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul the Minister to the Gentiles

I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers,(g) that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others.

But I write the more boldly to you in part as reminding you, because of the grace that was given to me by God,

that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Good News of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

I have therefore my boasting in Christ Jesus in things pertaining to God.

For I will not dare to speak of any things except those which Christ worked through me for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed,

in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of God’s Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and around as far as to Illyricum, I have fully preached the Good News of Christ;

yes, making it my aim to preach the Good News, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build on another’s foundation.

But, as it is written, “They will see, to whom no news of him came. They who haven’t heard will understand.”(h)

Therefore also I was hindered these many times from coming to you,

Paul’s Travel Plans

(1 Corinthians 16:5–9)

but now, no longer having any place in these regions, and having these many years a longing to come to you,

whenever I travel to Spain, I will come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.

But now, I say, I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints.

For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem.

Yes, it has been their good pleasure, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to serve them in material things.

When therefore I have accomplished this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will go on by way of you to Spain.

I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the Good News of Christ.

Now I beg you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,

that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,

that I may come to you in joy through the will of God, and together with you, find rest.

Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Footnotes

(a)15:3 ℘ Psalms 69:9

(b)15:7 TR reads “us” instead of “you”

(d)15:10 ℘ Deuteronomy 32:43

(e)15:11 ℘ Psalms 117:1

(f)15:12 ℘ Isaiah 11:10

(g)15:14 The word for “brothers” here and where context allows may also be correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.”

(h)15:21 ℘ Isaiah 52:15