Romans 15:22-33

15:22 | Paul wanted to go to Rome, but God obviously had work for him in other parts of the Mediterranean world (1:13; Acts 19:21). There was nothing wrong with going to Rome, but completing his work from Jerusalem to Illyricum came first.

15:23 | By no longer having a place in these parts, Paul didn’t mean every single person had been witnessed to but that his strategy had been fulfilled. He would go into a large, metropolitan city, evangelize the people, and send associates into the surrounding region to evangelize there. Now he had been to all the major metropolitan areas, completing God’s call. It was time for him to turn toward Rome.

15:24 | Paul planned to visit Rome, then Spain. Rome was a stopover on the way to the regions beyond (2 Cor. 10:16). Unfortunately, there is no biblical or verifiable historical evidence to suggest that Paul ever made it to Spain.

15:25-28 | Before traveling to Spain, Paul was going to deliver money the Gentile churches had collected to the Jerusalem church. Taking funds to support the poor believers there was an act not only of benevolence but of bridge-building and solidarity between two parties that had been hostile at a natural level but were now unified (1 Cor. 8:1-15; 16:1).

15:29 | Despite Paul’s arrest and imprisonment, the gospel spread (Phil. 1). He preached the gospel at the highest levels of the Roman Empire, which then trickled down to the church and to people who didn’t know Christ. He was a blessing in Rome, though not the way he had anticipated.

15:30-32 | Paul had also asked the Corinthians (2 Cor. 1:11), Ephesians (Eph. 6:18-19), Colossians (Col. 4:3), and Thessalonians (1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1) to pray for him. True prayer is a spiritual battleground, an intense endeavor that requires energy, fortitude, and perseverance and is not for the fainthearted.

15:33 | This is the second of three benedictions near the end of Romans. The God of peace is one of three titles for God in this chapter. Elsewhere He is called “the God of patience and comfort” and “the God of hope.”