Romans 15:1-21

15:1 | To bear with the scruples of the weak uses the same word Paul used in Galatians 6:2: “Bear one another’s burdens.” This is not a call to tolerance or condescension but a charge to accept people for who they are and to help carry their burdens. Believers are free to exercise their own convictions, but they should do so considering the interests of others before their own (1 Cor. 9:22; 10:24; 1 Thess. 5:14).

15:3 | Christ’s sacrificial life was evidence of His sacrificial love. Paul quotes from Psalm 69, one of the greatest messianic psalms of the OT. It had meaning in its own day and context, but it also had prophetic meaning for Christ.

15:4 | Paul was thinking of the OT when referring to “the Scriptures.” Christians can find strength to live for others by reading the Scriptures. The Greek word for patience is sometimes translated as “patient endurance.” The patience of the Scriptures does not mean the Bible has patience; it means patience and endurance are fruits that come through reading the Bible (1 Cor. 10:11; 2 Tim. 3:16-17).

15:5-6 | The practice of spiritual unity is simple to define: being like-minded toward one another (1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 1:27). The purpose of spiritual unity is equally simple: that God might be glorified.

15:7 | Receive one another is “receiving a person to yourself,” like the intense reaction of Apollos with Aquilla and Priscilla when the latter two took Apollos aside to correct him (Acts 18:26).

15:8 | Paul points out that Christ came first as a servant to His own people (Matt. 15:24). Paul may have done that to humble the haughty Gentiles in the Roman church.

15:9-12 | Salvation for Gentiles was not an afterthought for God. He planned from the beginning that the gospel would go to the ends of the earth. Paul cites four OT scriptures that refer to the Gentiles (Ps. 18:49; Deut. 32:43; Ps. 117:1; Isa. 11:10). The first is from Psalm 18:49 where David, as a type of Christ, says he will confess God’s name among the Gentiles. The last quotation is from Isaiah, where the prophet says the Gentiles “shall hope” in the Messiah.

15:11 | In Psalm 117:1, the Gentiles were challenged to praise God on their own. First the Gentiles listened to God being praised. Then they praised Him along with the Jews. Now Paul shows how the OT expected them to praise God on their own. Significantly, the Jews are not mentioned in this verse.

15:13 | This prayer of blessing is for all the believers in the church at Rome. The center of the blessing is the reality that God is a God of hope, perhaps prompted by the reference in verse 12 to the Gentiles hoping in the Messiah.

15:14 | Goodness (a desire to serve) coupled with knowledge and spiritual understanding will naturally manifest itself in ministry to one another.

15:15-21 | Having talked about God’s ministry to the Gentiles in the first part of this chapter, Paul now lays out the principles by which he carried out the ministry God gave him.

15:15 | Paul’s entire ministry was based on the grace of God. Believers are not only saved by grace, they serve by grace. Believers simply serve and leave the results to Him. Every Christian ahs been given grace to minister in some capacity.

15:16 | Minister derives from the Greek word for liturgy (leitourgos). It is a priestly word pertaining to sacrifice. Paul saw his ministry as a sacrifice to God and himself as a living sacrifice. The goal of ministry is not only to see people saved or baptized – or even join a particular church. The ultimate goal is their sanctification. In fact, the Great Commission of Matthew 28 is not just one of conversion but of discipleship.

15:17-18 | Paul is not boasting about himself, but glorying in what Christ has accomplished through him (2 Cor. 3:5; Gal. 2:8). He characterizes his ministry to the Gentiles as being in word and deed. Paul’s impact on people was not just intellectual (though that was formidable); his life made an impact as a living epistle illustrating the resurrection reality of Jesus.

15:19-21 | Paul would not create the appearance of rivalry with other apostles and teachers (1 Cor. 3:10). His work in Rome was not to usurp another missionary’s work but to pass through to western regions where the name of Christ was not yet known. The distance between Jerusalem and Illyricum (present-day Albania and Yugoslavia) is about 1,400 miles. Paul said he preached through that whole area, taking the gospel to the Gentiles. But he didn’t just preach – he was involved in the whole spectrum of establishing the Gentiles in relationship with God: salvation, church planting, discipleship, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.

15:19 | These miracles authenticated Paul as a true apostle of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 12:12 he refers to them as “the signs of an apostle” and signs and wonders and mighty deeds.” There are no apostles today but there is the Word of God.