Bible Commentaries
Romans 15

Verses 1-7

1 Fellowship among God's saints should not be based on knowledge or ignorance. God receives us even when we are feeble in faith. We should not cut from our fellowship one who does not follow all our deductions from the Scriptures. Neither should we make light of his scruples. No foods are forbidden now. Yet the undoubted wisdom of the food regulations under the law may well help us to determine what is best, without abridging our liberty to eat all things with a good conscience. We may not dictate to one another in these things. They are to be settled by the individual conscience before God.

5 The observance of days is also a matter of individual preference. It is abundantly evident that no day is above another, so far as the Scriptures are concerned. The seventh day, the sabbath, was never given to the nations. To observe it is to put ourselves under the curse of the law. The first day of the week, called Sunday, is never once referred to in the Scriptures, properly translated. The phrase should always be rendered "one of the sabbaths." In order to get "the first day of the week" it is necessary to alter one to first, to insert the word day, and change the plural sabbaths to the singular week. It is a desperate attempt to find some scriptural excuse for the prevalent observance of Sunday. There is nothing wrong in the setting aside of a day to the Lord. Custom has made Sunday the most convenient for this purpose. But let us not mar the word of God in order to uphold the practice. Neither should we ride roughshod over the religious scruples of those who look upon Sunday as a day sanctioned by God for divine worship. They have no basis for their belief, nevertheless their conscience demands consideration.

10 It is not ours to pass judgment in these matters. It is not the place of the church to fix any days and condemn those who do not observe them. Only the observance of days as a matter of law keeping is condemned. Though there may be nothing wrong in working on Sunday, it is wrong to keep it as a means of salvation. The same is true of the seventh day, or sabbath.

14 The distinctions instituted by the law between things which are to be reckoned clean and unclean have no place in the economy of grace. God has no hesitancy in associating with us, sinners of the nations. A strict Jew could not eat our food without being contaminated. Yet, before God, we are holy and the Jew is unclean! Hence no food is ceremonially unclean. It is only an uninstructed conscience which counts things common.

15 The liberty to eat anything should not be allowed to infringe on the prejudices of others. Those who have a conscience about partaking of certain foods are easily offended. We should not stand on our rights but seek rather to restrain our liberty to conform to the religious scruples of our fellow believers.

17 This is not a definition of the kingdom of God, but a statement of its bearing on this subject. The distinctive truth for the present economy was not yet known, and the saints are included in the kingdom of God in its widest aspect as denoting the sphere of God's rule.

19 These are safe tests to apply to all our intercourse with our fellow saints. Will it provoke strife? If so, let us avoid it. Will it edify? If not, let us forego it. Peace and the edification of others, rather than our own privileges should be pressed. Things which we can do with a good conscience before God, may give dire offense if done before some of His saints.

1 Knowledge puffs up. There is a prideful tendency to make a show of our liberty in Christ. But grace considers the weak rather than the strong. If there is to be peace and unity it must come from the condescension of those who are able. The weak in faith are not asked to consider the strong. Christ is the most brilliant example in this as in all else. What marvelous condescension He displayed in His dealings with His disciples, whose weakness and lack of faith was a constant source of distress to Him! If He could bridge the great gulf between Him and His disciples, surely we can bear with those whose infirmities we all share.

Verses 8-27

8 Contrast the two ministries of Christ and Paul (16). Christ was the Servant of the Circumcision . Paul was a minister for the nations . Christ confirms the patriarchal promises. Paul acts as a priest in the evangel of God. Christ never went outside the land of Israel. He was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Paul, on the contrary, was not called until he had left the land of Israel. He was sent to the Uncircumcision. It is of the utmost importance that we recognize these distinctive ministries, for the distinction has been virtually ignored. Christ is taken as the minister to the nations and Paul is forgotten. Yet throughout the Lord's public life He emphasized the fact that His mission was to Israel exclusively. A few proselytes, indeed, received blessing, but they were counted as one with the favored nation. The Syro-Phoenician woman had to take the place of an outcast before she could get a crumb from Israel's board. Paul is a direct contrast to all this. Later he describes himself as the apostle of the nations ( 2Ti_1:11 ). He made an agreement with Peter and John that they should go to the Circumcision while he went to the nations ( Gal_2:9 ). He was severed from the rest in order to fulfill this ministry. As a result all the truth for the nations at the present time comes only through the apostle Paul . Those who wish to be established in present truth should master his epistles, especially Ephesians. After they have learned the mysteries or secrets in his writings and scaled the heights to which he alone can guide them, they never will be tempted to descend to the level which is found in our Lord's earthly ministry and in its continuation by the twelve, as recorded in the book of Acts and in the epistles from their pens.

9 Mercy for the nations "with His people" is not in force now, for His people are not blessed. We are blessed because of their defection. In the millennial age, however, the nations will be abundantly blessed through the restored nation of Israel, with Christ on the throne.

16 While the priests at Jerusalem still offered the sacrifices according to the law, their ministrations were not acceptable to God, for they had rejected the true Lamb of God. God had no pleasure in the blood of slain beasts, for the hearts of the offerers were far from Him. Is it not a marvel how God, in His wisdom, finds true worshipers among the despised aliens, who offer themselves as living sacrifices well pleasing to Him? In spirit, Paul's ministry among the nations takes the place of the divine ritual at Jerusalem. He officiates as a priest. Though not sanctified by the altar at Jerusalem, they were hallowed by the holy Spirit. So it ought to be today. Though the temple worship has ceased, it is our privilege so to walk as to be a sweet savor of Christ.

17 Paul labored more than all of the other apostles, and, before this crisis in his ministry, performed greater miracles than the rest. In Acts, every sign in the first part, by Peter, is duplicated in the last part, by Paul. This ministry he has now completed.

19 The completion of the proclamation of the evangel of Christ marks the central crisis in Paul's ministries. The first was his severance from the rest at Antioch. The last was at Rome, and was followed by the writing of his prison epistles. This crisis lies between, after the completion of his Antioch commission, and is marked by the expression of his desire to go to Rome. In Acts his previous ministry is declared to be fulfilled ( Act_19:21 ). In Corinthians he would henceforth know no one after the flesh. He had been proclaiming Christ after the flesh-as Israel's Messiah-but he would now do so no longer ( 2Co_5:16 ). It is at this crisis also that the conciliation is first revealed ( 2Co_5:17-20 ).

His second ministry was concerned with justification ( Act_13:39 ) . After this crisis, his third ministry is characterized by conciliation, which is first set forth in the fifth to the eighth chapters of this epistle in its individual aspect, and in the eleventh chapter, in its national aspect. His final ministry was carried on at Rome, which he plans to visit at this crisis. It was carried on almost entirely by means of the Perfection Epistles.

Verses 28-33

28 During Paul's first three ministries the nations were dependent on Israel, and received of their spiritual things. Hence they were indebted to them and sought to pay by sending them relief in time of famine. But after this Paul makes known the present secret economy, in which the nations are no longer guests of Israel ( Eph_2:12 ; Eph_2:19 ) , but receive their own spiritual blessings direct from God. Their destiny is a celestial one, where Israel has no possessions. At the close of the book of Acts the pre-eminence of the Jew vanished, and since then there is a new humanity in which all physical distinctions are done away.

29 The blessing of Christ which fills doubtless is an intimation of the transcendent truths which were made public by Paul after his arrival at Rome. None of the blessings before bestowed filled, in the sense of completing and perfecting. The full-orbed presentation of truth in the Ephesian epistle, written at Rome, fully meets the anticipation here expressed by the apostle.

30 Paul's apprehension lest he should not be well received in Judea was well founded, as events proved. Though he came bringing gifts to his people, his later teaching seemed to them to be directed against the people and the law and Jerusalem. Indeed, he did teach that God would be worshiped in any place, and he did lead out from under the bondage of the law ( Act_21:28 ). Tens of thousands of Jews believed, yet they were all zealous of the law ( Act_21:20 ). They would not hear of blessing to the nations apart from the law. Later, when

Paul spoke to them, they did not object to his own call, but could not bear to hear of his commission to the nations ( Act_22:22 ).

3 The best manuscripts read Prisca here as in 2Ti_4:19 . Elsewhere she is given the fuller form Priscilla. This is common in Roman names. She and her husband (who is usually mentioned last) were banished from Rome a few years before ( Act_18:2 ). Paul met them in Corinth and joined them in their business of tentmaking. They traveled with the apostle ( Act_18:18 ) and must have returned to Rome before the writing of this epistle.

7 The term "relative" is an elastic expression, used sometimes in a broad sense of all Israelites ( Rom_9:3 ) yet more usually in a restricted sense of a closer blood relation ( Joh_18:26 ). Paul mentions six of his relatives in the course of these greetings ( Rom_16:7 ; Rom_16:11 ; Rom_16:21 ), besides his mother. Very few of them are ever spoken of again in the Scriptures. Some of them, notably Andronicus and Junius, seem to have been very prominent and faithful. They were in Christ before him and suffered imprisonment with him. Indeed, it is not at all improbable that we are to understand them to be apostles, not indeed of the twelve, but such as Barnabas ( Act_14:14 ).

10 "Of Aristobulus" seems to denote those associated with his establishment. Perhaps this is the grandson of Herod the Great who was later given the government of Lesser Armenia.

11 Narcissus is probably one of Nero's favorites, for even Nero's household was invaded by the power of the evangel ( Php_4:22 ).

13 Rufus is probably the same one whose father Simon was compelled to bear the cross ( Mat_15:21 ). If so, he must have been of some prominence among early believers, for Mark is content to identify his father by referring to him and his brother Alexander. It is touching to see the apostle especially single out his mother, the wife of him who had the honor of bearing our Saviour's cross.

17 How soon dissension and division crept in among the saints! Even before they had received the truth in its fullness, men came with smooth words to draw them from it. Hence the necessity for some authoritative written standard, as this epistle, to which appeal could be made when the truth was in danger.

21 Lucius o f Cyrene ( Act_13:1 ) was probably a different person. Jason was prominent in Corinth ( Act_17:5-9 ). Sosipater is probably the same one who is called Sopater ( Act_20:4 ), who, together with Gaius, left Corinth with Paul.

22 Tertius was probably a professional scribe, such as to this day are employed to write letters in the East. Paul, however, usually penned the concluding words of his epistles.