Sunday School Notes: Romans 15:24-27

… ²⁴ when I am going to Spain, for I hope to see you while passing through, and to be helped on my way there by you, if I may first enjoy your company for a while. ²⁵ But now I am going to Jerusalem, to minister to the saints. ²⁶ For Macedonia and Achaia were well-pleased to make some contribution to the poor of the saints in Jerusalem, ²⁷ for they were well-pleased, and they were their debtors. For if the Gentiles have shared with them in spiritual things, they ought also to serve them in material things.

We cut Paul off in mid-sentence last time, so we pick up his train of thought in verse 24. He’s discussing his ministry plans, and how he feels as if he has accomplished all that the Lord had given him to do in the Mediterranean area in which he has been working. He has planted churches, pioneering gospel work, not laboring upon foundations laid by others. Paul’s ministry was not that of long-term pastoring. He had no ambition to join existing churches. And having done all he believes he can within the area of Greece, Macedonia, and Achaea, it’s time to look ahead to the next phase in his life. For that next phase, Paul has his sights set on Spain. We’re not sure exactly why, but he clearly sees opportunity there. The Iberian Peninsula had already, within Paul’s lifetime, been organized by the Romans, so there’s no doubt Christians had traveled that far west (bear in mind, Roman ships often transported Christian slaves and merchants). We’re not aware of any churches in the area at that time–at least none known to the Apostles–so perhaps Paul saw this as an opportunity to pioneer a work there.

Whether Paul made it to Spain is uncertain. The evidence from Acts and from the Pauline Epistles (particularly Philippians), seems to indicate not. Yet, the late first century work known as 1 Clement (though it was actually a letter from the church in Rome to the church in Corinth, not from any one person) points to a tradition that Paul made it to the “farthest limits of the West,” which would be the Straits of Gibraltar (see 1 Clement 5:5-7). This letter was from the church in Rome, so perhaps they knew something either Luke didn’t know when he wrote Acts, or they were aware of what happened to Paul after the events of Acts 28–and it wasn’t execution. On the other hand, the church in Rome may only presume this based on Paul’s itinerary, and were unaware that he never actually made it to Spain. The end of Acts, and the tone of Philippians, suggests that Rome was Paul’s final destination. One would imagine that, since Luke was with Paul on this last journey, he would have written of Paul’s adventures in Iberia had they happened–especially if Luke is writing after Paul’s death, which is the scholarly consensus.

In the second part of verse 24, Paul seems to go off-topic. We have seen already how Paul’s passion often shows through in his writing, and the way he will interrupt a train of thought if another thought occurs to him, and he may or may not pick up the first train later. Here, Paul jumps into a brief explanation of what he hopes to achieve by visiting Rome–aside from the fulfillment of a long-held ambition:

1. He wants to be “helped on the way by you”–this suggests the raising of support, possibly for the Spanish mission. The verb he uses, propempô, often has the meaning “to escort” or “to accompany,” but it can also carry the sense of “fund-raising,” or raising support (see Acts 15:3 and 20:36, for example). It’s also possible he was looking for traveling companions, going back to the more popular rendering of the verb–perhaps Roman businessmen who had been to Spain, and knew the area, or who had contacts there.
2. “To see you, that I may be fulfilled by you.” The language Paul uses sounds strange to us, but the idea is that he wants to enjoy their company for a while. By “see” he means “visit,” not just say “hello.” Given what we’ve read about the problems in the Roman church, we might expect Paul to be preparing to work while he’s there. But despite the issues with the Romans, Paul seems to feel that a visit to the church will actually be refreshing, both spiritually and personally, and not a cause of stress. Of course Paul will preach to them (he said as much in 1:15), but we would expect nothing less from Paul, even if he’s on vacation! But the main purpose of Paul’s visit would be to rest, not work.

However, before Rome and Spain, there’s important ministry work to attend to. Paul needs to go to Jerusalem “to minister to the saints.” The ministry in Jerusalem is to deliver a financial gift to the church there, consisting of donations from the Gentile churches he had collected during this, his third missionary journey. He makes mention of this gift in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4, and in 2 Corinthians 8-9. I believe that at this time, the Jerusalem church was probably the church suffering the most persecution. There was no systematic, “official” persecution of the church by the Roman authorities–any Roman persecution would be local to a particular city or province. However, we already know that the Jews had no love for the Christians in much of Judea. We see instances of Jewish authorities trying to limit the proclamation of the gospel in Acts, and, as we shall see, Paul recognized that a visit to Jerusalem may involve a certain amount of personal danger. Also, while there was no state-sponsored persecution of Christians by Rome at this time, Christians were still being lumped in with Jews whenever Rome decided to keep them in check. We’ve already noted the effects of this, with Claudius’s edict banishing the Jews from Rome, which gutted the Roman church of its Jewish believers. No doubt, the Christians in Jerusalem were feeling pressure from the state, which drew no distinction between them and their fellow Jewish monotheists.

This gift Paul will be delivering is from the saints in “Macedonia and Achaia,” which is probably a shorthand for all the churches in those regions (of these we know about Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Corinth). These churches, Paul says, were “well-pleased” to give this contribution to “the poor saints” in Jerusalem. The word for “contribution” is the Greek word koinônia, more commonly translated “fellowship” or “partaking.” I think Paul’s word choice underscores the idea that this is not just throwing money at a bad situation. This gift is symbolic of the Gentile church’s solidarity with their Jewish brethren. They are partnering with their brethren in Christ to make sure they are taken care of, even though they are hundreds of miles away, and of a different culture. Note also that the gift is to “the poor of the saints,” not the poor in general. Paul well knew that the church must first look after her own before she can take care of the community. This reminds us that for the church to be salt and light to the world, the focus of our mercy ministry needs to be our own people primarily. Not only is a healthy, cared-for church better able to help those outside the church, but it symbolizes the love of God that is being offered.

In verse 27, Paul makes the point that the Gentiles have been recipients of the blessings of the gospel thanks to the Jews. He has already made this point in chapters 10 and 11. The Messiah and the gospel came to the Gentiles through Israel. The Gentiles are now co-inheritors with the Jews, grafted in to the same line as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Law and the Prophets came through the Jews, and the Gentiles are beneficiaries of theirs. In light of this, Paul argues, is it too much to ask that the Gentiles serve their Jewish brethren by helping them meet their material needs? The word he uses for “material” is the word sarkikos, “fleshly.” But he’s not saying that material needs are not “spiritual,” in some Gnostic sense (which we often see today, where people can get caught up in thinking that unless something is “spiritual” it’s ungodly). Rather, he’s contrasting the “spiritual” good of the gospel from the Jews with the “material” good of supporting the Jerusalem church in their time of need. Paul is, in fact, endorsing the benefits of money to purchase food, clothes, shelter–the things we need to live, and perhaps even be comfortable, in the world. He is not an ascetic, and this is a reminder that while we shouldn’t become attached to our material goods, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be thankful for them, and seek to use them in a way that better enables us to serve God.

One of the lessons we took away from this week’s class is how different our plans often are to God’s. Comparing Paul’s ministry aspirations to what actually happened in Acts 20-28 shows that even he didn’t have any special insight into what God’s will was for him. Paul writes in Romans as if he expects to drop off the gift in Jerusalem, make his way to Rome, visit the church, and then on to Spain. And while he did, in fact, go to Jerusalem, he encountered a lot of trouble, ended up being placed under arrest for his own protection, and then carted off to Rome as a prisoner where, from what Luke tells us, he was granted an audience with the highest officials in the Empire, and never left. Yet Paul didn’t once complain. He accepted whatever God had for him, even if it wasn’t quite what Paul had in mind. May we have the same attitude when things don’t go the way we plan!

We’ll carry on with verse 28 next time.