always beseeching at my prayers, if any way now at least I may be prospered by the will of God to come to you.
Paul had never seen the believers in Rome, yet he keeps asking God for a way to reach them. He ties the request to one condition, and the verse shows how he handles a longing he cannot satisfy himself.
This request is no formality in a letter's opening. One writer looks at the words just before it, where Paul calls God as witness to how he serves.
What real heart work it was with Paul! He says, "For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers." What deep love to those he had never seen! This was not outward service, but "with my spirit." All done to God in the gospel of His Son. Is it so with us, or mere cold imitation? Was not this the secret of Paul's success? If it is lacking with us, must there not be failure?
Paul does not just say he holds them in mind. His asking has a definite object, and the same pattern returns at the end of the letter.
In the first chapter of Romans, Paul does more than speak of mentioning them always in his prayers. He made a definite request: that by the will of God he might become a blessing and a comfort to them, and that their faith might comfort him too (vv. 10-12). In the fifteenth chapter he begs them, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, to pray as well. He asks that he might come to them by the will of God, and be refreshed with them.
That phrase is the hinge of the verse. Paul prayed for the journey often, and the answer came in a shape he had not pictured.
I take it that it was according to God's mind that Paul should go to Rome. He had often prayed for it (Romans 1:10), if it were God's will. I have no doubt that God granted the request, though not quite in the way the apostle had expected. When he prayed that he might reach the saints at Rome and give them some spiritual gift, he probably had no idea that he would go there in chains. But so it was. At the same time God answered his prayers, and more than answered them.
One writer sets the same habit before us as a rule for our own praying.
Presenting our requests, subject to His will, is always right. Of this we have an example even in Gethsemane; so Paul for his thorn in the flesh. And the answer will be more glorious and blessed than the request, even when it does not come in the form we asked for. Let us trust His love, and this will not come short.
"Now at last" carries years of waiting. Paul kept praying while the way stayed blocked, and he says what he was after.
They had a good report, and Paul longed and prayed that he might see them, but had so far been hindered. He wanted to settle them firmly in the faith by sharing spiritual things with them. He explains what he means in verse 12. The gifts were not great abilities, miraculous powers, and the like. They were to build one another up in the faith. It is better to be godly than gifted.
Paul did reach Rome, and he came as a prisoner. What he did on arrival shows how he read the outcome.
When he wrote his letter, we may be sure he little thought he was to see them as Rome's prisoner. He made request that he might have a prosperous journey to them (Rom. 1:10), and had told them to pray that he might reach them with joy (Rom. 15:32). But here is something beautiful. The Spirit of God had given his journey and his arrival among them this character. Even so, Paul treats it as nothing less than a full answer to his desires. "He thanks God," owning the answer to his request.
The record in Acts shows what became of each part of the prayer.
He had prayed for three things: to come to the saints at Rome, to be comforted in them, and to have some fruit among them. These had been his desires (Rom. 1:10-13), and God answered every one of them (Acts 28:15-24). He sees them, he takes courage, and, through preaching, gathers fruit there as well as among other Gentiles.
- Heart — The prayer flows from service given "with my spirit," not from cold imitation; Paul carried people he had never seen.
- Ask — The request was definite: a safe journey, mutual comfort, fruit among them. Named requests, not vague goodwill.
- Submit — "By God's will" is the safeguard. Bring the request, and leave the decision with God. That is always right.
- Wait — Obstacles blocked him again and again, and he kept asking; the delay never turned into silence.
- Receive — The answer came in chains and was still a full answer. He thanked God and took courage; God met every part of the prayer.
For I greatly desire to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to establish you;
Paul had not yet been to Rome. Yet he tells this church he longs to be with them, and he gives his reason. He wants to hand them something that will steady them. Two questions sit inside the verse. What is this "spiritual gift"? And what does it mean to be strengthened — "established", as older translations put it?
Paul's wish to visit grows out of the praying he has just described. His thanks and his requests point the same way.
News of their faith had reached the Apostle and lifted up his heart in praise to God. He does not only praise God for their faith. He also prays to God without ceasing for their need. As someone has said, "the sincerest faith was never beyond the need of help". And the people we can both praise and pray for are the people we want to see.
Commentators differ on what this gift is. Some tie it to Paul's apostolic office. Others point to the next verse, where Paul explains himself.
He wanted them fully established in the faith, and he would do it by giving them things of a spiritual nature. He explains what he means in verse 12. The gifts were a matter of building each other up in the faith, not the handing over of great abilities, miraculous powers, and the like. It is better to be godly than gifted.
Others read it as something only his apostleship let him give. Even then, what he wanted was faith enjoyed together.
He wants to see them, so that he may give them some spiritual gift, which his apostleship put him in a position to pass on. What he had in his heart was this: that he might enjoy the faith he shared with them — faith strengthened by these gifts — for their comfort together.
The word "spiritual" matters. No one can pass this gift on by ordinary human skill, and that shapes how a servant of Christ works.
The faithful servant of Christ seeks to give spiritual benefit to those who hear him — "some spiritual gift to strengthen you" (Romans 1:11). He wants them to share in "spiritual things" (15:27) by their own experience. Such things cannot be handed over in a merely natural way. They come "not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means" (1 Cor. 2:13).
Forgiveness and a settled faith are two different things. One writer keeps them apart.
The apostle's aim was that those who came under his ministry should be established. The fact that I have peace with God does not mean I am well grounded in the faith. So whether it is Peter or Paul, both work to establish and encourage souls.
This aim also shapes the whole letter.
From the opening verses we learn that the great purpose of the letter is to establish believers in their personal relationship with God. As the Apostle says, "to strengthen you". To do this he shows that the gospel is God's power to save, because in it God reveals His righteousness. Nothing establishes a believer like the discovery that God not only saves the sinner who believes in Jesus, but saves him righteously — that is, in a way that agrees with His own holy nature.
Some have called Paul's warm words flattery — the move of a man building a following. One writer answers that charge.
One of this world's wise men has dared to accuse the holy apostle of pious cunning and holy flattery. No doubt that judgment came out of the critic's own spirit, and out of his inability to appreciate the delicate feelings that grace makes easy and natural… What we see here is the tact of tender love toward people who were saints of God in such a place, not the manoeuvring of a clever party leader.
Paul's longing went unmet for years. What came out of the delay was larger than the visit would have been.
He wanted to give them some special gift for their fuller establishment in the faith. But the thought of divine love and wisdom, faintly reflected in the apostle's heart, reached wider and wiser toward His church — and not at Rome only — than His servant could take in at the time. Paul's thwarted desires gave the Spirit of God the occasion to write and publish, by his hand, this priceless letter. It was a gift to the Church, not one of passing effect, but one that would build up, feed, and teach the saints to the end.
- Prayer — Paul praised God for their faith and prayed for their need. The people we thank God for and pray for are the people we long to see.
- Gift — the giving is spiritual, so it cannot travel by natural means. Commentators differ on whether Paul meant a gift tied to his apostleship or plain mutual building up. All agree the aim was strength, not spectacle.
- Established — peace with God does not by itself make anyone well grounded. Nothing settles a believer like learning that God saves righteously, in keeping with His own holy nature.
- Manner — an apostle came asking to give and to receive. That is love, not strategy.
- Result — the visit did not come for years. Out of that unmet longing came a letter that has been establishing believers ever since.