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.
that is, to have mutual comfort among you, each by the faith [which is] in the other, both yours and mine.
In verse 11 Paul tells the believers in Rome that he wants to come and give them a gift to strengthen them. Then he corrects himself: the comfort will run both ways, and that small change shows how a servant of Christ stands among God's people.
Paul keeps his apostleship, but he uses it in love:
He longed to see them, so that he might give them some spiritual gift to establish them. But in the same breath he takes his place in love among them. He says, "That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." He was an apostle, and he should act in love. So, as an apostle, he should come down to the weakest, to raise them up to confidence in God.
The gift Paul wanted to bring was not a display of power:
He explains what he means in verse 12. The gifts were meant to build up faith on both sides. They were not the giving of great abilities, miraculous powers, and the like. It is better to be godly than gifted.
Notice who wanted comfort here, and where he was ready to find it:
This is a lovely thing — the very opposite of lording it over others. Only think of this blessed servant of Christ! He was the greatest teacher the church has ever had, and he longed to be comforted by the faith of the very feeblest saint in the assembly. He longed for fellowship — he was ready to help, but he did not want to monopolise. He would not put out the dying embers. He would gather them together and build them up, so that he and they might be "mutually encouraged."
Kelly points to the ground the apostle and the believers stand on together:
If God called him, He called them too — him an apostle, them not apostles but saints. Yet for them as for him, all flowed out of the same mighty love of God... There is nothing like the grace of God for producing the truest humility.
Paul's ministry would do something among the believers themselves:
His ministry would lead the saints to practise godly unity and fellowship with understanding. His own heart yearned for their faith and drew comfort from it, and they drew comfort from his. There is mutual comfort only when there is mutual cultivation of faith. This was not mere emotion. The apostle had often planned before to visit the saints at Rome, but he had been hindered.
Some have read Paul's warmth here as flattery. Kelly answers that charge:
One of this world's thinkers has dared to accuse the holy apostle of pious craft and holy flattery. But that judgment, no doubt, came out of the man's own spirit. He could not appreciate the delicate feelings which grace makes easy and habitual... 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 skilful party-leader.
Paul did travel to Rome in the end. Kelly notes what the believers there did for him on the way:
But how sweet and wonderful are the dealings of grace! We know on unquestionable authority what happened. The Lord used the saints he was going to help so greatly to cheer the apostle himself on the road. That is the best comment on his own words written to them beforehand.
- Longing. Paul asks to come and bring a spiritual gift to establish the believers. Then he explains what he means: building up on both sides, not great abilities.
- Correction. In the same breath he takes his place in love among them. He comes down to the weakest, to raise them up to confidence in God.
- Level ground. God called him an apostle and them saints. Both flowed from the same mighty love — and nothing produces truer humility than grace.
- Cultivation. Comfort runs both ways only where both sides cultivate faith. The greatest teacher wanted comfort from the feeblest believer.
- Fulfilment. On the road to Rome, the Lord used the very believers Paul was going to help to cheer him — verse 12 lived out, just as he had written it.
But I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, that I often proposed to come to you, (and have been hindered until the present time,) that I might have some fruit among you too, even as among the other nations also.
Paul is writing to a church he had never visited. Here he opens up his own plans: he had tried again and again to reach Rome, and every try was blocked. Why was the capital of the empire his business at all? What harvest did he hope to gather? And who kept stopping him?
He does not want them in the dark about his plans. That openness came from more than his office:
He wrote to them, and he longed to see them. This was not only to carry out his commission as an apostle, or to use his apostolic authority. It grew out of a brother's love that longed for them. He counted on receiving comfort from them, as well as on giving them spiritual blessing.
Another writer sets the two sides side by side: real authority, and real tenderness.
By right he is apostle to all the Gentiles, even if he has never seen them. But in heart he is their servant. He wants to see them, with the truest and warmest brotherly love — a love flowing from the grace that had made him an apostle.
Why does Paul speak of Rome as a place where he owes work? The phrase "as among the rest of the Gentiles" claims the city for his commission.
As the apostle of the Gentiles, he would not neglect any part of the field put in his care. So he had often planned to come to them, to have fruit among them as well as elsewhere. We see that the church at Rome was mainly a Gentile church, and so it counted as part of his field of work.
The letter also shows what kind of church was already there:
The letter itself, from the first chapter to the last, is the fullest proof that a large number of believers were already there — both Jews and Gentiles.
One writer sees two kinds of fruit in view:
Paul wanted to share fellowship with them, and to bear some fruit among them. That fruit might be the conversion of souls. Or it might be the giving of some spiritual gift to those already brought to Christ.
Commentators differ on the cause of the delay. Some read the block as enemy action, and draw a lesson for anyone in the Lord's work:
The apostle would have liked to visit the Christians at Rome sooner, but Satan had hindered him. The Lord's work is always carried on in front of an enemy who tries to stop its progress. He may use persecution. He may stir up evil in the churches, which the worker then has to deal with. He may use false teaching, which eats up the worker's time, or all sorts of other tricks. The worker needs to notice this. That is how he learns dependence.
Others look at the same delay from the far end and see God's hand in it:
May we not see the grace and wisdom of God in allowing a hindrance that gave us a letter written for the blessing of God's people in every age? It is good for us to trace the hand of God in what He hinders as well as in what He allows. It is good to submit to His closed doors, as well as to walk through His open ones.
Paul did reach Rome — but as a prisoner, not as he had pictured it:
When he wrote his letter, we may be sure he little thought he would see them as Rome's prisoner. He asked for a good journey to them, and had told them to pray that he might reach them with joy. But here is something beautiful and blessed. The Spirit of God shaped his journey and his arrival in this way, yet Paul does not treat it as anything less than a full answer to what he asked. He thanks God, owning it as the answer to his prayer.
And he did gather the fruit he asked for, from both sides:
Paul had hoped to have fruit among the Gentiles at Rome, as he had among others (Rom. 1:13). Here we see fruit for God among the Jews. And he did have converts among the Gentiles in Rome, for he could write to Philemon, "I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment."
- Purpose — he planned the trip again and again. Love for them drove it as much as his commission: apostle by right, servant in heart.
- Province — Rome lay inside the Gentile field God gave him, so he claimed work there, though he had never seen the church.
- Fruit — he wanted a harvest of two kinds: souls converted, and believers built up by a spiritual gift.
- Hindrance — commentators differ on the cause. Some see the enemy resisting the work, which teaches the worker dependence. Others see a closed door of God's, which gave us this letter.
- Fulfilment — the answer came, but in chains. Paul thanked God for it, and gathered fruit in Rome from Jews and Gentiles alike.