The Blessing of Christian Fellowship

In Romans 1:8-15 Paul speaks about the blessings of Christian fellowship. In this passage Paul reveals his intense love for the saints in Rome. If we are Christians through the miracle of regeneration and have repented truly of our sins and savingly trusted in Christ through hearing the gospel of God’s Son, then we belong to the family of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. As members of God’s family, we have fellowship with the Father and the Son and with all the true people of God throughout the world.

All true believers are our brothers and sisters; therefore, we are obliged to love them, suffer with them, rejoice with them, and pray for them. We are part of the one great family of God, the international body of Christ that knows no racial, gender, or ethnic discrimination. In this text we see Paul’s intense love for the Roman Christians. Though he did not know most of them personally, he was in fellowship with them. The gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ our Lord creates a worldwide Christian community.

The word “fellowship” appears first in Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship.” Where there is doctrine, there is necessarily a fellowship. Where there is the preaching of the gospel, there is God’s church. Such Christian fellowship results in great blessings.

Paul’s Thanksgiving

“I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you” (v. 8). Paul first gives thanks for these Roman Christians. Although Paul did not found this church, he praises God for calling it into existence in the capital city of the empire. He is not thanking the believers themselves, but God for them, specifically for their faith.

Notice, he says, “I thank my God.” He is thanking the God with whom he enjoys intimate relationship. He says elsewhere, “My God will meet all your needs” (Phil. 4:19, italics added). David spoke often of his similar relationship with God: “I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. . . . The Lord is my shepherd” (Ps. 18:1-2; 23:1). If we cannot say, “I thank my God,” our profession of faith is empty and we are not born of God. We should have such a personal relationship with God that we are able to say, “My Father and my God” with an infinitely greater intensity of meaning than we have when we refer to “my wife” or “my children.”

Do you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, so that you can say with Paul, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ”? I hope we will all love and know God in this way. Jesus said, “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Our knowledge of God should be experimental, personal, and intimate.

Through Jesus Christ

Next, we notice that Paul is thanking God “through Jesus Christ” (v. 8). This is the only time we find “through Jesus Christ” in this epistle. We have access to the Father only through Jesus, our only mediator and atonement. Robed in Christ’s righteousness, we may come to God and enjoy fellowship with him. We worship God through Jesus Christ. All of life is worship. “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Speaking of Jews and Gentiles, Paul says, “For through [Christ] we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Eph. 2:18). This tells us there is no access to the Father except through his Son who died for our sins and was raised for our justification. Only vital Christianity shows the way to the Father. Salvation is found in no one else except in Christ. If anyone rejects Christ, he is rejecting God’s eternal salvation and welcoming his own eternal damnation. Jesus alone is our atoning high priest who ever lives to make intercession for us. May we come to God through him!

The Faith of the Roman Christians

“I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world” (v. 8). Paul is giving thanks to God through Jesus Christ because of the faith of the Roman Christians. They heard the gospel, believed it, and were saved. We must note, though, that God was the author of their faith. Repentance and faith are divine miracles and gifts.

The faith of these believers was a vibrant, flourishing faith, visible to all Christians in the Roman Empire. Though saving faith is an invisible, interior reality, like the root of a tree, it manifests externally by obedient works like the fruits of a tree.

Faith without works is dead. It is the devil’s faith. We know the faith of the Romans was authentic and visible because other Christians spoke about their faith throughout the Roman Empire. Paul writes about the similar faith of the Thessalonians: “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope” (1 Thess. 1:2-3, author’s paraphrase). Faith, love, and patience are all interior and invisible, but they manifest themselves in work, labor, and hope. Then Paul says, “The Lord’s message rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia-your faith in God has become known everywhere” (1 Thess. 1:8). Dr. Lloyd-Jones says that a revival never needs to be advertised; it always advertises itself.

Faith always issues in obedience to God. Paul received the apostolic call “to call the Gentiles unto the obedience of faith.” Is your faith visible to others through good works? Is your faith proclaimed everywhere?

God Is My Witness

Then Paul says, “God . . . is my witness” (v. 9). Paul loved the Roman Christians, and to persuade them of that truth, he calls on God to witness this reality of his love for them. He takes an oath so that the Romans will know that Paul really loves them and prays for them.

It is not sinful to take an oath. If we are telling the truth, we can call upon God to be a witness to that truth. Paul does this often: “I speak the truth in Christ-I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 9:1; see also 2 Cor. 1:23; 11:30-31). In this epistle, Paul is invoking the all-seeing God to witness to the Romans about his love for them. He is saying, in essence, “I call upon God who sees all things to witness to you my heart love for you.” In other words, he is saying, “My God guarantees the veracity of my love for you.”

Do we love God’s people whom we see with our eyes? Can we call God as our witness that we love them, pray for them, and care for them?

Whom I Serve in My Spirit

Paul defines God as the One “whom I serve with my whole heart“(v. 9) or “whom I serve in my spirit” (author’s translation). For Paul, all of life is serving and worshiping God (Phil. 1:21; Gal. 2:20). There is no sacred and secular distinction for Christians. We live coram Deo, in the presence of God.

Joseph told Potiphar’s wife: “How can I do this wicked thing and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). He was living coram Deo. Jesus also always lived in God’s presence, resisting all the devil’s temptations and doing what is pleasing in God’s sight.

Paul is saying that he served God sincerely with all his heart. He was not a hypocrite, putting on an air of spirituality to fool people. About his plans to visit the Corinthian church he writes, “When I planned this, did I do it lightly? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say, ‘Yes, yes,’ and “No, no’?” (2 Cor. 1:17). Then he explains, “Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Cor. 4:2). There were false ministers in the church who were masquerading as ministers of truth. Of them Paul says, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve” (2 Cor. 11:13-15). Elsewhere he writes, “By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you-I, Paul, who am ‘timid’ when face to face with you, but ‘bold’ when away! I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1-5). Paul knew God looks at the heart and not outward appearance. God desires truth in our inward parts (Ps. 51)

Paul served God by proclaiming the gospel of his Son, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the whole counsel of God. Not only did he proclaim the whole gospel, but he also lived it. So he says, “God whom I serve with my whole heart in the gospel of his Son.” That is the sphere of Paul’s ministry. To the Corinthian church he writes, “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:1-5).

Most ministers today refuse to serve God in the gospel of his Son. They preach a synthetic gospel of their own creation that makes them rich and famous. They seek man’s approval, not God’s.

His Constant Prayer

Paul’s love for the Roman Christians is revealed by his continual prayer for them:“God is my witness . . . how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you” (v. 9).

Paul was a man of prayer. God witnessed his love for the Romans expressed in his constant prayer for them. He prayed for them on all occasions, making mention of them in his prayers. As Daniel prayed three times each day, so also Paul prayed many times a day. Acts 16 speaks of him even praying at midnight in the Philippian jail. In these prayers he would mention the names of all these believers in all places.

We have to pray beyond ourselves and our own needs. Paul prayed not just for himself but for others, even for those he did not know by face. Intercession for others demonstrates our love in Christ for people. As Christians, we are to pray for others, even for our enemies. In Romans 8 Paul tells us that not only Jesus prays for us, but the Holy Spirit also intercedes for us. We also must pray for one another. Robert Haldane says, “To pray without labouring is to mock God: to labour without prayer is to rob God of His glory.”¹ Prayer directs our service and makes it effectual.

Praying in the Will of God

Paul prays that in the will of God he would be enabled to go to Rome so that he could see these believers and bless them through his gospel ministry: “I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you” (v. 10). As a slave of Christ, Paul certainly would not demand anything of his Master but was waiting to know God’s will about going to Rome.

God commissions his people to preach the gospel to the whole world. Yet we must seek God’s will about where and when we must do so. God has both a general and specific will, so we must pray that God will make his will clear to us. We should not pray, “My will be done,” but “Thy will be done,” and surrender ourselves completely to his will. That is what it means to confess Jesus Christ as Lord.

Jesus himself prayed in Gethsemane, “Thy will be done” (see Matt. 26:39, 42, 44). Paul tells us, “I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed” (Rom. 15:30-32). We are to pray and God will answer either “Yes,” “No,” or “Wait.” When Paul prayed about going to Rome, God told him to wait, so Paul kept on praying. Paul speaks of this interval: “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles” (Rom. 1:13).

As Paul prayed and planned to go to Rome, he sought God’s counsel. Yet he was prevented from going for several years. At the end of this epistle, he reveals the reason to the Roman Christians: “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: ‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.’ This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you. But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to see you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while” (Rom. 15:20-24). God wanted Paul to evangelize the eastern Mediterranean region, specifically Asia, Macedonia, and Achaia. Having completed that task, Paul now begins to think that God will allow him to go to Rome.

God guides us to do his will in his time. Acts 16:6-7 describes how the Holy Spirit prevented Paul from preaching in certain places, and then guided him to preach in Macedonia. (PGM) God even uses Satan to prevent us (1 Thess. 2:18). God also permits circumstances, such as sickness, to prevent us from doing certain things. But in his time God will guide us to work where he wants us to. A Christian is led by the Spirit of God.

Eventually, in God’s time, Paul arrived in Rome. But he did not get there exactly as he expected. He had planned to go after visiting the church in Jerusalem: “Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. ‘After I have been there,’ he said, ‘I must visit Rome also'” (Acts 19:21). But in Jerusalem he was arrested, beaten, and bound. The day after he was thrown into the barracks in Jerusalem, God encouraged him: “The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome” (Acts 23:11). After this, Paul was sent to Caesarea where he languished in prison for two years. Eventually, he was put on a ship to Rome, but on the way, the ship was caught in a great storm. Even then God ministered to Paul, who says, “Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar'” (Acts 27:23). The ship was wrecked on Malta; yet, finally, in God’s will, Paul arrived in Rome-in shackles, as a prisoner of Caesar. We may not like the way God guides us, but if we are slaves of Christ, we will surrender totally to our Master to do whatever he wants with us.

The Purpose of His Visit

“I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong”(v. 11). Paul loved these Roman saints. Even though he had not met many of them, they were his brothers and sisters in Christ. Additionally, most of them were Gentiles, and he was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles. So he longed to see them that he might bless them, pray with them and for them, preach to them, teach them, counsel them, and enjoy their fellowship.

Paul was always a giver. He wanted to give these Roman Christians what he had received from God, especially the gospel. He wanted to strengthen and establish them in their faith by revealing to them the unsearchable riches of Christ as outlined in this letter. Babes must grow up and become adults. Miracles do not make us strong; it is the knowledge of God that strengthens us by rooting us in God and his great love. Lloyd-Jones says that those who are ignorant of God’s word will remain spiritual butterflies-ignorant, emotional, vacillating, self-focused, miserable, complaining, anxious, and silly. The Bible says God has gifted the church with apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, so that we may grow up and become strong spiritual adults, able to endure hardship and persevere to the end in the faith, fighting the good fight, running the race, and keeping the faith (Eph. 4:11-14; Heb. 12:7; 2 Tim. 4:7).

Christian fellowship is crucial because whenever we come together, we impart spiritual gifts that strengthen others. To each of us God has given grace that we may enrich one another (1 Pet. 4:10). The church is a body with many members, each having a function designed to help the others. What we have received freely, we freely give. It is more blessed to give than to receive, and when we receive more, we give more. Christian fellowship is giving and receiving for the edification of the whole body, local and international.

As weak and easily discouraged people, we all need strength and encouragement from the Lord. We need to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. So we come together to strengthen and encourage one another with the grace God gives us.

Paul told the Ephesian elders: “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). It is “the word of [God’s] grace” that builds us up. He also wrote to the Thessalonian believers, “We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God’s fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials” (1 Thess. 3:2-3). Spiritual gifts are designed to edify the body of Christ. Paul exhorts, “He who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified. . . . So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church” (1 Cor. 14:5, 12; see also vv. 26, 31).

The writer to the Hebrews also speaks of the importance of maintaining Christian fellowship so that we may be built up: “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that no one of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Heb. 3:12-13).

We all need encouragement, including the apostle. So Paul adds that he longs to see the Romans “that I may be encouraged together with you through our mutual faith” (v. 12; see also 1 Cor. 2:3; 2 Cor. 4:8-9; 11:28). We encourage each other through our faith. If our faith is weak because we do not want to read and meditate on God’s word and do what it says, then we cannot be of much use to others. Strong faith enables us to make others strong. The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. The strong faith of one person ministers to the little faith of another. Paul wanted to go to Rome, not to see the sights, but the saints. He wanted to fellowship with them and, through his gospel ministry, strengthen them and be strengthened by them. Do you have such craving to see and fellowship with God’s people?

Paul said he wanted to visit the Roman believers “to have a harvest among [them]”(v. 13). He wanted to convert unbelievers in Rome as well as encourage spiritual growth in believers. We serve God by serving one another, with the ultimate purpose that God the Father, the gardener, may receive fruit, more fruit, and much fruit, and be greatly pleased.

Paul planned to come to Rome in God’s will at God’s time to preach the gospel to them. In verse 15 he declares he is ready to come. He was going to Rome as a slave of Christ, separated unto the gospel of God as an apostle, especially to the Gentiles.

A Debtor to All the World

Paul says he is a debtor to the world: “I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome” (vv. 14-15). People may be cultured or uncivilized, intelligent or ignorant-God does not discriminate. Grace pays our debts to God and makes all of us debtors to others.

Imagine that someone entrusts you with medicine to give to a person who will die without it, but you do not give the medicine to the person. That would be a criminal activity. It would be a clear demonstration of the unloving nature of the human heart.

How dare we keep the gospel to ourselves when we are surrounded by starving multitudes? We owe them this bread of life. Not only were Paul and the other apostles debtors, and not only are pastors debtors entrusted to preach the gospel, but every believer is a debtor who needs to give the gospel message to those around him. We must say with the lepers who discovered bread during the famine of Samaria, “We are not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. . . . Let us go at once and report this to the royal palace” (2 Kings 7:9).

All must hear the gospel. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We are to be channels of blessing, not dams. We are to be like the River Jordan, blessing the land all around us, not like the Dead Sea. Let us, therefore, be eager to pay our debts. It is a great shame not to pay this debt of the gospel because there is no other Savior but Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord.

God has entrusted the gospel to us for others. To Cornelius God said, “Go and call Peter. He will tell you the gospel” (Acts 10). Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20). The one who received all authority in heaven and earth is with us to guide us, to protect us, to empower us, to provide for us, and to bring us at the end of our journey safely home. So Paul says, “I am ready, eager, and willing to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome.” He desires to pay his debt to the Romans.

I also was called to be a missionary and went from my home to the other end of the world, coming in God’s will to this country, this state, this county, and this city to preach the gospel. God wanted me to impart some spiritual gift to you so that we may be strengthened by each other. Let us all, therefore, determine today to pay our gospel debt to all whom God will bring our way. Let us do so for the glory of God, knowing that the gospel alone is the medicine for human sin, for it is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” (Rom. 1:16). And may we love all God’s people everywhere by interceding for them, rejoicing with them, suffering with them, and supporting them. May we enjoy our salvation and proclaim it to others through Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹ Robert Haldane, Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1958, rptd. 1996), 40.