Lessons #17 and 18
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New American Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
+ 4. Text is based on 1984 edition of the NIV +
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Paul’s prayer on behalf of the Romans (Rom 1:8-10)
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. 9 God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10 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.
The passage before us is the first paragraph, so to speak, of the second subsection of the lengthy introduction of Apostle Paul to this epistle. We have considered the first subsection that is concerned with salutation given in verses 1 to 7. The second subsection as we indicated in the introduction of the epistle covers Romans 1:8-15. There are three paragraphs of this second subsection. The first paragraph is concerned with the apostle’s prayer on behalf of the Romans in verses 8 to 10. The second paragraph is concerned with the apostle’s desire to see the Roman believers for mutual spiritual benefits as described in verses 11 to 13. The third paragraph deals with the apostle’s eagerness to preach the gospel in Rome as described in verses 14 and 15. However, our concern in this study is Apostle Paul’s prayer on behalf of the Roman believers. The apostle is not here concerned with teaching believers on how to pray as he is concerned with a focused prayer. We say this because we do not have all the components of prayer that conform to the prayer pattern the Lord Jesus taught His disciples in the sixth chapter of Matthew. A formal prayer (a private prayer that is comprehensive and not targeted to a specific concern) should begin with an address to God the Father that would first and foremost be concerned with confession of sins so that a believer is in a position to address God as the individual’s Father. This should be followed by thanksgiving and praise for God’s goodness and what He has done for the believer. It is after this that we petition our heavenly Father concerning our spiritual and physical needs. Of course, we should precede our petition for ourselves with intercessory request to God on behalf of other believers we know or even unbelievers that we may be praying specific prayer concerning their salvation. These components of a formal private prayer are not specified in our passage because the apostle was concerned with a targeted prayer. By the way, although we indicated the apostle is concerned with targeted prayer, he indeed was reporting his prayer on behalf of the Romans and so technically what we have is not the doing of his prayer but a report of what he did when he prayed.
Apostle Paul’s prayer in the passage we are considering is specific or targeted. Therefore, it consists of two elements of the pattern prayer the Lord Jesus taught His disciples. The first element is thanksgiving directed to God on behalf of believers in Rome as stated and justified in Romans 1:8. But before the apostle gets to the second element of his prayer, he appealed to God as a witness to the fact of his prayer on behalf of the Romans as stated in verse 9. This is then followed by the second element of his prayer in verse 10. The second element of this apostolic prayer on behalf of the Romans consists of petition to God to grant him the opportunity to see them. Based on what the apostle wrote in the passage we are about to consider, there is a specific message we believe the Holy Spirit wants you to hear. This specific message is that Your prayer for fellow believers should involve thanksgiving and petition about their spiritual progress. The requirements of this message will become clearer as we expound on the passage before us.
In the salutation of this epistle, the apostle had identified himself not merely as the human author but one who has the responsibility of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Immediately, he conveyed the message to the recipients of the epistle that the gospel of God is about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He reminded them that Jesus Christ in His humanity is a descendant of David and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God as demonstrated miraculously by His resurrection. He then brought to their attention that Jesus Christ is the agent of blessings that believers receive. Following this, he then identified the recipients of the epistle. However, before the apostle continued with this epistle there is something important, he wanted to convey to the recipients that should cause them to pay attention to the contents of the epistle. You see, Paul by identifying himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ in effect established his authority for writing this epistle. But there is more to merely throwing around his authority for writing the epistle. The apostle wanted the recipients to know of his genuine concern for them. People are more prone to respond positively to anyone that is in a position of authority that shows concern for those under a given authority than one that merely throws the person’s authority around. So, it is important that the apostle should make the believers in Rome to be aware of his concern for them before he proceeds with espousing of the various doctrines he gave in this epistle. Thus, to ensure that these believers understand the apostle’s care for them, he began verse 8 with an emphatic declaration in the Greek translated in the NIV with the word First.
The word “first” is translated from a Greek word (prōton) with two general meanings. The first pertains to being first in a sequence, inclusive of time, set (number), or space. When used of time it may mean “first” as an adjective as Apostle Paul used it in his acknowledgment of the participation of the Philippians in his ministry of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ as stated in Philippians 1:5:
because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
As an adverb, the word in this first general usage may mean “after” as Apostle Paul used it to inform believers in Rome of his intention to visit them on his proposed journey to Spain as we read in Romans 15:24:
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.
The second general meaning of the Greek word pertains to prominence. So, it may mean “most important” as in the question of one of the teachers of the law directed to Jesus Christ regarding the most important of all the commandments as we read in Mark 12:28:
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
The word may be used as adverb of degree with the meaning “in the first place, above all” as Apostle Peter used it as he described how we got our Scripture in 2 Peter 1:20:
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.
In our passage of Romans 1:8, the word is used with the meaning “firstly,” that is, “before anything else” so that the apostle conveyed the degree of importance to what he states, especially since he used a Greek particle (men) that in this verse although not directly translated is used for emphasis since that particle could mean “indeed.” Nonetheless, the Greek phrase that consists of two Greek words that begin verse 8 may be translated “in the first place.”
The Greek phrase that may be translated “in the first place” as we have indicated, is an emphatic way the apostle conveyed his action that shows his concern for Roman believers. It is one thing to tell a person that you care about them, but it is another thing to demonstrate it. It is more convincing to a person that you care about the individual if your action proves that. So, Apostle Paul tells believers in Rome of his action on their behalf that should cause them to know that he cares about them. This action is his prayer on their behalf. We know this to be the case because of the next sentence of Romans 1:8 I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.
We indicated that in a formal prayer, following confession of sins to God the Father, that thanksgiving should be next element of prayer. Consequently, the apostle tells us that he was involved in prayer because he said in Romans 1:8 I thank my God,
The word “thank” is translated from a Greek word (eucharisteō) that may mean to show that one is under obligation, that is, “to be grateful” as the word is used in Apostle Paul’s expression of his gratitude to Aquilla and Priscilla for risking their lives for him as we read in Romans 16:4:
They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.
The word may mean to express appreciation for benefits or blessings received, hence, “to give thanks, express thanks, render/return thanks” specifically to God as we read, for example, in offering thanks for food in Romans 14:6:
He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
In our passage of Romans 1:8, the Greek verb means “to thank,” that is, to express gratitude or show appreciation. In the Greek, the apostle used a present tense. This indicates that expressing gratitude is a habit of the apostle. Many of us are not truly thankful individuals because we do not have the mindset of being habitually grateful to God. Not so with Apostle Paul. He has formed the habit of expressing gratitude to God. It is not only that the Greek tells us of the apostle’s habit when it comes to expressing gratitude to God, but it also tells us that the apostle’s prayer for the Romans was something that occurred regularly as he later mentioned in Romans 1:9.
Apostle’s gratitude or thanksgiving is directed to One he described in the phrase my God. His use of the phrase my God does not exclude others from the supreme God the apostle worshipped. No! This is a phrase that is often used outside prayer to refer to God by those to whom God had personally revealed Himself in a way not always revealed to us or those who in some way not described are assured of the reality of the supreme God, the creator.
In the OT Scripture, the first usage of the phrase my God is by Jacob in the vow he made if God granted him safe return to Canaan after being away from it as a way to avoid the wrath of Esau as recorded in Genesis 28:21:
so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God
This use of the phrase my God occurred after Yahweh spoke to Jacob in a dream in the first night of his travels towards Paddan Aram as we read in Genesis 28:13:
There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
The second recorded person that used the phrase my God is Moses in his song of praise for Israel’s deliverance as narrated in Exodus 15:2:
The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
It is well known that Yahweh appeared to Moses in a special manner to commission him as His agent of Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Balaam that was a non-Israelite prophet used the phrase as he spoke to Balak to assure him he would not go beyond what God said to him as stated in Numbers 22:18:
But Balaam answered them, “Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the LORD my God.
Clearly, God revealed Himself somehow to Balaam since He communicated with him as evident in what is given in Numbers 22:9–10:
9 God came to Balaam and asked, “Who are these men with you?” 10 Balaam said to God, “Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent me this message:
David used the phrase my God in his song of praise to God after his deliverance from all his enemies as we read in 2 Samuel 22:7:
In my distress I called to the LORD; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears.
There is no doubt that God spoke to David through His prophets, but He also revealed Himself to him since He communicated His words to David as he testified in his closing words recorded in the twenty-third chapter of 2 Samuel, specifically in 2 Samuel 23:2–3:
2“The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; his word was on my tongue. 3The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: ‘When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God.
Ezra, the priest, used the word to describe the God of Israel who moved him to return to Jerusalem to minister to those who returned from Babylonian captivity as narrated in Ezra 7:28:
and who has extended his good favor to me before the king and his advisers and all the king’s powerful officials. Because the hand of the LORD my God was on me, I took courage and gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.
Many of the OT prophets used the phrase my God in describing God. For example, Prophet Isaiah who, no doubt, had special vision of God used the phrase as he preached to the people of Israel as implied in Isaiah 7:13:
Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also?
In the NT Scripture, the phrase my God appears eleven times and it is used only by three individuals. Jesus Christ used the phrase my God to fulfill the prophecy about His being abandoned by God at the cross as stated in Mark 15:34:
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus also used it to indicate that He has a different relationship with God the Father than believers in Him as stated in John 20:17:
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
The second individual that used the phrase was the Thomas who after doubting the resurrection account of the other disciples acknowledged the Lord Jesus as His God after He appeared to him in company of the other disciples as recorded in John 20:28:
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Five of the eleven occurrences of the phrase my God are used by Apostle Paul. We can understand the apostle’s use of this phrase because he was certain of the reality of the supreme God, the creator and Jesus Christ had appeared to him in a personal way. Thus, the apostle sees God as personal to Him whom he is intimate with so he could address him with our phrase. The point we want to emphasize is that a person who has the conviction of the reality of the God of the universe and has intimate relationship with God is one that personalizes God to speak of Him as my God. The individual does not mean that others do not belong to God but that is the person’s way of conveying personal relationship and intimacy with God. So, I ask you. Can you use this phrase my God as you speak to others because of the reality of God to you or your intimacy with Him?
Be that as it may, the apostle in his use of the phrase my God not only wants to convey his personal relationship and intimacy with God but also that God he had in mind is the supreme being called God without distinction of the persons of the Godhead. This is because when the apostle intended to make a distinction of the persons of the Godhead in his thanksgiving or in his prayer, he would qualify the word “God” or identify the member of the Godhead he had in mind. For example, when the apostle specifies what is expected of believers who are filled of the Spirit, he qualified the recipient of thanks as the Father in Ephesians 5:20:
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When the apostle intended his thanksgiving to be directed to the Lord Jesus, he made that clear as in his thanksgiving for the strength to function in his ministry as recorded in 1 Timothy 1:12:
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.
Furthermore, the apostle could address his prayer to God the Father or God the Son. He addressed his prayer to both God the Father and God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his prayer on behalf of the Thessalonians as we read in 1 Thessalonians 3:11:
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you.
But then, he also addressed only Jesus Christ in his next petition on behalf of the Thessalonians as stated in 1 Thessalonians 3:12:
May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
The Lord here refers to Jesus Christ. Thus, we are correct to assert that when the apostle addressed his prayer to God in the sentence of Romans 1:8 I thank my God, he meant for us to understand that his prayer is addressed to the supreme being we call God without distinction of the persons of the Godhead.
Apostle Paul had already in the salutation indicated that Jesus Christ is the agent of the spiritual blessings we enjoy. In other words, without Christ there is nothing worthwhile that can come to us from God. In fact, any activity that is meaningful spiritually or otherwise should be related to Jesus Christ. Therefore, the apostle indicates that his thanksgiving in his prayer on behalf of the Romans is through Jesus Christ. It is this fact that he stated in the sentence of Romans 1:8 I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.
Apostle’s use of the phrase through Jesus Christ reminds us of several blessings and activities that took place or will take place through Jesus Christ. While preaching the gospel in Pisidian Antioch in a Jewish synagogue, he conveyed to his audience that forgiveness of sins is through Jesus Christ as Luke narrated in Acts 13:38:
“Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Later in this epistle to the Romans, he communicated that God’s judgment is through Jesus Christ as we read Romans 2:16:
This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
He also indicated that it is through Jesus Christ that eternal life is available to anyone as he stated in Romans 5:21:
so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Writing to the Ephesians, the apostle indicated that believers are adopted as God’s children through Jesus Christ as we may gather from Ephesians 1:5:
he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
Apostle Paul is not alone in relating the importance of Jesus Christ in our spiritual blessings and any meaningful activity, so did Apostle Peter who tells us that there is no way we could truly praise God without going through Jesus Christ as we read in 1 Peter 4:11:
If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
The phrase through Jesus Christ in the context of Romans 1:8 is the apostle’s way of reminding us that Jesus Christ intercedes for us as he later stated in Romans 8:34:
Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
It is a reminder that the access we have to God in prayer is through Jesus Christ as the apostle conveyed in Ephesians 2:18:
For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Anyway, Apostle Paul conveyed that meaningful thanksgiving in prayer is to be carried out through Jesus Christ. He is central to everything we do in our spiritual life. This is the reason the apostle stated in Romans 1:8 I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.
Apostle’s thanksgiving to God through Jesus Christ is on behalf of the Roman believers as that is what is implied in the phrase for all of you. We indicated that the thanksgiving of the apostle is on behalf of Roman believers, but it is also possible to understand the thanksgiving to be about the believers in Rome. This is because the word “for” of the NIV is translated from a Greek preposition (peri) that in our phrase is subject to two possible interpretations. The word may mean “about, concerning” in the sense of denoting the persons the activity of thanksgiving is related to or the word may mean “for, on behalf of” to indicate the person that is the benefactor of the thanksgiving. Here is probably the case that the apostle offered thanks to God on behalf of believers in Rome and it is concerning them that he offered thanks to God. That aside, the apostle’s thanksgiving to God is not for a handful of believers or for those who think they are elite Christians. No! His thanksgiving is to God for all believers in Rome. Thanksgiving is an activity that has basis, so the apostle provides the basis of his thanksgiving to God on behalf of the Romans but before we get to his reason, let us consider briefly this concept of thanksgiving to God because of His goodness towards us. We are obligated to thank God if indeed we understand that we do not deserve any of the blessings He bestows upon us.
There are several reasons to be thankful to the Lord. For example, we should be thankful to the Lord for answered prayers. It was this reason of answered prayer that led to the prayer of thanksgiving of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, recorded in the second chapter of Samuel when Yahweh answered her prayer and gave her a son. Let me cite only a verse of that prayer recorded in 1 Samuel 2:1:
Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.
Another reason to offer thanks to God is His provisions of food. Thus, we should offer thanks to God for food before we partake of it. The Lord Jesus showed us by example that it is necessary to do so. Thus, before the miracle of feeding several thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish, He offered thanks to God the Father, as recorded in John 6:11:
Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
Apostle Paul followed our Lord’s example in that he offered thanks to God for his food before the passengers with him in the ship taking him to Rome to stand trial, according to Acts 27:35:
After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat.
Anyway, there are several other reasons for thanksgiving to God by the apostle other than the one he gave in our passage of Romans 1:8, that we will get to shortly. In the other epistles of the apostle, we find that there are two major reasons he thanked God for believers – one related to believers’ spiritual life and the other to God’s work. The apostle thanked God because of the faithfulness of believers or their implicit trust in the Lord. Thus, he thanked God for the faith of the Colossians in Colossians 1:3–4:
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints—
He thanked God for the faith of the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 1:3:
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.
It is not only for a local congregation that the apostle thanked God relating to faith but also for an individual, as he did for his friend, Philemon, in Philemon 4–5:
4 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints.
Thus, we see that the apostle thanked God severally for believers’ faith which is brought about in them by God. Likewise, the apostle thanked God for election, as he did on behalf of the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 2:13:
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
A believer who understands that his/her salvation was possible only because of God’s election should remain thankful to the Lord. I mean if you understand that God chose you of all humans to be saved, there should be no day in your life that you do not thank Him for your election. I am not using a hyperbole when I say, you should thank God every day for your salvation. No! I mean you should literally thank Him every day for choosing you as His own if indeed you understand what it means that you are of the elect.
We should develop the habit of giving thanks to God. Apostle Paul, no doubt, had formed the habit of being thankful to God as he stated in 1 Corinthians 1:4:
I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.
The sentence I always thank God is the apostle’s claim that he at all times or on every occasion of prayer gives thanks to God. In effect, he is saying, being thankful to God has become a second nature to him. It is a way of life for him to be in a state whereby he thanks God continuously. It does not necessarily mean that he stops every moment to thank God per say but that his whole attitude of life is that of thanksgiving to God. He was consumed with being grateful to God that every moment of his life is one in which he appreciates God. This should also characterize you as a believer. Your whole outlook in your spiritual life should be one that is characterized by thankfulness to God.
A life of thanksgiving to God is an indication of sound spiritual life. In effect, if you have a sound spiritual life that involves learning and applying the word of God correctly under the filling of the Spirit, you should reflect that in always giving thanks to God. But that is not all. If you have a sound spiritual life, your thanksgiving to God should not only be because of His goodness to you but because of His goodness to other believers, with whom you are acquainted. The truthfulness of what we have said is evident in Apostle Paul’s practice as reflected in our passage of study in the phrase in Romans 1:8 for all of you. The apostle tells the Romans that he was always thanking God for them. He was under the filling of the Spirit as he wrote the phrase for all of you. The implication is that his thankfulness to God on behalf of the Romans is one that is due to his spiritual condition and his spiritual status. The apostle was a matured believer who was under the control of the Holy Spirit that he recognized that it was important to be thankful to God for other believers. It is for this reason we insist that being thankful to God for other believers is a good indicator of the soundness of one’s spiritual life. Being thankful to God for others implies a person is not merely focused on self but thinks of other believers. Anyway, we insist that as a believer you would show spiritual maturity when you not only are thankful to God for yourself but for other believers with whom you are acquainted.
Thanksgiving to God is an act or even an attitude that results from recognition of what He has done for us. The fact that thanksgiving is always a result of what God has done for us or due to some worthwhile reason is conveyed in the last clause of Romans 1:8 because your faith is being reported all over the world. The word “because” is translated from a Greek conjunction (hoti) that could be used as a marker of discourse in which case it may be translated “that” or it is used as marker for identification or of explanation and so means “that, namely, that is, namely that.” However, in our passage, the conjunction is used as a marker of reason or causality. The implication is that the clause we are considering provides the reason for the apostle’s thanksgiving to God on behalf of believers in Rome.
The apostle’s reason for thanking God on behalf of the Roman believers is given in the phrase your faith. How are we to understand the word “faith” in this phrase? This question is necessary because of the range of meanings of the Greek word used as we will demonstrate. The word “faith” is translated from a Greek word (pistis) although often translated “faith” has several other meanings. The Greek word may mean “faith” in the active sense of believing or trusting in someone; the kind of believing that brings salvation. It is in this sense that Apostle Paul used our Greek word to describe faith-righteousness instead of law-righteousness in Romans 3:22:
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
Another meaning of the Greek word translated “faith” is true piety or genuine devotion or even firm commitment. Stephen was described as one who had a genuine devotion or firm commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ in that he did not waver in what he believed but was fully devoted to the Lord. This is the sense of the word “faith” in Acts 6:5:
This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
Another meaning of the Greek word translated “faith” is as an important virtue that Christians should have, or they have as a result of believing in Christ or as a result of the Holy Spirit operating in them. So, it is used to describe “faithfulness” that is an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit given in Galatians 5:22:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
That faith refers to an important Christian virtue is evident in the fact that it is often associated with the virtue of love and so Apostle Paul used it in his epistle to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:13:
What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.
Another meaning of the Greek word translated “faith” is a reference to a religious movement such as the Christian faith, which is essentially the same as “the Christian religion.” It is in this sense that Apostle Paul used it to describe what people heard about him following his conversion as stated in Galatians 1:23:
They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
Paul’s former effort was focused on exterminating Christians and so the Christian movement. Thus, what he tried to destroy is not so much the preaching of the gospel but the Christian movement since if he stopped the movement, he would have destroyed the Christian religion. Of course, that was not to be the case as he was converted and became one of the most fervent advocates of the Christian movement.
Still another meaning of the Greek word translated “faith” is “body of teaching” or “doctrine.” It is in this way that the word “faith” is used to describe what will happen to some at a later time as we read in 1 Timothy 4:1:
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
It is possible that “faith” here can also be interpreted as the “Christian faith,” but it is more likely the apostle meant Christian doctrine especially because of the expression things taught by demons. It is the sense of doctrine or body of teaching of the Christian faith that “faith” is used in Jude 3:
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
In our passage of Romans 1:8, there are two possible meanings “the active sense of having believed” or in the sense of “firm commitment” or “genuine devotion.” It is probably the case that both senses are intended. In other words, that apostle thank God for the fact that those in Rome have believed in Christ and for their commitment to the faith. This interpretation is supported by the verbal phrase of Romans 1:8 being reported all over the world.
The word “reported” is translated from a Greek word (katangellō) that means to make known in public, with implication of broad dissemination, hence “to proclaim, announce.” Thus, it is used in offering forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ as part of presentation of the gospel in Acts 13:38:
“Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
It is the word that is used in Apostle Paul’s proclaiming Christ to the Jews in the synagogue in Thessalonica as recorded in Acts 17:3:
explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he said.
In our passage of Romans 1:8, it means “to announce broadly,” that is, “to make known openly and with wide distribution.” It makes sense that the thing that is broadly announced is belief in the gospel message together with the firm commitment or genuine devotion of believers in Rome.
The extent of the spreading of word regarding the belief together with the commitment or genuine devotion of believers in Rome is given in the phrase of Romans 1:9 all over the world. The word “world” is translated from a Greek word (kosmos) with several meanings. It can mean the planet earth in which people live. It is in this sense that that apostle used the word in cautioning against being engrossed in material possessions as stated in 1 Timothy 6:7:
For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
It is in this sense that Apostle Peter used the word in encouraging believers to endure suffering since believers in different parts of the planet earth are suffering the same, according to the instruction in 1 Peter 5:9:
Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
The Greek word translated “world” can also mean that which serves to beautify through decoration, hence means “adornment, adorning”, as in what should not be the focus of a believing lady as stated in 1 Peter 3:3:
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.
In our passage of Romans 1:8, the word means “world” in the sense of the planet earth in which people live. It is used in our verse in what is described as “rhetorical exaggeration” since the apostle could not have meant entire planet but the areas of the earth where the gospel message has been declared. We will continue with our study of the apostle’s prayer on behalf of the Romans next week, by God’s will, but let me end by reminding you of the message of the passage we are studying which is Your prayer for a fellow believer should involve thanksgiving and petition about their spiritual progress.
05/31/24