‘For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem. Yes, it has been their good pleasure; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to minister to them in carnal things.'
He then explains to the Roman Christians about the goodwill gesture of the churches which he has founded, towards the Jerusalem church. Partly at the urging of Paul (1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8:1-3; 2 Corinthians 9:1-14), they had put together a sizeable sum for the relief of the poor in the Jerusalem church. He was remembering what had been urged on him by the Apostles in Jerusalem years before, ‘to remember the poor' (Galatians 2:10), and this he sought constantly to do. And the great famine would have made many poor. But he emphasises also the willingness of the Gentile churches in the venture (it has been their good pleasure), before pointing out that it is also a matter of debt, for the Gentiles having been made partakers in spiritual things as a consequence of the ministry of the Jerusalem church (as the source of the Gospel through which they have benefited, and especially through Paul's ministry), it was right that they should minister to them in physical things. Macedonia and Achaea are probably mentioned as being at the forefront of, and the greatest contributor towards, the ‘collection'. He did not want to go into a detailed list which might have included Galatia and Ephesus.
Paul's description of the indebtedness of the Gentile churches to the church at Jerusalem, from which the Gospel had first issued forth, (wholly a moral debt, there was no specific obligation) is a further indication by him to the Romans of the attitude which the majority Gentile Christians among them ought to have towards the Jews, an attitude that he had emphasised in Romans 11:18-25, and in chapter 14. This is all a part of his continual emphasis to the Roman church on what their attitude should be towards Jewish Christians and towards Jews in general. Although necessarily having to draw attention to the way in which the Jews had failed in their responsibility towards the Messiah, he has always wanted them to recognise the debt that they owed to them as the preservers of the Scriptures (Romans 3:2) and the source from which the Messiah sprang (Romans 9:5), and of their responsibility to now evangelise them (Romans 11:23-24).