CRITICAL NOTES
Romans 15:26. To make a certain contribution.—To make a contribution of some sort or other. Meyer thus explains the passage: “To bring about a participation in reference to the poor—i.e., to make a collection for them. The contributor, namely, enters into fellowship with the person aided, in so far as he κοινωνεῖ ταῖς χρειας αὐτοῦ: κοινωνία is hence the characteristic expression for almsgiving, without, however, having changed its proper sense communio into the active one of communication.”
Romans 15:27.—Gentile couverts are debtors to Jerusalem, whence came spiritual blessings.
Romans 15:28. Have sealed to them this fruit.—sealed applied to an instrument in writing means to make it valid, sure to answer the purpose for which it was intended καρπός, fruit, from a Hebrew word meaning “to strip.” Fruit of the earth, of the loins, of the lips. Here the spiritual effect of Paul’s preaching. (Notes compressed from Wordsworth, Stuart, and Olshausen.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Romans 15:25-29
St. Paul as a dispenser of alms.—Renan asks, “Does not the English race in Europe and in America present to us the same contrast, so full of good sense as regards things of this world, so absurd as regards things pertaining to heaven?” What he designates the absurdity as regards heavenly things has tended to make the English race good for the things of this world. Godliness has the promise of the life that now is, other things being equal. St. Paul’s good sense as regards things of this world comes out in this passage. The spiritual is with him supreme, but he is far from ignoring the material.
I. St. Paul does not believe in doing charitable work by proxy.—He went himself to Jerusalem, and did not waste the contributions of the Macedonian saints by needless extravagance. He was careful not to touch one particle of the sacred treasure; he bore his own expenses. If St. Paul had lived in these days, we cannot suppose him travelling third class on his own account and first class as the organiser of a public charity. He was not the man to spend ninepence out of every shilling in salaries, etc., while only threepence is dispensed in charity. The work was a ministry, a sympathetic mission. The poor saints at Jerusalem were not made to feel any degradation.
II. St. Paul registers the kindness and indebtedness of the givers.—“It hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution.” Here is the true spirit of Christian philanthropy—to find pleasure in giving. The luxury of doing good is the theme of the poet, but it should be the realisation of every true man. Charitable work should be a pleasure, while it is a debt. A pleasant thing to discharge debts of this kind. A general principle is here laid down. Partakers of spiritual things should minister unto their benefactors in carnal things. Here is a kind of commodity not contemplated by the political economist. Spiritual things are never quoted on ’Change. We grudge an archbishop his £10, 000 or £15, 000 a year, while we make no complaint if a great singer gets her £40, 000 for a short tour, or a novelist receives £4, 000 or £6, 000 for the novel, and so on. Spiritual things are with the apostle realities, and rise above carnal things in importance. We require more reality and less make-believe in our religion. Our estimates stand in need of alteration.
III. St. Paul is careful faithfully to discharge his trust.—Whatever may be the meaning of the sealing, it is certain that the whole passage indicates St. Paul’s carefulness and faithfulness. He would not lay himself open to suspicion by tampering with public moneys; all must be straight. Ministers cannot be too careful about pecuniary affairs; scandals soon arise, and are very difficult to silence. The public are too ready in representing ministers as being fond of money.
IV. St. Paul believes in material blessing, but he believes much more in spiritual blessing.—I go to Jerusalem to minister alms, and thus confer a blessing; but I shall come to you in a fulness of blessing which does not belong to material things. This confidence he derives from his own experience as a preacher of the gospel, and from the character of those to whom he proposes a visit. If the gospel is to benefit, it must be both faithfully preached and earnestly received. St. Paul may not go to Rome as be intended, but the fulness of blessing is not thereby curtailed. God’s methods are not limited by human workers; there is a fulness of blessing for every earnest seeker. Let us not depend upon human instruments, however gifted. While we wisely and thankfully use all the means placed at our disposal, let us not place upon them undue dependence.
Romans 15:27. A poor political economist.—The cold-blooded science of political economy is the natural product of a materialistic age. No doubt there is much truth in the science and benefit to be derived from its study, but sometimes it seems as if it were truth pushed to the extreme. It does not take into account higher laws and sanctions; it reckons little or nothing of moral force, of spiritual wealth. Thus St. Paul would not take high rank in the school of modern political economy. Though we call him a poor political economist, we feel that he has done more for the wealth (weal) of mankind than those who would set him scientifically right according to their view of science. Let us consider the so-called failings of this poor political economist.
I. He esteems the unproductive spiritual more highly than the productive material.—The words “productive” and “unproductive” loom largely above the horizon of the political economist. He only sees wealth in the material. But we shall see his mistake and get nearer to the Pauline view, if we bear in mind that the moral element is duly considered in every well-ordered and civilised community. Our civil codes, our costly array of judicial executors, affirm that the moral is highly important. Man stripped of the moral would degenerate into the savage, and even political economists allow that the savage condition of the race is not one that is conducive to the production of material wealth. Thus the moral rises above the material, and again the spiritual above the moral; and the latter cannot attain its full growth without the fostering influences of the former. So far we have proceeded on the erroneous principle that man is a mere time creature, as if he were destitute of an immortal nature. If man possess a soul, if he be a being capable of loving and serving God, if he have vast aspirations that tell of a divine original and an eternal destiny, then material riches will not satisfy—there must be the possession of spiritual wealth. A just view of human nature must lead to the conclusion that spiritual blessings are most valuable.
II. He makes the unproductive labourer the productive consumer.—According to the political economist the productive labourer—that is, the producer of mere material wealth—has alone the right to be a consumer. All so-called unproductive labourers should be allowed to die of starvation. What, then, becomes of the political economist himself? He replies that he is producing by teaching how to lessen the cost of production. We may then declare that every spiritual worker is indirectly helping to the production of material wealth. No spiritual work is without its good results to the community. The governors that have not themselves been particularly religious have felt the necessity of establishing and supporting religious institutions, as being necessary to the safety and welfare of the community. The spiritual workman is worthy of material hire. Spiritual blessings went forth from Jerusalem; the Gentiles received those blessings, and thus became debtors.
III. He acknowledges the law of supply and demand.—The supply in this case is spiritual things, and the urgent demand on the part of the suppliers is for carnal things. Supply meets and creates a demand. The supply of spiritual things meets the indefinable but certain wants of humanity. The supply meets the need and creates a large desire for further supplies. He that asks for material wealth and gets it, obtains an inordinate craving for more and soul dissatisfaction; he who asks for spiritual wealth obtains such infinite satisfaction and repose that he prays for more. The material riches of this world are too often soul-pauperising, while spiritual gold is soul-enrichment. This supply of spiritual things on the part of the Jews does not create the demand for carnal things, but it constitutes a good argument why the rich Gentiles should be liberal. If we have it in our power, let us give largely where we have received largely.
IV. He invests the material waster with priestly sanctions.—The Gentiles are to minister carnal things; they are to exercise priestly functions; they offer up contributions as spiritual sacrifices. Who in these days would think of calling the man a priest simply because he gives sordid money? But it is not the mere giving of money or of alms that imparts priestly glory. It is the purpose for which and the spirit in which the money is given which make the difference. The man who has received spiritual things, feels his indebtedness, and gives of his carnal things as a small and grateful payment in discharge of the debt incurred, exercises a liturgical office sweeter and richer than he who in most melodious measures chants the sublimest ritual ever penned. Thus there may be priests without the laying on of episcopal hands. Loving hearts and grateful spirits may invest with a garb of glory that the most sumptuous priestly vestments cannot equal. Let us try to feel and understand that we may all engage in great services. We may do spiritual work, not only in the Church, but in the world temple of humanity. We may do carnal things after a spiritual fashion. Every day we may minister at divine altars; every day we may offer up spiritual sacrifice. Let us learn divine co-operation. The poor in carnal things may impart of their spiritual things, while the materially rich may gratefully respond by giving of their carnal things.
V. The word “charity” in its modern sense is a misnomer as applied to Church contributions.—If there were a right feeling abroad in the Christian community, there should be no need for bazaars, for musical services, for eloquent preachers with their stirring appeals to be charitable. What should we think of the creditor who should send an eloquent preacher to the debtor pleading with him in touching terms to be charitable and pay his debts? We are debtors for spiritual things; and yet when we give the least driblet to discharge the claim, we call it charity and pride ourselves on our benevolence. When will the Christian world get to feel that spiritual blessings lay us under a great debt? How much owest thou unto thy Lord? How much owest thou to Him whose love and self-sacrifice are beyond compare? How much owest thou to the gospel-enlightened world in which thou art privileged to live? Let us try to feel that we are debtors to infinite love and goodness.
Romans 15:29. Paul’s desire to visit Rome.—It had been a long-cherished wish of the apostle Paul to visit Rome; but something had always come in the way. And when at length his wish was granted, it looked as if his purpose were going to be defeated, for he went as a prisoner. Nevertheless he was an ambassador of the King of kings, though an ambassador in bonds.
I. The apostle’s object in visiting Rome.—
1. Not to gratify a personal craving or wish; not to view the magnificence of the metropolis, or sit at the feet of its philosophers, statesmen, or poets.
2. What Rome needed was the knowledge of the gospel of Christ. With all its greatness the Eternal City knew not God, and already the “dry rot” of decay was gnawing at the heart of the solid fabric. Nothing could save it from the inevitable “decline and fall” but a force that knew no decay. That force was the gospel with its proclamation of God’s love to man, the forgiveness of sins, the purification of man and society, and the assurance of life everlasting. The only power that would have saved Rome was, not her armies, but the gospel of the crucified Nazarene. The acceptance of a thought from God would have done more to strengthen her than all the wealth of her dependencies and the devices of her statesmen. Moral decay can only be arrested by moral force. History tells us that the nations that forget God utterly perish. It was Paul’s wish, then, to proclaim in this mighty city a message which would have saved its corrupt society—the message of God to those who forget Him, “the fulness of the blessings of Christ.”
II. The ground of the apostle’s confidence.—“I am sure,” etc. He was not ignorant of the demoralised state of society as seen in the fearful picture he draws in the first chapter, yet he was confident that the gospel of Christ was the cure.
1. He had the promise of Christ. “Preach the gospel to every creature.” “Lo, I am with you alway.” These and suchlike promises would assure him that his labour would not be in vain. No stronghold could be so impregnable that it would not yield to the forces of God; no society so corrupt that it could not be purified by atoning blood; no darkness so dense that light from heaven would fail to penetrate it. How, then, could he doubt? He would be mighty through God.
2. He would derive confidence from past experience. His message had never failed elsewhere, and he would have fruit in Rome also. Systems of idolatry had been shaken, and the strongest would yet fall.
3. He was encouraged to go to Rome by the state of his own feelings. He regarded the wish to go to Rome as God-implanted. This was to him a divine call. In Romans 1:9 he says: “God is my witness,” etc. When Providence points in a certain direction, is it not a duty to follow? May God make our duty clear, and then we cannot fail.—D. Merson.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Romans 15:24, etc
Did Paul visit Spain?—“Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company.” “Whensoever,” “As soon as”; “As soon as I take my journey,” etc. Whether Paul ever accomplished his purpose of visiting Spain is a matter of doubt. There is no historical record of his having done so either in the New Testament or in the early ecclesiastical writers, though most of those writers seem to have taken it for granted. His whole plan was probably deranged by the occurrences at Jerusalem which led to his long imprisonment at Cæsarea and his being sent in bonds to Rome. “To be brought on my way”; the original word means, in the active voice, to attend any one on a journey for some distance as an expression of kindness and respect, and also to make provision for his journey. Romans 15:26-27. “For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.” Having mentioned this fact, the apostle immediately seizes the opportunity of showing the reasonableness and duty of making these contributions. This he does in such a way as not to detract from the credit due to the Grecian Churches, while he shows that it was but a matter of justice to act as they had done. “It hath pleased them,” verily; “and their debtors they are”—that is, “It pleased them, I say; they did it voluntarily, yet it was but reasonable they should do it.” The ground of this statement is immediately added: “For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.” “If the Gentiles have received the greater good from the Jews, they may well be expected to contribute the lesser.”—Hodge.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 15
Romans 15:26. Contribution for the poor.—Van Lennep tells us that among the Nestorian Christians dwelling in, the fertile plain of Ooroomia charity assumes an almost apostolic form; for it is their yearly practice to lay by a certain portion of their crops in order to supply the wants of their brethren living among the rugged mountains of Koordistan, whose food often fails them altogether or is carried away by their more powerful enemies. Deeds of charity are highly extolled in the Koran, and the value of such acts is more particularly felt where the rulers take no interest in works of public utility.