Page 9 - Romans Student Textbook.doc

What other places are mentioned in the letter? How do the references to these places impact the
message of the letter?

Besides Rome, five Roman provinces and two cities are mentioned in the letter. All of these are referred
by Paul in the latter have of Romans 15 as he summarized for the Roman churches when he has gone with
the gospel of Jesus Christ and where he intends to go next. He presents his ministry as having taken him
from Jerusalem to Illyricum in the quest to proclaim Christ’s gospel and start churches. He lays out his
plan for the next places he would go. Having been given an intended to go first to Jerusalem and then on
to Spain. Since Rome was on the way from Jerusalem to Spain, he let them know that he intended to visit
them on the way to Spain. The significance of this is that Paul intended to follow up personally with them
to see how well they were obeying the instructions that he had given them about how to proclaim the
wonder of Christ’s salvation with integrity.

Purpose

What might be the reason that the author took time and invested resources in writing this letter?

There was a problem within the churches in Rome that needed to be addressed. The problem focused on
differences between two groups in the churches who Paul addresses as “the weak” (14:1) and “the
strong” (15:1). It centered on how to live out their faith in Jesus Christ with integrity. The “weak” were
those who kept dietary laws and observed special days like the sabbath that they had carried over from
their Jewish cultural background into the expression of their Christianity. The “strong” were those who
believed that their faith in Christ set them free from keeping such restrictive rules of conduct. The
problem came when the weak developed a judgmental attitude toward those who did not live out their
faith exactly the same way they had chosen to live and when the strong encouraged the weak to live out
their faith the same way they did without taking into account that to do so they would have to violate
their conscientiously-held beliefs about what is right and wrong. These attitudes and actions created a
tension in the churches in Rome that hindered their ability to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ with
integrity.

Aggravating the whole situation was that the designations of “weak” and “strong” are not likely so much a
comment on the theological acumen of either group as it was of their positions of influence in the general
society of Rome. It seems that the “weak” were mostly ethnic Jews and the “strong” were mostly Gentile
believers. In the political / economic environment of Rome, the Jews were poor tradesmen who were not
connected to the corridors of power, while many of the Gentiles in the churches were individuals who
were politically and economically enfranchised and connected in the culture.

In Romans 15:15 Paul expressed why he was writing to them in these words, “Now boldly I have written
to you from part as reminding you through the grace which was given to me by God so that I might be a
servant of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles, serving as a priest the gospel of God, so that the offering of the
Gentiles might become acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”18 He has taken the initiative to
boldly point out to both groups within the churches of Rome that they are both out of line and to turn
their gaze off of their differences to the wonderful glory of their commonly held salvation in and through
the work of Jesus Christ.

Secondary to addressing this problem this letter is also the fact that Paul is planning a visit to the churches
in Rome in the near future. He wants to prepare them for his arrival and let them know ahead of his
arrival just what he expects.

18 Romans 15:15, Author’s translation.
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