Romans 15:14–33

Paul’s Desire to Tell the Good News to the World

¹⁴I’m convinced, brothers and sisters, that you, too, are filled with goodness. I’m also convinced that you have all the knowledge you need and that you are able to instruct each other. ¹⁵However, I’ve written you a letter, parts of which are rather bold, as a reminder to you. I’m doing this because God gave me the gift ¹⁶to be a servant of Christ Jesus to people who are not Jewish. I serve as a priest by spreading the Good News of God. I do this in order that I might bring the nations to God as an acceptable offering, made holy by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁷So Christ Jesus gives me the right to brag about what I’m doing for God. ¹⁸I’m bold enough to tell you only what Christ has done through me to bring people who are not Jewish to obedience. By what I have said and done, ¹⁹by the power of miraculous and amazing signs, and by the power of God’s Spirit, I have finished spreading the Good News about Christ from Jerusalem to Illyricum. 

²⁰My goal was to spread the Good News where the name of Christ was not known. I didn’t want to build on a foundation which others had laid. ²¹As Scripture says, 

“Those who were never told about him will see, 

and those who never heard will understand.” 

²²This is what has so often kept me from visiting you. ²³But now I have no new opportunities for work in this region. For many years I have wanted to visit you. ²⁴Now I am on my way to Spain, so I hope to see you when I come your way. After I have enjoyed your company for a while, I hope that you will support my trip to Spain. 

²⁵Right now I’m going to Jerusalem to bring help to the Christians there. ²⁶Because the believers in Macedonia and Greece owe a debt to the Christians in Jerusalem, they have decided to take up a collection for the poor among the Christians in Jerusalem. ²⁷These Macedonians and Greeks have shared the spiritual wealth of the Christians in Jerusalem. So they are obligated to use their earthly wealth to help them. 

²⁸When the collection is completed and I have officially turned the money over to the Christians in Jerusalem, I will visit you on my way to Spain. ²⁹I know that when I come to you I will bring the full blessing of Christ. 

³⁰Brothers and sisters, I encourage you through our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit creates, to join me in my struggle. Pray to God for me ³¹that I will be rescued from those people in Judea who refuse to believe. Pray that God’s people in Jerusalem will accept the help I bring. ³²Also pray that by the will of God I may come to you with joy and be refreshed when I am with you. 

³³May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.