indicates the purpose of it. 'For this end Christ died, that He might
be Lord of the dead.' It might have been imagined that the dim realms
of the dead were outside the jurisdiction of Christ--that the dead have
no king--that the kingdom of redemption does not include them. To
obviate such an idea, to show the universality of His realm, Christ
went down among the dead.
5. In many places of the New Testament there is mention of the
thanksgiving before food--the Christian's 'saying grace.' Whether he
eat flesh or vegetables he 'giveth God thanks[34].' And the word used
is the word which, in its substantive form, is 'eucharist.' And indeed
there is meaning in this. The thankful reception by the Christian of
the ordinary bread of his daily life as coming from God, touched his
common meals with something of the glory of divine communion; and the
eucharist in its turn {158} is the common blessing and breaking of the
bread, raised by the Holy Spirit to a higher power and consecrated to
become the vehicle of the bread of life[35].
[1] Possibly his mind passes by a natural reaction from the thought of
sensual licentiousness (xiii. 13) to that of unenlightened asceticism.
[2] It is implied (xiv. 1; xv. 1 and 7) that the strong-minded brethren
were in the ascendant. It is them chiefly to whom St. Paul addresses
himself.
[3] Ecclus. xxxiii. 9.
[4] Mark vii. 19.
[5] Acts x. 28.
[6] The matter of 'eating with the Gentiles' was prominent, cf. ii. 12.
[7] 1 Cor. x. 25.
[8] Acts xv. 23.
[9] 1 Cor. viii, and x. 23-33.
[10] The exact point--abstaining from all flesh meat--is so different
from what had presented itself at Corinth that there must be a
particular reference to Roman circumstances, of which St. Paul was
probably informed by Priscilla and Aquila.
[11] This seems to follow from Philo's statement that they did not make
animal sacrifices: and from Josephus' description of their way of life
as Pythagorean.
[12] Cf. 1 Cor. viii. 10.
[13] Gal. iv. 10; cf. Col. ii. 16, 17: 'Let no man therefore judge you
in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a
sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is
Christ's.'
[14] Or _for decisions of doubts_, marg. This, or something like this,
is the right meaning; cf. Hebr. v. 14: 'for decision between good and
evil.' 1 Cor. xii. 10: 'discernings of spirits,' i.e. decisions as to
their true character.
[15] From Isa. xlv. 33.
[16] Cf. Ephes. pp. 271 f.
[17] See app. note H, p. 239.
[18] Gal. i. 8.
[19] 1 Cor. xv. 12, 13.
[20] 1 Cor. v. 6
[21] Cf. Ephes. p. 126.
[22] 1 Cor. xi. 16.
[23] Gal. v. 2.
[24] Phil. iii. 15, 16.
[25] _Unity in Diversity_, by Charles Bigg, D.D. (Longmans, 1899), pp.
84, 85, 95.
[26] 'Whatever is not of faith is sin--that is whatever is against
conscience.' Aquinas, quoted in _S. and H. in loc._
[27] Cf. xii. 6: 'Let us prophesy according to the proportion of our
faith.'
[28] Col. ii. 16: 'Let no man judge you in respect of a sabbath day.'
[29] This is probably implied in Acts xx. 7.
[30] 1 Cor. xvi. 1.
[31] _Philippians_, on 'the Christian Ministry,' p. 181. The language
in the immediate context I cannot make my own. But the statement
quoted is surely true. And to this day I suppose, for those living in
religious communities and similar institutions, there is very little
practical difference between Sundays and week-days. This almost
complete absence of distinction, however, must always come about, if it
is to be legitimate, by raising the week-days to the spiritual level of
the Sundays, and not by the opposite process.
[32] Especially in the Pastoral Epistles: but also in the epistles to
the Thessalonians and Corinthians.
[33] 1 Cor. viii. 13.
[34] Cf. 1 Cor. x. 30: 'Why am I evil spoken of for that for which I
give thanks.' 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4: 'Meats, which God created to be
received with thanksgiving.... For every creature of God is good ...
if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified through the
word of God and prayer. Cf. Acts xxvii. 35: 'And when he had taken
bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all: and he brake it,
and began to eat.'
[35] Matt. xxvi. 26; cf. Luke xxiv. 30.
{159}
DIVISION V. Sec. 7. CHAPTER XV. 1-13.
_Unselfish forbearance and inclusiveness._
It was essential, as has been said, that men whose prejudices and
instincts were different should live in the same church and eat at the
same love feast. This would require a large-hearted and unselfish
self-control. Formerly, as in Syria and Palestine, it was the Jews who
occupied the position of vantage in the Christian communities, and were
not disposed to tolerate the ways of the Gentiles. Now the tables are
turned, and the Gentiles are in the majority. The danger is now that
those whose instincts are Gentile should bear hardly upon the minority
whose prejudices are more or less Jewish. Such St. Paul anticipates,
or knows from Priscilla and Aquila, will be the danger among the Roman
Christians. Formerly Judaic narrowness had been a formidable danger.
It had developed a most perilous heresy, and St. Paul had dealt with it
as a deadly poison. Now what remained {160} of Jewish feeling was a
weakness to be generously borne with. It affords St. Paul an
opportunity of falling back on the general principle, that the measure
of Christian strength and full-grown manhood is the readiness to bear
the weaknesses of others.
To be told he must not use his normal liberty, must not eat his usual
meal or drink his usual cup of wine, because it might scandalize some
Christian with the ascetic prejudices of an Essene, or even induce him
to do the same against his own conscience--to be told this was annoying
to a man who held the 'strong' Christian conviction that all kinds of
food were indifferently allowable. The weak scruple of his brother
Christian had become an annoying burden of self-denial and
self-restraint laid on himself. But this, St. Paul says, is how
Christian strength--whether it be the moral strength of clear
convictions, or any other sort of faculty[1]--must show itself, in
readiness to suffer on account of other people's deficiencies, in not
resenting the restraints they lay on us, in not expecting to do as we
please, but being {161} ready to accommodate ourselves to our
neighbour's tastes where it is for his good. That is what our great
example did. Plainly His whole human life was putting Himself under
the restraints which our weaknesses and narrownesses and slownesses
laid on Him. The righteous man in the psalm complains that he has to
bear all the reproaches of God which impatient and rebellious
Israelites might utter; and that is the picture of Christ bearing our
infirmities. (The reproaches which fell on Him were for the very
largeness of His love; 'because He received sinners,' and because He
received them on the Sabbaths as well as on other days. They were
reproaches of God, like Jonah's, because He was too forbearing, too
generous.)
Then St. Paul pauses a moment to justify his use of the Psalms. These
ancient scriptures did not fulfil their purpose in their own time, or
for the old covenant. God intended them for Christians. Their
teaching is what they need. The burdens of life are so many, its
requirements upon their patience so constant, that they find it hard to
maintain their hope. Yet what is the Old Testament so full of?
Lessons of endurance and words of encouragement. The encouragement and
endurance then, which they gain from {162} the Old Testament, are to
help them to maintain Christian hope. They must not lose heart. The
end is a great one: it is the maintenance of a united spirit in the
Church, such as Christ can approve, such as can express itself in a
really unanimous adoration of Him whom Christ recognized as His God and
Father. May the God who inspires endurance and encouragement, grant
them not to fail in this great end!
Here is the central requirement, then, which a catholic church lays on
them. It is to be unselfishly inclusive, to welcome into fellowship
people who are not naturally to their taste. Our Lord did not
scrutinize us men, but received us, of whatever sort we were, that God
might be glorified in human brotherhood. He vindicated the truth of
God by fulfilling the covenant of circumcision: first, to confirm the
promises given to the fathers of Israel[2]; and, secondly, to enlarge
the compass of Israel, so that the Gentiles too might share its
blessings, out of God's pure mercy apart from any promises. And this
also--the fellowship of Jew and Gentile--was matter of ancient
prediction by psalmist {163} and prophet. The Roman Christians must
not therefore let themselves be discouraged because they have a
difficult task to fulfil. And the apostle prays that God, the inspirer
of hope, may fill them with such a rich sense of the blessings of
believing in Him, that His Spirit, dwelling in them, may make hope to
abound in their hearts.
Now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and
not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbour for
that which is good, unto edifying. For Christ also pleased not
himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached
thee fell upon me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were
written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of
the scriptures we might have hope. Now the God of patience and of
comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to
Christ Jesus: that with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one
another, even as Christ also received you, to the glory of God. For I
say that Christ hath been made a minister of the circumcision for the
truth of God, that he might confirm the promises _given_ unto the
fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it
is written,
Therefore will I give praise unto thee among the Gentiles,
And sing unto thy name.
And again he saith,
Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.
{164}
And again,
Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles;
And let all the peoples praise him.
And again, Isaiah saith,
There shall be the root of Jesse,
And he that ariseth to rule over the Gentiles;
On him shall the Gentiles hope.
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that
ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Ghost.
1. The connexion of thought in this passage is undoubtedly somewhat
obscure. But we know to-day, as well as ever, how difficult it is to
bear with what is disagreeable to us in others, with what seem to us
their deficiencies, without breaking real Christian brotherhood and
co-operation. And we know also that where we are possessed by an
enthusiasm for brotherhood such as inspired the early Christians, the
divisions which small differences tend to produce are peculiarly
discouraging, because they suggest that real brotherhood is impossible
where men are so differently constituted. We ought not, therefore, to
be at a loss to see why St. Paul should pass so easily from speaking of
divisions among Christians to speak of the grounds of patience and
encouragement and hope. The Christian hope is--in substantial
part--the hope {165} of a really catholic church--a real brotherhood
among people of different races, classes, tastes, and habits; and it is
this great hope which, even in St. Paul's day, was continually
suffering discouragement and continually needed reinforcing. And the
reinforcement must be 'supernatural.' It is the divine love of the
Spirit possessing us which alone can give it vigour. When we are full
of the divine consolation, then it is that we are least inclined to be
critical, and most disposed 'to receive one another, as Christ also
received us, to the glory of God.' For this is the thought we are to
have constantly in view, when we find people 'aggravating'--Christ
received us, and made the best of those whom 'God gave him,' in spite
of the infinite annoyances which we men, even the apostles, caused Him;
He dealt with us with infinite patience; He made us welcome; He
'received us.'
In fact, the reason why the connexion of thought in this passage seems
obscure to us, is probably in part that we have ceased to think of the
real fellowship of the naturally unlike--fellowship in all that makes
up human life--as a necessary part of the Christian religion. But to
St. Paul there was no Christianity without the reality of catholic
brotherhood.
{166}
2. St. Paul here, as in writing to the Corinthians[3], shows himself
specially anxious that Gentile Christians should not think they could
make light of the Old Testament, or imagine that 'Christ was the end of
the law' in any such sense as would make the books of the old covenant
superfluous under the new. Their value, he insists, remains permanent.
When he is writing to the Corinthians, he finds it in the moral
warnings--the warnings of divine judgement upon the chosen people--of
which the history is full. In this epistle he is thinking chiefly of
the lessons of 'endurance' and divine 'encouragements,' which histories
and prophets provide. In his epistle to Timothy[4] he thinks of the
books as instruments by the use of which the minister or representative
of God may become fully educated and equipped for all the purposes of
moral supervision and discipline. They can thus educate and equip him,
St. Paul {167} teaches, because they were originally written under the
influence of a divine inspiration; but it is only when faith has
finally attained its true object in Jesus Christ that their real
meaning becomes apparent. And this last principle is implied in almost
all his use of the Old Testament.
It is a comfort to perceive that none of the elements of permanent
value, which St. Paul discerns in the Old Testament, are the least
likely to be affected by reasonable criticism of its documents. Its
history, critically read, does not become less truly pregnant with
moral warnings or lessons of endurance. The encouragements of the
prophets are in no respect reduced in force when they are brought into
right relation to their own times. The whole library of books is, at
least, as capable of educating and equipping the minister of Christ as
ever. Their inspiration is still obvious, when it is interpreted
candidly in view of all the facts. And still they can only be rightly
regarded when they are looked upon as various elements in a progress
which has Christ for its goal.
In his use of particular passages in the Old Testament St. Paul here
shows himself as free as ever, but with the same fundamental {168}
adherence to the true tendency of the Old Testament as a whole. In
quoting Ps. lxix. 9 (ver. 3) he is seeing in the afflicted righteous
man a type of Christ. This psalm is constantly cited in the New
Testament with the same reference[5]. It has been supposed[6] that St.
Paul here adopts a cry addressed _to God_ by the righteous sufferer in
the psalm, and represents it as addressed by Christ _to his brother
man_. 'The reproaches aimed at thee, my despised brother, have fallen
upon me.' But, as I have tried to show in the analysis above, this
supposition is not needed. Christ is represented appealing to God for
succour, because He utterly refuses to take the line of self-pleasing;
but bears all that men's impatience of God lays upon Him--all their
'wild and weak complaining.' And it is suggestive to remember, with
Origen, that it was Christ's 'receiving of sinners and eating with
them,' receiving them on the Sabbath as well as other days, that
chiefly brought on Him the reproaches of men. This was probably in St.
Paul's mind.
In Ps. xviii. 49 (quoted ver. 9) the victorious {169} king declares
that he will praise God for his victory 'among the nations.' St. Paul
applies this to Christ, whose victory among the nations means their
redemption--their becoming His people.
In Deut. xxxii. 43 (ver. 10) 'the nations are invited to congratulate
Israel on possessing a God like Jehovah, who will effectually take up
His people's cause. Such an invitation addressed to the nations (cf.
Isa. xlii. 10-12; Ps. xlvii. 2, lxvii. 1-7, &c.) involves implicitly
the prophetic truth that God's dealings with Israel have indirectly an
interest and importance for the world at large[7].' This is still more
plainly implied in Ps. cxvii. 1 (ver. 11).
Isa. xi. 10 (ver. 12) is quoted from the Greek Bible, which is
paraphrastic; but the Hebrew also asserts that the messianic king of
David's line is to be a 'signal to the nations,' and that they are to
'resort to him' as to an oracle or place of refuge[8].
[1] We are all 'strong' in some respect, Origen remarks, so that 'ye
that are strong bear the infirmities of the weak' comes to be as broad
a precept as 'bear ye one another's burdens.'
[2] Cf. Gal. iv. 4, 5: 'Christ, born of a woman, born under the law,
that he might redeem them which were under the law, that we (Jews and
Gentiles) might receive the adoption of sons.'
[3] 1 Cor. x. ii: 'These things happened unto them (the Jews in the
Wilderness) by way of example; and they were written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.'
[4] 2 Tim. iii. 15-17. 'Sacred writings which are able to make thee
wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every
scripture inspired by God _is_ also profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness:
that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every
good work.'
[5] Cf. above, xi. 9; in the Gospels, Matt. xxvii. 34; John ii. 17;
xix. 28; also Acts i. 20.
[6] See _S. and H. in loc._
[7] Driver, _in loc._
[8] Cheyne, _in loc._
{170}
DIVISION VI. CHAPTERS XV. 14-XVI. 27.
_Conclusion._
The long letter is almost ended. St. Paul has developed the meaning of
the revelation of the divine righteousness. He has vindicated the ways
of God to the Jews. He has drawn out sufficiently the moral
conclusions from God's mercy to mankind. Now he has only to secure
again his good terms with the Roman Christians--which he does with the
same tact and the same anxiety as at the beginning[1],--to explain his
movements, to send his greetings to individuals, and to bid farewell.
[1] Vol. i. p. 53.
{171}
DIVISION VI. Sec. 1. CHAPTER XV. 14-33.
_His excuse for writing and his hope of coming._
St. Paul is very anxious not to be understood as if, while giving the
Christians at Rome these exhortations which we have just been reading,
he stood in any doubt himself of their goodness of heart and full grasp
of Christian principles, or of their fitness to admonish one another.
He has only been bold to put them in mind of what they already knew,
because of the priestly commission on behalf of his Lord towards all
the Gentiles, which the divine grace has bestowed upon him as apostle
of the Gentiles. The gospel entrusted to him requires him as a priest
to prepare and offer sacrifice; and the sacrifice which he is to
prepare, which the consecration of the indwelling Spirit alone can make
acceptable, is that of the whole Gentile world. The extent to which
this great charge laid upon him has been fulfilled, gives him good
reason for {172} boasting as he stands before God--not in himself, but
in Christ Jesus. His work has been a pioneer's work. He has made it
his ambition purely to lay foundations. Taking words of Isaiah[1] for
his motto, he had resolved to go nowhere where any other had been
before him to make Christ known. But in that free and open area of a
yet unevangelized world, Christ had worked through him to bring the
Gentiles to His obedience, and had accompanied his preaching with
evidences of miraculous power and with the strong manifestations of the
Spirit. So that in the result the work of proclaiming the gospel had
been accomplished, starting from Jerusalem, in an extending circuit[2]
or irregular progress, as far as Illyria.
This world-wide mission would give St. Paul his title to visit Rome[3].
But its very greatness has hitherto hindered him. Now however he is
hoping to satisfy the desire that has so long possessed him, and to pay
them a visit of some length on his way to Spain. That is to say, he
hopes to come to them when the task is over {173} which is immediately
occupying him. The good will of the churches in Macedonia and Achaia
has shown itself in a collection of money for the poor Christians at
Jerusalem. This is really the payment of a debt to those to whom they
owe their fellowship in Christ's salvation. When then St. Paul has
handed over this collection, and secured to its recipients this fruit
of his mission, he hopes to pass to Spain by way of Rome; and again, as
in his introduction[4], he expresses his confidence that at Rome, as
elsewhere, the fullness of the rich gifts of Christ will accompany his
coming.
Meanwhile he makes his urgent request, by their allegiance to Christ
and their fellowship in the spirit of love, that they will join with
him in wrestling with God in prayer for the success of his present
undertaking--that he may escape the danger to which he is exposed from
the hostility of the unbelieving Jews, and that the gift, as ministered
by him, may not prove unacceptable to the Jerusalem church; so that he
may get happily to Rome and find repose there with them. And he prays
for the blessing of the God of peace upon all of them.
{174}
And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye yourselves
are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish
one another. But I write the more boldly unto you in some measure, as
putting you again in remembrance, because of the grace that was given
me of God, that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus unto the
Gentiles, ministering[5] the gospel of God, that the offering up of the
Gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
I have therefore my glorying in Christ Jesus in things pertaining to
God. For I will not dare to speak of any things save those which
Christ wrought through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word
and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy
Ghost; so that from Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyricum, I
have fully preached the gospel of Christ; yea, making it my aim so to
preach the gospel, not where Christ was _already_ named, that I might
not build upon another man's foundation; but, as it is written,
They shall see, to whom no tidings of him came,
And they who have not heard shall understand.
Wherefore also I was hindered these many times from coming to you: but
now, having no more any place in these regions, and having these many
years a longing to come unto you, whensoever I go unto Spain (for I
hope to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward
by you, if first in some measure I shall have been satisfied with your
company)--but now, _I say_, I go unto Jerusalem, ministering unto the
saints. For it hath been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to
make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints that are at
Jerusalem. Yea, it hath been their good pleasure; and their debtors
they are. For if the Gentiles have been {175} made partakers of their
spiritual things, they owe it _to them_ also to minister unto them in
carnal things. When therefore I have accomplished this, and have
sealed to them this fruit, I will go on by you unto Spain. And I know
that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing
of Christ.
Now I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love
of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God
for me; that I may be delivered from them that are disobedient in
Judaea, and _that_ my ministration which _I have_ for Jerusalem may be
acceptable to the saints; that I may come unto you in joy through the
will of God, and together with you find rest. Now the God of peace be
with you all. Amen.