Romans 1:10 Commentary and Bible Study

The apostle Paul wants to go to Rome. He longed to go there. He would make that journey, but under compulsion, as a prisoner. God would take him to Rome and all kinds of suffering awaited him there. So it was that the apostle would preach at the church at Rome. When he thought of Rome, he did not say, I want to come to Rome, I would love to see the Forum, I would love to see the great buildings. He did not utter a word of interest in Rome itself. When he writes to the Romans, his mind goes to them personally: the called of Jesus Christ (verse 6).‘Making request, if by any means’ – those are important words. The Apostle said to the Lord, ‘Lord, however I have to go, if I go as another man's servant, if I go in whatever shape or form, could I go and minister in Rome?’ When his prayer was answered, he went as a prisoner. So he got to Rome. But when it happened, he looked at it quite differently. As far as he was concerned, he went with an escort, at the expense of the emperor, and he stayed in Rome at the expense of the emperor. You could look at it either way. He went as a prisoner. He went as a guest of the emperor. ‘If by any means’ – that's the way God chose for him to go. ‘I might have a prosperous journey’, but the Greek is a kind of figure of speech. ‘A good way’ is the Greek. He had a good way, with Roman soldiers to escort him, and that journey was almost a parable of God’s protection. By the will of God, strictly according to God's will; not mine, but his, be done. Always pray for God's will to be done. You can open certain books by Bible-believing people these days, and they will say, ‘Guidance? It's your decision. As long as you make a moral, biblical decision, it's for you to choose as a Christian who you marry. God's treating you as an adult. It's for you to choose what job you take, where you live.’ No, in every major department of life, we are at the disposal of the Lord, and we pray for his blessing and his guidance, as Paul did. That ‘by the will of God’, says the Apostle, ‘to come unto you.’ When it comes to spiritual matters and indeed all-important matters, it is all under the rubric, ‘making request’. Submitting the matter to the Lord. Praying for help that you will be sure of the right way to go, that God will overrule and give you wisdom in your decisions.You can understand why the apostle feels that he must surely go to Rome. It is six hundred miles away from Corinth, which is where he is at the moment as he writes this letter to the Romans; by land, by sea, it was a hazardous journey in those days. But Paul feels sure that God would have him at Rome. Why? Because he is the apostle to the Gentiles, and among the commands God has given him, recorded in the book of Acts, is that he would preach to the Gentiles at extreme distances. He would be responsible for being the apostle to the Gentiles, that was his special calling. Surely that includes Rome, the capital of the empire.