Romans 1:9 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Romans 1:9

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Paul is going to speak about his prayer. ‘For God is my witness.’ Why does the apostle have to give us such assurance that he prays daily? This has the proportion of an oath: ‘You must believe me.’ Well, prayer is a secret matter except in prayer-meetings. It is a private matter between the pray-er and God. So nobody knows how much Paul prays for the Romans or for everyone else. The apostle has so many churches on his mind and on his heart. How could he pray for any of them in particular every day, constantly? So because you will not observe him doing that, to assure the Christians in Rome how much he prays for them, he utters words akin to an oath. ‘Whom I serve with my spirit.’ What does that mean? It's a kind of figure of speech. Today we might say better, ‘who I serve with all my heart.’ That is the sense. Every ounce of myself. The spirit is the soul, the same thing, but it is the word that is used of the soul when it is in communication with God. It means he serves God sincerely, prayerfully, his soul is engaged in prayer constantly. ‘In the gospel of his Son.’ The gospel is first and foremost. There's a great temptation in the ministry to be forever feeding the saints. That would be good. But it's not ideal. Morning service – preach to the saints. Evening service – preach to the saints. Bible study – preach to the saints. Expound the Scriptures; expound the Scriptures. But you know, the hardest part of ministry is to preach persuasive sermons to the lost, to real outsiders, to do it without saying the same thing over and over again, and to persuade and to urge. The gospel comes first. It is our chief calling. Without ceasing, I make mention of you in my prayers. The apostle seems to repeat himself, but it’s not really repetition: ‘without ceasing I make mention of you always.’ ‘Always’ means that the Roman church that he had never yet visited was in his prayers from year to year, from month to month. But without ceasing tells us, in fact, every day. He mentions the church at Rome in his prayers. What a privilege for a church to have an apostle praying for it every day! Yes, but what a privilege for a church to have an aged saint, maybe housebound, praying for it every day! Someone who the Lord loves, someone who has served the Lord with all his being or her being, to have such a person every day praying for the younger believers, for the advance of Christ’s kingdom, for protection and flourishing.

Application

Do we serve the Lord with all our heart? We plan our service. We are to be very diligent in the things we do for him. We must attend them all with prayer. We must long and feel for the people in our Sunday school class. We feel for them, lest they should be lost throughout life's journey, and we pray for them. Your feelings, your mind, your determination and volition: everything is involved. There is so much information thrown at us today. Life is so full. We have so many responsibilities. Yes, and there are so many desirable things also, so many things to dream of, and save for, and revel in. Is it all too much for us to leave room to serve the Lord with all our heart? It's a big responsibility being a Christian steward of my thought life, my time and my energy, so that I can do justice to all my responsibilities and still serve the Lord with every department of my being. It's a challenging phrase.

‘Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.’ Could we ever say such a thing? The unseen part of our Christian lives, our prayer lives – could we say I pray for x-number of people constantly. God knows that I am speaking the truth. I pray constantly for others. The unselfishness of the apostle. Oh no, we would have to say, I pray so much for myself – and you may, and you can, and you should. Pray for help in the battle of sanctification, the battle against sin, hour by hour for help in all that you do, in witness, even in earthly things you should be praying for yourself and for help. But oh, we should also be praying for others. Can we say this, yes, in my unseen secret prayer life, I pray much for other people. Do you sense who particularly needs your prayer? Who has just gone off to university perhaps? Who has gone into a new business, a new job, a youngster surrounded by all kinds of infidelity? Are you the sort of person who notices things? That person does not know you very well and you do not know that person very well, but you have noticed a vulnerable Christian. Is there a young Christian converted 3 weeks, 3 months, only a year, and you are among those who can be relied on, without any exhortation, to notice and to make that person the object of your special prayers, day by day?

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Romans 1:9 Commentary and Bible Study

The meaning of Romans 1:9 explained