Romans 15:13

Prompted by ἐλπιοῦσιν, the Apostle closes this section, and the body of the epistle, by calling on “the God of hope” to bless those to whom it is addressed. For the expression ὁ θεὸς τῆς ἐλπίδος cf. Romans 15:5 : it means the God Who gives us the hope which we have in Christ. The joy and peace which He imparts rest on faith (ἐν τῷ πιστεύειν). Hence they are the joy and peace specially flowing from justification and acceptance with God, and the more we have of these, the more we abound in the Christian hope itself. Such an abounding in hope, in the power of the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:8; Luke 4:14), is the end contemplated in Paul's prayer that the God of hope would fill the Romans with all joy and peace in believing. For the kind of supremacy thus given to hope compare the connection of Romans 15:5 with Romans 15:2 in chap. 5.

The rest of this chapter is of the nature of an epilogue. It falls into two parts: (1) Romans 15:14-21, in which Paul, while apologising for the tone which he has occasionally employed, justifies himself for writing to the Romans by appealing to his vocation as an Apostle; and (2) Romans 15:22; Romans 15:33, in which he explains to them the programme of his future work, including his long-deferred visit to them, and begs their prayers for a successful issue to his visit to Jerusalem.