Romans 15:14

πέπεισμαι δέ : the tone in which he has written, especially in chap. 14, might suggest that he thought them very defective either in intelligence, or love, or both; but he disclaims any such inference from his words. ἀδελφοί μου has a friendly emphasis: cf. Romans 7:4. καὶ αὐτὸς ἐγὼ cf. Romans 7:25 : it means “even I myself, who have taken it upon me to address you so plainly”. ὅτι καὶ αὐτοὶ μεστοί ἐστε ἀγαθωσύνης : that even of yourselves ye are full of goodness, i.e., without any help from me. ἀγαθωσύνη in all N.T. passages (Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 5:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:11) seems to have an association with ἀγαθὸς in the sense of “kind”: the goodness of which Paul speaks here is probably therefore not virtue in general, but the charity on which such stress is laid in chap. 14 as the only rule of Christian conduct. πεπληρωμένοι πάσης γνώσεως : filled full of all knowledge “our Christian knowledge in its entirety” (Sanday and Headlam). This, again, may refer to the comprehension of Christianity shown by the strong of chap. 14: or it may be intended to apologise for the unusually doctrinal character of the epistle. Both μεστοί and πεπληρωμένοι occur also in Romans 1:29. δυνάμενοι κ. ἀλλήλους νουθετεῖν : in a sense therefore self-sufficient.