Romans 15:13

“ Now the God of hope fill you with every kind of joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit! ”

God is described here as the God of hope, evidently in relation to the last words of the preceding quotation: “In Him shall the Gentiles hope.” The apostle could not more clearly designate his readers as former Gentiles, than he does by this connection.

The richer the possession of present blessings (peace and joy) which the believer derives by the ever-renewed act of faith (ἐν τῷ πιστεύειν, literally, by believing), the more does his soul rise to the lively view of future blessings, and according to the expression of the apostle, superabounds or overflows with hope.

The last words: the power of the Holy Spirit, point out to the reader once more, as in Romans 14:17, the true power which they ought to seek, in opposition to the factitious power by which one exalts himself so easily above others. The former unites, for it strives to serve (Romans 15:1), whereas the second disunites.

From the very marked connection of this whole last passage with the apostle's ministry, it forms at once the conclusion of the didactic part of the Epistle to the Romans and the transition to the epistolary conclusion in which Paul proceeds to treat of the present situation of his apostolic work.

The reasons alleged by Baur against the authenticity of the first part of this chapter have appeared to us without force. The spirit of conciliation in regard to Judaism, which Baur judges incompatible with Paul's character, never ceased to be that which inspired his work. It was because he felt the need of keeping up union with the Twelve, that after each of his missions he returned to Jerusalem, “lest,” as he says himself, Galatians 2:2, “he had run in vain.” The collections which he made in the churches of the Gentile world in behalf of the Judeo-Christians of Palestine had the same object. This was also the object of the personal concessions of which he speaks 1 Corinthians 9:21-22, and by which he became “to the weak as weak,” exactly as he recommends to the strong in this passage. Hilgenfeld rightly says: “What is looked upon as not possibly Paul's, to my conviction only proves one thing: that since the days of Marcion there has been formed an inexact idea of the apostle to which it is still sought at the present day to conform the real Paul” (Einleit. p. 323). It will be seen that this observation applies equally to the criticism of Baur and Lucht in regard to the second part of this chapter.

According to Schultz, it is from Romans 15:7 that the real Epistle to the Romans recommences, to which the whole moral treatise, Romans 12:1 to Romans 15:6, was originally foreign. It would follow therefrom that the wherefore of Romans 15:7 was immediately connected with the end of chap. 11. There is something seductive at first glance in this combination. The mercy shown both to the Gentiles and to the Jews (Romans 11:32) is well adapted to justify the invitation to the mutual receiving spoken of in our Romans 15:7. But it is nevertheless true that this relation is factitious 1st. Because the object of chap. 11 was to justify God's dispensations toward the people of Israel, and not to endeavor the union of Jews and Gentiles in the church; 2d. Because Romans 15:7 is in evident, and we might say literal correlation, not with any saying whatever of chap. 11, but with the first three verses of chap. 14.

Finally, we have an inference to draw from this whole piece, Romans 14:1 to Romans 15:13, as to the composition of the church of Rome. We appropriate the observation of Hilgenfeld, who declares that in this passage, as nowhere else, there is revealed the true composition of this church; but we apply it in a very different sense from his. While confessing, indeed, that Paul is addressing the Roman Christians in a body as strong (Romans 14:1 and Romans 15:1), this critic refuses to conclude therefrom that the majority of the church were Pauline by conviction and Gentile-Christian by origin. How does he escape from this consequence, which is yet so evident? By supposing that Paul expresses himself thus: “as conceiving good hopes of them” that is to say, describing them here not as they are, but as he hopes they will become. This critical subterfuge will deceive no one.

M. Reuss experiences no less embarrassment in view of our passage. In his Histoire des écrits du N. T. he expressed himself thus: “This passage is cleverly turned, so as to make believe that the freer opinion was dominant at Rome, while the contrary was assuredly the case.” Reuss thus ascribed tactics to the apostle unworthy of his character, rather than abandon his preconceived opinion of a Judeo-Christian majority in this church. In his Commentaire sur les épîtres pauliennes he expresses himself somewhat differently: “It is thus evident,” he says, “that the author considers the Christian community of Rome as not being exclusively composed of Jews.” That is certainly very evident, and no one ever denied that there were at Rome other Christians than those of Jewish origin. But this confession is altogether insufficient. Instead of not exclusively, he should have said not essentially, to deal fairly with the text before us. The violent expedient attempted by Mangold, in his desire to evade this conclusion, demonstrates it better than anything else. And when Schultz, acknowledging that the strong are Paulinists, and at the same time that they form the majority in the church, concludes therefrom that the whole passage, Romans 14:1 to Romans 15:6, cannot have been addressed to the church of Rome, seeing that the majority of it was Jewish-Christian, he will allow us to regard this simply as a naive confession of the falsity of the latter opinion, and to conclude by saying, to the contrary effect: As this passage cannot have been written to a Jewish-Christian church, and as it is addressed to the church of Rome, the majority of this church was not Jewish-Christian.