Romans 1:11-12

“ For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end that ye may be established; or to speak more properly, that I may be encouraged with you in the midst of you, by the mutual action of our faith, yours and mine. ”

Enriched with the gifts of God as he was, could the apostle help feeling the need of imparting some of them to a church so important as that of Rome? There is in the verb ἐπιποθῶ, along with the expression of the desire which goes out toward them, one of regret at not having been able to come sooner. A χάρισμα, gift, is a concrete manifestation of grace (χάρις). The epithet spiritual shows the nature and source of the gift which he hopes to impart to his readers (the spirit, the πνεῦμα). The word ὑμῖν, to you, is inserted between the substantive and the adjective to bring out the latter more forcibly. The apostle hopes that by this communication they will receive an increase of divine strength within them. He puts the verb in the passive: that ye may be strengthened. We need not translate: to confirm you (Oltram.); on the contrary, Paul uses the passive form to put out of view the part he takes personally, and to exhibit only the result; it is God who will strengthen. There would be a degree of charlatanism in the choice of the word strengthen, confirm, if, as Baur, and following him, Mangold, Sabatier, etc., think, the apostle's object in this letter was to bring about a radical change in the existing conception of the gospel at Rome. To strengthen, is not to turn one into another way, it is to make him walk firmly on that on which he is already. But Paul was too sincerely humble, and at the same time too delicate in his feelings, to allow it to be supposed that the spiritual advantage resulting from his stay among them would all be on one side. He hastens to add that he hopes himself to have his share, Romans 1:12. The first words of this verse have generally been misunderstood; there has been given to them the meaning of the phrase τοῦτ᾿ ἔστι, that is to say (Ostervald, Oltram.). It is forgotten that the δέ which is added here (τοῦτο δέ ἐστι) indicates not a simple explanatory repetition, but a certain modification and progress in the idea. The meaning, therefore, is: or to speak more properly. In point of fact, Paul had yet to add to the idea of the good which he reckoned on doing, that of the good which he hoped himself to receive. This is precisely what he has in view in the strange construction of the words which immediately follow. There is no doubt that the preposition σύν, with, in the compound verb συμπαρακληθῆναι, to be encouraged with, signifies: “I with you, Christians of Rome.” For the subject of the verb can be no other than the apostle, on account of the words which follow: in the midst of you. Fritzsche attempts to give it a you for its subject, ὑμᾶς understood; Meyer and Hofmann would make this infinitive directly dependent on the word I desire, Romans 1:11: “I desire to see you, and to be encouraged in the midst of you.” But this is to mistake the evident relation between the two passive infinitives, so closely connected with one another. “To the end that ye may be strengthened; and, to speak more correctly, that with you I may be encouraged among you.” The “ with (you)” brings out the notion of their strengthening, to add to it immediately, and that in the same word (in Greek) the notion of the encouragement derived by Paul himself, as being one with theirs; for is not the strengthening of others the means of encouraging himself? One shares in the strength which he imparts. The apostle seems to say that there is in his desire as much holy selfishness as holy zeal. The substitution of the word encourage (in speaking of Paul) for that of strengthen (in speaking of them) is significant. In Paul's case, the only thing in question is his subjective feeling, which might be a little depressed, and which would receive a new impulse from the success of his work among them; comp. Acts 28:15 (he took courage, ἔλαβε θάρσος). This same delicacy of expression is kept up in the words which follow. By the among you, the apostle says that their mere presence will of itself be strengthening to him. This appears literally in what follows: “ by my faith and yours one upon another. ” These lasts words express a reciprocity in virtue of which his faith will act on theirs and theirs on his; and how so? In virtue of their having that faith in common (by the faith of you and of me). It is because they live in this common atmosphere of one and the same faith that they can act and react spiritually, he on them, and they on him. What dignity, tact, and grace in these words, by which the apostle at once transforms the active part which he is obliged to ascribe to himself in the first place into a receptive part, and so to terminate with the notion which unites these two points of view, that of reciprocity in the possession of a common moral life! Erasmus has classed all this in the category of pia vafrities and sancta adulatio. He did not understand the sincerity of Paul's humility. But what Paul wishes is not merely to impart new strength to the Christians of Rome while reinforcing his own, it is also to aid in the increase of their church. He comes as an apostle, not only as a Christian visitor; such is the meaning of the words which follow (vv. Romans 1:3-15).