Romans 15:20-21

“ And that while making it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation: but as it is written, They to whom nothing was said of Him shall see Him; and they that have not heard shall know Him. ”

To confirm the reality of his apostleship to the Gentiles, Paul has referred to the successes with which his activity thus far has been crowned in the east; and now, to pass to the idea of his fnture work in the west and of his visit to Rome, he recalls the principle by which he has always been guided in the direction of his labors. The participle φιλοτιμούμενον has something of the force of a gerund: while making it my ambition. The reading φιλοτιμοῦμαι, I make it my ambition, must be unhesitatingly rejected; for the apostle does not mean here to express a new idea, but merely to define the manner of his procedure in the work to the goal of which he is now approaching. The term φιλοτιμεῖσθαι should not be generalized in the sense of: to strive or bind myself to; it must be kept in its strict sense: to esteem it a matter of honor. Not that Paul sought his personal honor in the method followed by him: what he was concerned about was his apostolic dignity. An apostle is not a simple pastor or evangelist; his mission is, as Paul himself says, 1 Corinthians 3:10, to “ lay the foundation” on which others after him may build, consequently to preach where others have not yet come. Paul might have said: “to preach the gospel where Christ has not yet been named,” but he prefers to give his expression a still more negative turn, and to say more precisely: “to preach the gospel, not where He has been named.” He wishes to preach the gospel, but not where any one has done so before him.

Vv. 21. This conduct rested, as we have just said, on the exalted feeling which he had of the apostolic mission; and, moreover, he found, as it were, the programme for it in a prophetical saying, Isaiah 52:15. The prophet speaks here of the Gentile kings and peoples to whom the declaration of the Messiah's work shall come for the first time.

The expression: “as it is written,” depends, as in Romans 15:3, on a verb understood: “ but doing as it is written.” Volkmar here finds proof of the Jewish-Christian character of the church of Rome, since this church is to Paul like a foreign domain on which he has denied himself the satisfaction of entering. Weizsäcker shows indeed that Paul's words contain nothing of the kind; for what he says refers in general to every church not founded by him, whether of Jewish or Gentile origin. But it may be questioned if Paul is even alluding to the reason which has kept him hitherto from visiting Rome. Does not Paul by this digression, Romans 15:20-21, simply mean to say that so long as there still remained unevangelized countries in the east, it was his duty to remain in that part of the world? In Romans 15:22-24, he calls to mind that now circumstances are changed, and that the application of the same principle which had hitherto detained him in the east, henceforth impels him to the west, which will bring him at the same time to Rome.

Baur has asked, if to write a letter of so considerable compass as this to a Jewish-Christian church not founded by him, was not to build on the foundation laid by another? We first remove from the objection the word Jewish-Christian; then we call to mind that the founders of the church of Rome were chiefly disciples of St. Paul, who came from churches founded by him in the east; and finally, we cannot put on the same footing a letter written by Paul, and his personal intervention as a preacher. He wrote to the Colossians and the Laodiceans, though he had not personally founded and known those churches (Col 2:1). It is precisely for this reason that in beginning his Epistle (Romans 1:1-7), and then again in closing it (Romans 15:16), he has referred to his mission to the Gentiles which imposes on him duties to all churches of Gentile origin.