Romans 1:9

Proof that the Apostle takes this lively interest in the Roman Church conveyed through a solemn adjuration.

Whom I serve. — The word for “serve” is strictly used for voluntary service paid to God, especially in the way of sacrifice and outward worship. Here it is somewhat metaphorical: “Whom I serve, not so much with outward acts as with the ritual of the spirit.”

With my spirit. — “Spirit” is with St. Paul the highest part or faculty in the nature of man. It is the seat of his higher consciousness — the organ by which he communicates with God. “Certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.” (Bacon, Essay on Atheism.) Of itself the “spirit” of man is neutral. When brought into contact with the Spirit of God, it is capable of a truly religious life; but apart from this influence, it is apt to fall under the dominion of the “flesh” — i.e., of those evil appetites and desires to which man is exposed by his physical organisation.

In the gospel of his Son. — The sphere to which the Apostle feels himself called, and in which this heart-worship of his finds its field of operation, is the defence and preaching, &c., of the gospel.