Prayers for Paul

As we saw in yesterday’s passage, Paul is confident that he will come to Rome with God’s blessing. But that does not mean he is unaware that he is going into danger by visiting Jerusalem. Thus, he asks the Romans to pray for him and for his mission.

It was not unusual for Paul to ask for prayer (see 2 Cor. 1:10–11; Eph. 6:19–20; Phil. 1:19; Col. 4:3–4; 1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1–2). But in the passage before us today, he makes an unusually impassioned plea. He writes, “Now I beg you … that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me” (emphasis added). He greatly desires that they will labor (literally “agonize”) in prayer for him. He asks them to do it “through the Lord Jesus Christ” (meaning “for Christ’s sake”) and “through the love of the Spirit” (meaning the love for him created in them by the Spirit). And he asks them to pray for two specific things. First, he wants God to deliver him from unbelievers in Jerusalem. By “unbelievers,” he means unconverted Jews, who regard him as an archenemy of their religion. “They saw him as a Jewish renegade and heretic who was teaching a disastrous theology and undermining Judaism,” Dr. James M. Boice writes. Given such hatred, Paul is right to expect opposition. When he eventually comes to Jerusalem, the Jews incite a riot against him, plot to murder him, and falsely accuse him before the Roman governor (Acts 21–24). Second, he wants God to cause the believers in Jerusalem to look favorably on the Gentile Christians’ gift. He fears that the ongoing influence of Judaism in the Jerusalem church might cause some to reject any gift coming from Gentiles and specifically from Paul, who teaches that Gentile converts to Christianity do not need to adopt Jewish practices.

Paul’s overall goal is that he might complete his work in Jerusalem and move on to spend a joyous time with the Romans. As we saw yesterday, he eventually does get to Rome and enjoys much fruit there, but probably not quite in the way he expects.

The apostle closes this passage with his second benediction (see 15:13, 16:20, and 16:24). Here he prays that “the God of peace” will be with the Romans. He seems to be thinking of the peace God gives believers as they trust His sovereignty. Paul is doing that as he sets out for Jerusalem, and he wants the Romans to do the same.