Romans 1:8 First,
I think my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of
throughout the whole world.
In this
verse Paul is showing the priority he gives to being thankful for the salvation
of the Romans. Remember, these are people that Paul has never met and that live
many miles from him, yet he is thankful for their salvation. How often do we as
individuals rejoice when we hear of the salvation of individuals in foreign
lands? When missionaries send a letter tells of five
individuals being saved do we get really excited? Do we take time to praise God
because these people have been saved, that they've trusted in the blood of Jesus
Christ to cleanse their sin?
Not only is
Paul thankful for their salvation but goes beyond that. when he rejoiced that
their faith was known to many people around the world. In fact their testimony
had spread to other believers throughout the world. They had apparently stood
up for what they had been taught and the impact was far-reaching. How well is
our faith known? Do our neighbors who live across the street even know of our
faith?
The faith of
these Romans may have been much like the faith of Chinese Christians today.
Christians whose lives are on the line day by day. I recently heard of
believers in one particular church that have been locked out of their building.
The authorities of the city kept them from being able to rent any properties in
their city. Despite this we are hearing that these Christians continue to meet
together on a regular basis even outdoors in the wintertime. Because of
constant surveillance of the pastor’s home meetings cannot be held there. The faith of these Chinese people is being
reported today the world over just as the stories of the Roman faith had come
to Paul half a world away. Some of these
Roman believers would some day face the persecution of Nero
Paul moved
from rejoicing in the faith of the Romans to his desire to go to Rome. He had desired to go for some time as can be
seen in verse 13; but he had been hindered from doing so. Paul made it clear in this passage that he
would not put his own desires above those of God’s and would not go until such
time that he knew it was the will of God.
From this it can be surmised that we are to seek God’s will above our
own.
The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/user/churchoflittleton FW # 62
