Paul had preached the gospel in many of the lands, between Israel and Rome, and so now planned to go to Rome. This shows that Paul was not the only missionary, for clearly others had founded the church in Rome. Paul was now looking further afield and intended to go to Spain, and would visit Rome on the way. Of course, this never actually came to pass, though Paul did go to Rome, albeit as a prisoner.
In the meantime Paul was going to Jerusalem. This was to take the offering to help the Jerusalem church, and this visit would end up in his arrest.
Paul mentions the financial help given to the Jerusalem church by Christians from Macedonia and Achaia. Paul here is emphasising the link between the Jerusalem church and the rest of Christianity. He gave the theological grounds for this in chapters 9-11, now we have the practical outworking of this. Spiritual and material blessings go together. Now money is a fraught matter, and there are too many examples of "Christians" exploiting others for money. Ie using the gospel as a means of making money. We are absolutely right to be wary of this, but even so the spiritual and material go together. Notice here that the money collected for the Jerusalem church was to help them out of poverty. In the Bible giving is predominantly either for the work of the church (or temple in the Old Testament) or for helping the poor. Today we need to give a lot more than we do, but this giving should be for the direct advancement of the work of the gospel or for helping the poor, not for making individuals rich.
Paul knew the dangers he would face in Jerusalem, and asks the Roman Christians to help him by praying for his mission.
No comments:
Post a Comment