15:14
Paul, as he will admit in the next verse, has said some quite direct things to them, particularly in the last few chapters. There are times to be direct, but we also need to be aware of the effect it can have, the way in which people can take our “directness”. So Paul “softens the blow” by stressing that overall he has a high opinion of them. He is convinced that they are “full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another”. This is high praise.
15:15,16
So why has Paul been “bold” on certain points? It is because of the grace God have him. Grace has appeared several times in the letter, and we have noted that grace is not just a passive thing in the sense that we are forgiven, but it is an active, empowering thing, enabling us to achieve things for Christ. Paul outlines the grace that God gave him to be a minister to the Gentiles, something he mentioned right back at the start of the letter. So what was Paul given grace to do? It was to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. This applies to all of us. Our mission is not to be nice to people, but to bring Jesus to them, or to bring them to Jesus. So Paul had the task of proclaiming the gospel. And the purpose was that the Gentiles might become acceptable to God and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. So we need to admit our sin and put our faith in Christ’s sacrifice, and we need to let the Holy Spirit work in our lives to bring them into conformity with Christ. There is so much of the teaching of parts of the church that pays no attention to this. Perhaps the most topical example is that of sexuality, with sex before marriage and homosexuality perhaps being the most obvious. So much of the church pays no attention to leading people to repentance and to changing our lifestyles. We need to remember that the gospel is about God and what He wants!
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