Romans 15:32 - Printer Friendly

ESV: so that by God 's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

NIV: so that I may come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed.

NASB: so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and relax in your company.

CSB: and that, by God’s will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed together with you.

NLT: Then, by the will of God, I will be able to come to you with a joyful heart, and we will be an encouragement to each other.

KJV: That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.

NKJV: that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you.

Paul has asked the Christians in Rome to strive with him in prayer for three very serious requests about his upcoming trip to Jerusalem. He was going there to deliver financial aid given by Gentile Christians (Romans 15:22–25).

His first request was that he would be delivered from the Jewish religious leaders who wanted to kill him. His second request was that the gift he was bringing would be received by the Jewish Christians.

God answered both prayers, though God's answer to the first request did not likely come as anyone would have expected. Paul was indeed attacked by a murderous group of religious Jews and would likely have been killed. He was rescued by Roman soldiers—who arrested him (Acts 21:27–36). Paul ended up spending the next two years in prison!

That only delayed the answer to Paul's third request found in this verse. He asked his readers to pray that, by God's will, he could come to them with joy and be refreshed in their company. This did eventually come to pass, in a sense, though Paul traveled to Rome as a prisoner and was shipwrecked along the way. That saga is found in Acts 27–28.

God always answers the prayers of His people. Sometimes He says no. Sometimes He says yes, but in entirely unexpected ways that we could never anticipate. Paul's life demonstrates that God often does not follow our idea of what He should do, even as He acts for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28).

Romans 15:22–33 describes Paul's plan to visit the Christians in Rome on his way to preaching the gospel in Spain. He has longed to see them for years. Before he comes, he must deliver a gift of financial aid from Gentile Christians to the poor Jewish believers in Jerusalem. He asks his readers to wrestle with him in prayer about this trip. Paul especially hopes to be delivered from the unbelieving Jewish religious leaders who want to kill him, and that the Christian Jews will receive the gift he is bringing.

Romans 15 begins with Paul's encouragement to those strong in faith: to please other Christians before themselves so the church can be unified. Christ came to fulfill God's promises to Israel and about the Gentiles. Paul is satisfied with the faith and practice of the Roman Christians. His work of taking the gospel to unreached regions of Gentiles in his part of the world is completed, and he longs to come see them. First, he must deliver financial aid to Jerusalem, a trip about which he asks them to pray along with him.

Romans 15 concludes Paul's teaching that those strong in faith ought to sacrifice their own desires to live in harmony with other believers. Paul shows that God always planned to welcome the Gentile nations, and his mission is to introduce Gentiles to the message of salvation by faith in Christ. He longs to visit the Christians in Rome and plans to do so as soon as he delivers financial aid to poor Christian Jews in Jerusalem. He begins Romans 16 by greeting many friends and acquaintances in Rome by name, as part of a drawn-out ending to this letter.

The book of Romans is the New Testament's longest, most structured, and most detailed description of Christian theology. Paul lays out the core of the gospel message: salvation by grace alone through faith alone. His intent is to explain the good news of Jesus Christ in accurate and clear terms. As part of this effort, Paul addresses the conflicts between law and grace, between Jews and Gentiles, and between sin and righteousness. As is common in his writing, Paul closes out his letter with a series of practical applications.