Exposition on Romans

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.32 · 2.1–3.31 · 4.1–5.21 · 6.1–7.25 · 8.1–8.39 · 9.1–10.21 · 11.1–12.21 · 13.1–15.33 · 16.1–16.27

1. 1.1Paul's new name, his calling himself a servant after Christ's humility, and the meaning of "gospel."
2. 1.2The gospel was promised by God's own prophets in holy Scripture, against the Manichaeans.
3. 1.3Christ is Son by nature, and "made" only according to the flesh, against Photinus and Arius.
4. 1.4Christ was destined to rise first and open the way of resurrection to God's sons.
5. 1.5Grace came in baptism and apostleship by the Spirit's sending, so that the nations might obey faith rather than the law.
6. 1.6Paul's apostleship extends to the Romans.
7. 1.7The Romans are saints by God's calling, not by merit; the greeting recalls the free forgiveness of sins.
8. 1.8Paul thanks God for the Romans' faith, famous because Rome had served the gods of all nations.
9. 1.9Paul serves God with his whole heart in the gospel.
10. 1.10Paul prays to come to Rome if God wills, to strengthen them and be comforted by their shared faith.
11. 1.13Paul's visit was delayed because he was occupied elsewhere; fruit means the reward of labor.
12. 1.14Paul owes the gospel to wise Greeks and unwise barbarians alike.
13. 1.15Paul is ready to preach at Rome as to the wise.
14. 1.16The gospel of the crucified Lord is no shame, unlike the pagan myths of Jupiter, and is God's saving power.
15. 1.17God's righteousness is that believers are saved by faith, as Abraham was.
16. 1.18God's wrath is revealed against ungodliness toward God, parents, and strangers.
17. 1.19Creation, changeable and ordered, shows that no element is God and points to its almighty maker.
18. 1.20God's power was so evident that the gentiles are without excuse.
19. 1.21Knowing God, the gentiles failed to glorify or thank him and fell into vanity.
20. 1.22Claiming wisdom, idolaters became fools.
21. 1.23Idolaters exchanged God's glory for images of men and animals, as in the worship of Jupiter.
22. 1.24God "hands over" sinners by not restraining their free choice.
23. 1.25Idolaters served creatures instead of the Creator, though serving him would have made them blessed forever.
24. 1.26Having abandoned the author of nature, idolaters perverted the natural order.
25. 1.27Men burned for one another, and those who forgot God came not to know themselves.
26. 1.28Not ignorant but unwilling to keep God in mind, idolaters were handed over to a reprobate mind.
27. 1.29Paul's list of vices: iniquity, malice, sexual immorality, greed, envy, strife, deceit, malignity.
28. 1.30Detraction is joined with idolatry; pride, like the devil's, invents evil.
29. 1.31Those who abandon God are abandoned by him; readers are warned not to share these vices.
30. 1.32Those who consent to sin, and above all to idolatry, share its guilt.
31. 2.1Those who judge others condemn themselves, for natural judgment knows good and evil.
32. 2.2God's judgment, unlike human judgment, is according to truth and without partiality.
33. 2.3Lemma of Rom 2:3.
34. 2.4God's patience is meant to lead to repentance, not to presumption of impunity.
35. 2.6The impenitent abuse God's patience and store up wrath for the day of judgment.
36. 2.7The reward of patient good work is glory, honor, and incorruption in eternal life.
37. 2.8Wrath awaits the contentious, who defend things against their own conscience.
38. 2.9Punishment falls on the soul, against heretics who say only the flesh sins.
39. 2.10Glory, honor, and peace await all who do good, Jew first only in time.
40. 2.11God's impartiality leaves neither gentiles nor Jews an excuse.
41. 2.12Both those under the law and those without it will perish unless they believe in Christ.
42. 2.13Doers, not hearers, of the law are justified; Christians too must fear.
43. 2.14Gentiles who do good by nature are a law to themselves.
44. 2.15Conscience shows that the law is written in the heart.
45. 2.16On judgment day our own thoughts will accuse or excuse us.
46. 2.17Paul turns to the Jews: one is a Jew in deed, not only in name.
47. 2.18The Jew boasts of knowing God's will through the law.
48. 2.19The Jew claims to guide the blind.
49. 2.20The Jew claims to teach the foolish, having the form of knowledge in the law.
50. 2.21The Jew who teaches the law but does not keep it is guilty of a greater crime.
51. 2.22Giving to another what is owed to God is adultery; sacrilege is an offense against God.
52. 2.23Transgressing the law dishonors God.
53. 2.24Israel's sins caused God's name to be blasphemed among the nations, as the prophet wrote.
54. 2.25Circumcision profited in its time as a sign of righteousness and pointed to circumcision of the heart.
55. 2.26Circumcision of the flesh needs that of the heart; Pelagius gives reasons why circumcision was given.
56. 2.27The uncircumcised who fulfil the law will judge the circumcised transgressor.
57. 2.28Lemma of Rom 2:28.
58. 2.29The true Jew is one inwardly, with the circumcision of the heart foretold in the law.
59. 3.1Lemma of Rom 3:1.
60. 3.2Pelagius reads "much in every way" as the reply of a Jewish objector, not Paul's own view.
61. 3.3Lemma of Rom 3:3.
62. 3.4God's faithfulness stands even if most men lie; the psalm does not mean David sinned so that God might appear just.
63. 3.5If sin made God more just, punishing it would be unjust.
64. 3.6God could not judge the world if sin made him more just.
65. 3.7The objector asks why he is judged if his lie confirms God's truth.
66. 3.8Paul is slandered as teaching "let us do evil that good may come"; such slanderers are justly condemned.
67. 3.9Jews have no advantage, for Jews and gentiles alike are under sin.
68. 3.10No one was righteous, as was shown above all at Christ's passion; to seek God is to seek his will.
69. 3.12All turned aside; Pelagius notes that the psalm itself still speaks of a righteous generation.
70. 3.13Deceitful teachers are like an open grave and the poison of asps.
71. 3.14Cursing is any speech with an evil wish; bitterness opposes the sweetness of God's words.
72. 3.15Shedding blood can mean killing souls by flattery and bad example.
73. 3.17The way of peace is the teaching that reconciles God and men.
74. 3.18Those who keep God's fear before their eyes do not sin.
75. 3.19The psalm's charges apply to the Jews too, who deny God by their deeds.
76. 3.20Works of the law (circumcision, sabbath, ceremonies) do not justify; the law brings knowledge of sin.
77. 3.21God's righteousness, freely given and witnessed by the law and prophets, is now revealed.
78. 3.22God's righteousness comes through faith to all believers without distinction.
79. 3.23All have sinned and lack glory of their own.
80. 3.24Sins are freely forgiven in baptism; Christ, sinless, redeemed by his blood those sold to death by sin.
81. 3.25God set Christ forth openly; he suffered to turn aside God's decree to punish sinners.
82. 3.26God waited patiently for sinners and now reveals the righteousness of faith.
83. 3.27Boasting in works is excluded by the law of faith, the New Testament.
84. 3.28Faith without works of the law saves the new believer, but works of righteousness and love remain necessary.
85. 3.29God is the God of the gentiles too, as the uncircumcised first saints show.
86. 3.30"From faith" and "through faith" mean the same; Scripture varies its wording.
87. 3.31Faith establishes the law by fulfilling its prophecy of a new law and covenant.
88. 4.1Abraham, the head of circumcision, is father according to the flesh.
89. 4.2Justification by works would give Abraham glory before himself, not before God.
90. 4.3Abraham's faith won forgiveness of his former sins and led to works of love.
91. 4.4One who only does what is commanded earns a wage as a debtor and has no glory.
92. 4.5God justifies the converted ungodly by faith alone, forgiving sins freely.
93. 4.6First faith absolves past sin and prepares for future works of faith.
94. 4.7Lemma of Rom 4:7.
95. 4.8Two explanations of forgiven, covered, and unimputed sin.
96. 4.9Blessedness by faith belongs to the times of nature, circumcision, and Christianity.
97. 4.10Abraham was righteous before he was circumcised.
98. 4.11Circumcision sealed the perfect righteousness of Abraham's faith, which he showed by obedience.
99. 4.12Abraham is father of believing gentiles, circumcised in heart, and of the righteous circumcised.
100. 4.13The promise to Abraham came through faith, not the law of circumcision.
101. 4.14If only the circumcised were heirs, God's promise to Abraham would fail.
102. 4.15The law increases guilt by giving knowledge of sin.
103. 4.16The inheritance comes by faith, which through forgiveness makes all believers Abraham's sons.
104. 4.17Abraham is father of many nations; God gives life where nature is dead.
105. 4.18Abraham believed against natural hope; Pelagius explains his later sons by Keturah.
106. 4.19Faith does not weigh nature against the almighty promiser.
107. 4.20Abraham did not doubt the promise.
108. 4.21Abraham thanked God as if the promise were already fulfilled.
109. 4.22Abraham's perfect faith was reckoned as righteousness.
110. 4.23Lemma of Rom 4:23.
111. 4.24Abraham's faith is written for us to imitate by believing in Christ's resurrection.
112. 4.25Christ's death abolished sins; his resurrection confirms believers' righteousness.
113. 5.1Since all are saved by grace through faith, Jew and gentile should have peace.
114. 5.2Through Christ believers stand in grace and hope for the glory of God's sons.
115. 5.3Lemma of Rom 5:3.
116. 5.4Believers boast in tribulations for the eternal reward, and hope is confirmed by the gift of the Spirit.
117. 5.6Christ died undeservedly for the ungodly to show his love and draw ours.
118. 5.7Hardly anyone dies for a just or good man.
119. 5.8God's love is shown in the sinless Lord dying for ungodly servants.
120. 5.9Those justified by Christ's blood must not count it defiled by sinning.
121. 5.10Sinners are enemies by acts, not nature; reconciled by Christ's death, they will be glorified by imitating his life.
122. 5.12Sin and death came through Adam by example, and righteousness and life through Christ; death passed to those who sin as he did.
123. 5.13Before the law sin existed but was not reckoned as such, because natural knowledge had faded.
124. 5.14Death reigned over transgressors of precepts and of the law of nature; Adam was a type of Christ.
125. 5.15Christ's grace outweighs Adam's offense; Pelagius reports the arguments of those who deny the transmission of sin.
126. 5.17Through Christ believers receive abundant grace and righteousness given in baptism, not by merit.
127. 5.18As death reigned through one offense, grace reigns through one man's righteousness.
128. 5.19Many sinned by Adam's example of disobedience; many are justified by Christ's obedience.
129. 5.20The law showed sin and so increased it, but grace abounded more, calling for greater love.
130. 5.21Grace reigns through forgiveness and unceasing righteousness.
131. 6.1Lemma of Rom 6:1.
132. 6.2Believers have died to sin and must not sin that grace may abound; the baptized are to be firm and perfect.
133. 6.3Baptism is of water, of the Spirit, and of blood; in it we die with Christ.
134. 6.4In baptism we are buried with Christ to live a new life free of the old man's marks.
135. 6.5Those who share Christ's death in a changed life will share his resurrection.
136. 6.6In baptism the old man, who imitated Adam, is crucified with Christ, so that every vice is destroyed.
137. 6.7One who has died with Christ is estranged from sin.
138. 6.8Only those who die with Christ will live with him.
139. 6.9As Christ dies no more, baptism cannot be repeated, though repentance remains.
140. 6.10Christ died once to sin; his members, having died with him, must always live to God.
141. 6.12Sin reigns in the body through obedience and consent.
142. 6.13By free choice a person gives his members to sin or to righteousness.
143. 6.14Under grace, which gives teaching and example, believers are mature and should not be ruled by sin.
144. 6.15Those who sin are not under grace.
145. 6.16Serving sin brings one under the law's sentence; obeying righteousness, under grace.
146. 6.17The Romans were once slaves of sin but obeyed the gospel from the heart.
147. 6.18Freed from sin, believers serve righteousness by Christ's teaching and example.
148. 6.19Paul asks as much service of righteousness as was given to sin; sin is in the use of the members, not in the body's nature, against the Manichaeans.
149. 6.20As once wholly free of righteousness, now be wholly free of sin.
150. 6.21Lemma of Rom 6:21.
151. 6.22Sin bears no fruit but shame and death; serving God bears the Spirit's gift now and eternal life later.
152. 6.23Sin pays death; eternal life is God's gift, not earned.
153. 7.1Paul begins to show the burden of the law to encourage passing to grace.
154. 7.2As a widow is freed from her husband, believers dead to the law may pass to Christ.
155. 7.3A wife who joins another man while her husband lives is an adulteress; after his death she is free.
156. 7.4Dead to the law with Christ, believers belong to the risen one and ripen in works of righteousness.
157. 7.5Passions worked in the members; the law of the letter was given to remind people of the forgotten natural law.
158. 7.9Sin, forgotten, revived when the commandment made it known.
159. 7.10The law is holy and good; against the Marcionites, justice and goodness belong to the one God of both Testaments.
160. 7.13The good law is not the cause of death; it reveals sin, which becomes worse when committed knowingly.
161. 7.14Paul speaks as anyone who has received the law but is used to living carnally.
162. 7.15The habit of sin, freely chosen, makes one act as if drunk.
163. 7.16Not wanting the evil one does is agreement with the law.
164. 7.17Sin dwells in a person as an accident, not as part of nature.
165. 7.18The will to good is present, but carnal habit resists it.
166. 7.19Habit makes one do the evil one does not want, like a habitual swearer.
167. 7.20The habit of sin is a necessity the sinner made for himself.
168. 7.22The mind consents to God's law.
169. 7.23The law in the members is the habit of sin fighting conscience.
170. 7.24The one held by habit cries out for deliverance.
171. 7.25Grace frees where the law could not; Paul speaks in another's person, not his own.
172. 8.1Those crucified to the works of the flesh are free of condemnation.
173. 8.2Grace, called a law, frees from the law that kills sinners.
174. 8.3Christ took true flesh like ours and, never sinning in it, condemned sin, showing that fault lies in the will, not in nature.
175. 8.4What the law required is fulfilled in those who follow Christ's example.
176. 8.5A person is called wholly flesh or wholly spirit according to what he does.
177. 8.6Fleshly prudence returns evil and brings death; spiritual prudence brings peace and life.
178. 8.7Not the flesh, as the Manichaeans say, but the carnal mind is hostile to God.
179. 8.8"In the flesh" means given over to the works of the flesh.
180. 8.9The Spirit dwells where his fruit appears; Christ's Spirit is humility, patience, and love of enemies.
181. 8.10In those who imitate Christ the carnal mind is dead and the spirit works righteousness.
182. 8.11God will raise the bodies in which his Spirit dwells.
183. 8.12Believers owe nothing to the flesh, and so the law for carnal people is unnecessary.
184. 8.13The works of the flesh, not its substance, are condemned.
185. 8.14Those governed by the Spirit are God's sons; sinners are led by the devil.
186. 8.15Slaves serve from fear, sons from love; whoever calls God Father must be like him.
187. 8.16Having the Spirit is the pledge of adoption.
188. 8.17Sons who suffer for Christ's name will share his inheritance and glory.
189. 8.18No suffering can compare with the promised glory, which is now hidden.
190. 8.19Pelagius lists interpretations of "creation": the whole world, the angels, Adam and Eve, or the righteous before Christ.
191. 8.20Creation, like the ministering angels, was subjected to transience in hope.
192. 8.21Creation will no longer serve those who corrupted God's image.
193. 8.22Creation, the angels, grieve over the unconverted.
194. 8.23Believers who have the Spirit groan with the angels over the unconverted.
195. 8.24Christian hope is for future, unseen things.
196. 8.25Hope requires patience, and faith that waits is greatly rewarded.
197. 8.26The Spirit helps us ask for heavenly things, since we do not know what to pray for.
198. 8.27The Spirit "intercedes" by making us pray; "spirit" here means the grace of the Spirit.
199. 8.28All that is done or suffered for love of God becomes reward.
200. 8.29God predestined, that is foreknew, those who would believe and be conformed to Christ.
201. 8.30God calls the willing whom he foreknew would believe; they are justified in baptism and glorified.
202. 8.31Nothing can stop those who love God from reaching the promised glory.
203. 8.32God handed over his Son for all, leaving the betrayers their free choice.
204. 8.33Lemma of Rom 8:33.
205. 8.34None can condemn God's elect; Christ intercedes by presenting his assumed humanity to the Father, against the Arians.
206. 8.35Lemma of Rom 8:35.
207. 8.36Christians, suffering for Christ, must not defend themselves but bear all patiently like him.
208. 8.37Dying for Christ's name is the greatest triumph.
209. 8.38Lemma of Rom 8:38.
210. 8.39No threat or promise can separate us from Christ's love, which is shown in keeping his commandments and loving one another.
211. 9.1Lemma of Rom 9:1.
212. 9.2Paul grieves for the Jews out of love; the baptized speak and suffer as members of Christ.
213. 9.3Lemma of Rom 9:3.
214. 9.4Paul's wish dates from his persecuting days; Israel's privileges include sonship, covenants, and the law.
215. 9.5Christ is from Israel according to the flesh and God blessed forever, against Mani, Photinus, and Arius.
216. 9.6God's word has not failed: unbelievers are not true sons of Abraham.
217. 9.7Not all Abraham's descendants are sons; some gentiles are true Israelites.
218. 9.8As Isaac was a child of promise, so the promise makes Christians Abraham's sons.
219. 9.9Jacob and Esau were separated before birth by God's foreknowledge of their faith.
220. 9.12God's foreknowledge does not prevent the sinner's conversion.
221. 9.13The word to Rebecca was fulfilled in the later descendants, as Malachi says.
222. 9.14Paul answers the charge that God makes some good and others evil; God has mercy on those he foreknew would deserve it.
223. 9.15End of the comment on Rom 9:15.
224. 9.16Pelagius reads Rom 9:16 as a question, since Paul himself ran and urged others to run.
225. 9.17Pharaoh, having filled up his sins, was made an example for others, or was hardened by God's patience.
226. 9.18Lemma of Rom 9:18.
227. 9.19Blaming one's sin on God's will is contrary to God's justice; even so, the creature must not answer back to its maker.
228. 9.21The "lump" is all who lived in Egypt, Israel included, who served idols there.
229. 9.22Vessels of wrath prepared themselves for destruction by filling up their sins, as Pharaoh did.
230. 9.23The vessels of mercy, the afflicted Israelites, were worthy of mercy.
231. 9.24Lemma of Rom 9:24–25.
232. 9.26As Egyptians left Egypt with Israel, God now calls gentiles as well as Jews.
233. 9.27Isaiah foretold that only a remnant of Israel would believe.
234. 9.28The "shortened word" is the New Testament, which sums up all things briefly.
235. 9.29God kept a seed, the righteous few or Christ, so Israel was not destroyed like Sodom.
236. 9.30The gentiles found righteousness by believing when called; Israel refused to believe.
237. 9.31Lemma of Rom 9:31.
238. 9.32Israel, boasting in works, rejected grace and stumbled.
239. 9.33Christ is the stumbling stone to the blind and unbelieving; believers will not be put to shame.
240. 10.1Paul prays from the heart for his enemies' salvation.
241. 10.2Israel's zeal for the law lacks the knowledge that justification comes through Christ.
242. 10.3Thinking themselves righteous by works, the Jews refused forgiveness lest they seem sinners.
243. 10.4The believer is like one who has fulfilled the law; those who kept the law in their time had eternal life.
244. 10.6Lemma of Rom 10:6.
245. 10.7Lemma of Rom 10:7.
246. 10.8Paul applies Moses' words about the near word of the law to Christ and the New Testament.
247. 10.9Confession and faith save from past sins, not future ones.
248. 10.10Faith and confession suffice for all, Jew and gentile alike.
249. 10.11Believers are not to be shamed for their past.
250. 10.12Lemma of Rom 10:12.
251. 10.13The one Lord of all is rich in mercy and salvation.
252. 10.14Calling on God requires faith, hearing, and a preacher.
253. 10.15Not all who heard the prophets obeyed; much less those to whom none was sent.
254. 10.17Faith comes from hearing the word.
255. 10.18Israel heard the prophets' voices, which went out to all the earth.
256. 10.19Moses foretold that God would provoke Israel by calling the gentiles.
257. 10.20Isaiah foretold that God would be found by idolatrous gentiles.
258. 10.21God stretched out his hands to unbelieving Israel; the gesture signifies the cross.
259. 11.1God has not rejected Israel wholly or forever; Paul himself is an Israelite.
260. 11.2God has not rejected those he foreknew would believe; the gentiles must not boast.
261. 11.3Prophets knew only what was revealed; Elijah did not know of the others who worshipped God.
262. 11.4As seven thousand were hidden from Elijah, many Jews are saved unknown to us; sin is a kind of idolatry.
263. 11.5The remnant chosen by grace is chosen by faith.
264. 11.6The Jewish remnant, like the gentiles, is saved freely.
265. 11.7Israel failed by seeking righteousness from works while neglecting the law's chief commandments.
266. 11.8God "gave" blindness by permitting what unbelievers chose, without taking away free choice.
267. 11.9Lemma of Rom 11:9.
268. 11.10The curse fell on those who rejoiced at Christ's passion, yet they could still repent and be grafted in.
269. 11.11Israel's fall is not final; the gentiles were called to provoke Israel to conversion.
270. 11.12If Israel's fall enriched the gentiles, its full conversion would profit them more.
271. 11.13Paul honors his ministry to win the Jews by his example.
272. 11.14Paul wants his kin to imitate him and be saved.
273. 11.15Israel's loss brought life to the gentiles through Christ and the apostles.
274. 11.16The holy patriarchs make holy all their descendants who believe.
275. 11.17Gentiles, a wild olive, were grafted in when branches were broken off.
276. 11.18Gentiles must not boast over Israel, from whom they draw life.
277. 11.19Lemma of Rom 11:19.
278. 11.20Israel fell through unbelief; "do not be high-minded" forbids pride, not wisdom.
279. 11.21God will not spare sinful gentiles if he did not spare unbelieving Israel.
280. 11.22God is both good and severe, against those who divide the just God from the good God.
281. 11.23Israel can be grafted in again, for all things are possible with God.
282. 11.24The gentiles' wildness came from long habit of sin; Israel can more easily be regrafted.
283. 11.25Israel's partial blindness gave the gentiles salvation; all will be saved by faith alone as equals.
284. 11.26Pelagius rejects the view that Israel's salvation and the deliverer's coming are still in the future.
285. 11.27The new covenant comes with the removal of sins.
286. 11.28The Jews are enemies of Paul's gospel to the gentiles, but beloved for the fathers' sake.
287. 11.29God's promise to Abraham's seed stands: if they believe, their sins will not be imputed.
288. 11.30The gentiles obtained mercy through Israel's unbelief, not by merit.
289. 11.31Israel too will be justified by mercy, not by works.
290. 11.32God concluded Jews and gentiles alike in unbelief so as to have mercy on all and remove boasting in works.
291. 11.34No one knows God's secret counsels.
292. 11.35No one can claim to have given God anything first.
293. 11.36All things are from, through, and in God; against the Arians, the apostle says of the Father what John says of the Son.
294. 12.1Believers offer their bodies as a chaste living sacrifice; good works please God only when done for him.
295. 12.2A renewed mind renews bodily acts and discerns God's will.
296. 12.3Paul forbids curiosity beyond the law; the Spirit, called God, distributes gifts by measure of faith.
297. 12.4Different gifts in one body prevent pride and show the body of Christ.
298. 12.5Members share their gifts so that love grows.
299. 12.6Gifts depend on the giver; the pure in heart receive powers now, each according to his faith.
300. 12.7Ministry means the office of priest or deacon.
301. 12.8Teaching ranks above exhorting; giving, presiding, and mercy are to be done simply, carefully, and cheerfully.
302. 12.9Christian love must be pure and real, ready even to die for others.
303. 12.10Counting others greater preserves love and patience.
304. 12.11Be fervent in spirit, cold to the world, serving the Lord.
305. 12.12Hope's joy helps endure all; persistent prayer brings help in adversity.
306. 12.13Fragments on sharing with needy saints, hospitality like Abraham's and Lot's, and blessing persecutors.
307. 12.15Christians perversely envy the praised and rejoice at the fallen, showing they are not of Christ's body.
308. 12.16Humility means not avenging oneself and not boasting in human wisdom.
309. 12.17Not repaying evil seems folly to the world but wins approval before God and men.
310. 12.18Keep peace with all, as far as it depends on you.
311. 12.19Christians leave vengeance to God, who counts their injury as his own.
312. 12.20Kindness to an enemy aims at his conversion, never at his harm.
313. 12.21To repay evil is to be conquered; to stop it by patience is to conquer.
314. 13.1Christians must not use their liberty to refuse honor and tribute; power is from God, though not every ruler is just.
315. 13.2The good need not fear rulers; whoever resists the God-ordained power brings guilt on himself.
316. 13.4Rulers bear the sword against evildoers; priests bear a spiritual sword.
317. 13.5Subjection is owed for conscience' sake, not only for fear.
318. 13.6Taxes are paid to rulers because Christians possess worldly goods.
319. 13.7Dues include almsgiving; fear and honor are owed according to rank.
320. 13.8Love is a debt never fully paid; everyone is a neighbor.
321. 13.9All righteousness is summed up in loving one's neighbor as oneself.
322. 13.10Failing to feed the starving when one can is killing; love fulfils the law.
323. 13.11Believers must wake from the sleep of ignorance and put on the works of light.
324. 13.13Christians walk as in daylight, avoiding revelry, drunkenness, lust, strife, and envy.
325. 13.14Put on Christ and do not indulge desire; the "strong" must not judge those who abstain.
326. 14.2The weak are abstainers who eat only vegetables, not Jews keeping food laws.
327. 14.3Eaters and abstainers must neither despise nor judge each other.
328. 14.4One must not judge where the law does not; God can sustain the abstainer as he did Daniel's companions.
329. 14.5Fasting has no fixed legal measure; each does as he can and judges best.
330. 14.6Both eating and fasting are to be done for God and the salvation of others.
331. 14.7Lemma of Rom 14:7.
332. 14.8Believers live and die for the Lord, not for themselves or for human praise.
333. 14.9At his coming Christ will find the living and raise the dead.
334. 14.10Neither judge nor despise a brother, and do not grieve him by eating.
335. 14.16Christian freedom must not look like gluttony or cause quarrels.
336. 14.17God's kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy, more easily kept by abstinence.
337. 14.18One who serves Christ thus is plainly holy.
338. 14.19Pursue peace; abstinence builds up others.
339. 14.20Clean food becomes evil if it causes another to stumble.
340. 14.21Abstaining from meat and wine protects the weak, especially in chastity.
341. 14.22Use your freedom so that no one is weakened by your example.
342. 14.23Whatever destroys another is not from loving faith and is sin.
343. 15.1The strong must bear with the weak, as Paul did.
344. 15.2Please your neighbor for his edification, not for vain glory.
345. 15.3Christ did not please himself but bore reproaches meant for God.
346. 15.4Scripture's examples of patience give comfort and hope in temptation.
347. 15.5God's patience leads to conversion; believers should seek each other's salvation as Christ did.
348. 15.6God is honored by united praise.
349. 15.7As Christ received the ungodly, believers must bear with one another.
350. 15.8Christ came first to the Jews as promised, yet Jews and gentiles are one body.
351. 15.9The gentiles' salvation was foretold, so the Jews may not be arrogant.
352. 15.10Lemma of Rom 15:10.
353. 15.11Lemma of Rom 15:11.
354. 15.12Christ, from Jesse's line through Mary, is the hope of the gentiles, proving he has already come.
355. 15.13Joy lies in future hope and in peace; hope abounds in the Spirit's powers.
356. 15.14Paul praises the Romans to spur them on and urges mutual admonition.
357. 15.15Paul writes boldly to the wise Romans to fulfil his office.
358. 15.16Paul sanctifies the gospel by living it, so the gentiles become an offering sanctified by the Spirit.
359. 15.17Paul glories only in what Christ worked through him.
360. 15.19Paul's preaching with signs filled out the gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum.
361. 15.20Paul preached where Christ was unknown, unlike the false apostles.
362. 15.21Isaiah foretold Paul's preaching to those who had not heard.
363. 15.22Paul explains his earlier remark that he was hindered from coming.
364. 15.23Paul's work in the east is done; he has long had a good desire to visit Rome.
365. 15.24The Jerusalem saints, who gave up all, were so holy that Paul himself served them; this supports the life of perfection.
366. 15.26The Jerusalem poor chose poverty; Macedonia and Achaia gave to them.
367. 15.27Gentiles owe material help to the Jewish saints who gave them spiritual goods.
368. 15.28Lemma of Rom 15:28.
369. 15.29Paul's teaching will abound if the Romans make progress.
370. 15.30Paul asks the church's prayers, which freed Peter from prison.
371. 15.31Paul asks prayer for deliverance from unbelievers in Judea.
372. 15.32Paul hopes to come joyfully, since sadness hinders teaching.
373. 15.33Paul ends with peace between the two peoples.
374. 16.1Phoebe served as eastern deaconesses do, ministering to women at baptism, or privately teaching like Priscilla.
375. 16.2The Romans should help Phoebe as she helped many.
376. 16.3Priscilla and Aquila helped Paul in teaching.
377. 16.4Priscilla and Aquila risked their lives for Paul.
378. 16.5A gathering of believers is a church; those greeted were foreigners through whom Rome believed.
379. 16.6Lemma of Rom 16:6.
380. 16.7Lemma of Rom 16:7.
381. 16.8Lemma of Rom 16:8.
382. 16.9Lemma of Rom 16:9.
383. 16.10Lemma of Rom 16:10.
384. 16.11Lemma of Rom 16:11.
385. 16.12Lemma of Rom 16:12.
386. 16.13Those greeted were Jewish believers who suffered with Paul; Rufus's mother is Paul's "mother" by age.
387. 16.14Paul greets those rich in grace and faith, not in worldly goods.
388. 16.16The kiss of peace before communion shows peace with all.
389. 16.17Lemma of Rom 16:17.
390. 16.18Judaizing teachers served their belly, preaching feasts against fasting.
391. 16.19The Romans' ready obedience made them easy to seduce; they must be wise for good.
392. 16.20Reasonable obedience and innocence trample Satan.
393. 16.23Erastus is called by his former office, as Abigail was still called Nabal's wife after marrying David.
394. 16.24Paul's closing grace recalls Christ's benefits.
395. 16.25God strengthens believers according to Paul's gospel.
396. 16.26The mystery of Jews and gentiles made one in Christ, hidden in the law, is now revealed.
397. 16.27God alone is wise and good by nature; humans become so by instruction.