One day while Paul was speaking in the Ephesian synagogue, some of the Jews stubbornly refused to believe no matter how persuasive he was. So he decided to leave and travel throughout the region. For the next two years everyone that lived in Asia Minor heard the story of Jesus.
During that time God did amazing miracles through Paul. Even handkerchiefs he touched could heal the sick or those controlled by demons if it was taken to them.
Some Jews tried to heal people from demon possession by using the name of Jesus and Paul. One day, a demon answered them, “Jesus and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who was demon possessed attacked them so savagely that they ran away naked and bleeding. Many heard this story and Jesus’ name became highly respected. Many others who performed magic came and publicly burned their spellbooks.
But it would not last because of Demetrius, an Ephesian silversmith who made idols of the Greek god, Artemis. He called together all the other craftsmen in town and said, “You know we make a good living. Now this Jew, Paul, is convincing many people to follow Jesus. He says that gods made by people are not gods at all. Not only are we losing money, but Artemis and her temple are being disrespected.
When they heard this they were furious and they riled everyone up in the town and then went and captured two friends of Paul. Paul wanted to come and speak to the mob himself, but his friends wouldn’t let him because they thought it was too dangerous.
The mob was chaotically shouting over each other. Most of them didn’t even know why they were there. One official quieted the crowd and said, “Ephesians! The whole world knows that our city is home to the temple of Artemis. So calm down and don’t do anything rash. These men haven’t robbed the temple or said anything about Artemis. If Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a problem with anyone, handle it legally, in front of a judge. You are all in danger of being charged with rioting since there is no reason for all this.” Then he told everyone to leave.
When the rioting died down, Paul left Asia Minor and travelled throughout Greece, staying in Corinth for three months. As time went by, Paul found himself anticipating meeting with the church in Rome, so he decided to write them a letter.
Let me start by introducing myself. I’m Paul, a servant of Jesus called to share his story, first introduced to us by God’s prophets, who told us that Jesus was God’s son but also descended from King David. God brought him back to life, proving that he is our holy and powerful savior and lord. He has told me to show everyone, whether Jew or gentile, their need for faith in him. So I wanted to say hello and blessings to all of you in Rome who are a part of God’s loving family.
I’m so thankful to God for all of you. Your faith is being talked about everywhere I go. God knows I pray for you all the time and I hope he will allow me to visit you soon. I would love to continue to strengthen your faith, while you strengthen mine with your encouragement. I’ve wanted to visit for so long, but it’s been impossible until now.
It’s my responsibility and pleasure to tell the story of Jesus to everyone, whether Jewish, Greek, Roman, it doesn’t matter. This is why I’ve wanted to see you all so much. Because I’m not ashamed of Jesus’ story which saves everyone who believes in it.
God has made himself plain to see through what he has created to everyone, so those clinging to their wickedness and ignoring God's truth have no excuse and will feel God’s judgment. In the past people knew God, but ignored him or didn’t treat him with thankfulness for being the creator of the universe. Some people claim to be wise, but they are fools. They traded a relationship with God for images of gods they made with their own hands. So God let them have what they wanted, to be left to their own evil impulses. They ignored the importance of marriage. They are greedy, envious, lying, gossiping, arrogant, disrespectful, cold, unloving, unfaithful, ignorant, rebellious, murderous, God-haters.
But before you pass judgment on someone else, remember that you sin too. When you judge someone else you are forgetting how patient and kind God was with you. God’s kindness should lead you to repentance, not a judgmental spirit. Since you have no excuse, you will be judged by God to the extent that you judge others. Your stubbornness towards others is storing up punishment for you. If you seek God, you will find eternal life. But if you seek what you think is best for yourself you find God’s anger.
Whether you know the laws of Moses or not is not what matters. What matters is if you are working to obey God’s laws. Even the gentiles seek to do what pleases God and so they have their own version of the law. If you are a Jew and you think that you can tell everyone else how to live because you know the laws of Moses, do you follow all those laws yourself? Again, it doesn’t matter if you have the mark of Abraham on your body if you do not follow the law. If the gentiles, who do not have the mark, follow God’s law even without it being taught to them, shouldn’t they be treated as one of God’s people? You aren't one of God’s people because of what you know or what you’ve done to your body. The laws of Moses and the mark of Abraham should be in your heart. That kind of a person will be praised, not by others, but by God.
So does that mean it’s worthless to be Jewish? Of course not. We’ve received the very words of God. Even though many have been unfaithful, that doesn’t change God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people. In fact, our unfaithfulness increases God’s glory by showing us his faithfulness that much more. But don’t make the argument that it’s okay to do evil because it will increase God’s goodness. You will be judged all the same.
Regardless of if you are Jewish or not, it is important to remember that none of us are righteous on our own. We all turned away from God and committed all kinds of sins with both our words and actions. Those of us who are under the law know that keeping it doesn’t make us righteous, but it does make us aware of our sins and our need to be saved from them.
But now, separate from the law, God’s righteousness, which we first learned about from the prophets, is available to anyone that has faith in Jesus. Jesus’ death, because he was sinless, acted as a blood sacrifice for all people. God’s righteousness demanded punishment for the sins of every generation.
Our salvation isn’t based on how much good we do in the world, but whether or not we have faith in Jesus' death and resurrection. But that doesn’t mean we are disregarding the law. In fact, we are upholding it. Even Abraham, a man who could boast to anyone on earth about what he did, was blessed by God because he had faith that God would keep his promises. It wasn’t because of anything Abraham did that God promised him that his family would change the world, but because God could see Abraham’s faith even then. If all that matters is the law then faith wouldn’t matter.
So it is through our faith in Jesus that we are able to be reunited with God. Through Jesus, even our suffering can bring us closer to God because suffering leads to perseverance and eventually increased hope in God. Jesus died for us even though we were sinners. Few people would be willing to die for a good person, but Jesus loved us so much that he died for us even though we are not “good people” compared to his holiness.
Sin entered the world through one man, Adam, and so death comes to all people because we are all born to sin. And now, freedom from death comes to all people through one man, Jesus.
Again, just because Jesus’ sacrifice pays for our sins doesn’t mean we should continue sinning. We have died to sin. When we are baptized in the name of Jesus we join with him in death to sin and resurrection to new life. And that resurrection proves that we are no longer slaves to sin and death. So if you aren’t a slave to sin anymore, then stop sinning. What good did it ever do you? It only leads to the death of your soul. If you are a “slave” to anything, it is righteousness, which brings holiness and eternal life.
But going back to the law. Laws only govern us as long as we are alive. A woman is only married as long as her husband lives. If he dies, she is released and may go and marry another. It is the same for us. When we joined in Jesus’ death, we were no longer bound to the law.
The existence of the law caused our sinful minds to think more about sinning. So does that mean the law is sinful? Of course not. But I wouldn’t have known what sin was if it wasn’t for the law and when I learned it I found myself desiring to break it. So even though the law is holy, it still led me to sin and death.
When I was living in sin, my life didn’t make sense. I did what I hated doing and didn’t do what I wanted to because of the sin in me. I wanted to be good, but I was incapable because goodness didn’t live in me.
But now, because Jesus has paid our debt, we have been set free from sin and death. The law of Moses couldn’t do that because our own sinfulness made the law weak. But God sent his son as a man to fulfill the requirement of the law by being the final offering for sin. For those who believe, this changes us to our cores; we shouldn’t even think the way we used to. Before, our thinking only brought us closer to death and made us hostile and rebellious to God. But because the holy spirit lives in us, even though the sin we were born into will cause our bodies to die, the righteousness of the spirit will bring us back to life.
We are God’s adopted children. We are willing to suffer like Jesus because we are heirs to the same blessing. But honestly, any suffering we go through now is not even worth comparing to the blessing we receive. The whole world has been groaning in pain, as if it was about to give birth, and even we who believe feel that pain as we wait and hope for all of God’s promises to come true. We were saved because of this hope. But you can’t hope in something you already have, so we hope for what we don’t have yet and wait for it patiently.
God has always known who would become his adoptive children. He called to them, saved them from their sins, and made them righteous. What can you even begin to say in response to that? If God is on our side, who could possibly overpower us? We have faith in the blessings of a God who was willing to sacrifice his own son for all of us. And if God has made us righteous, who could possibly condemn us? Jesus, who died for us, but more importantly was brought back to life, now sits alongside God speaking on our behalf. So who could possibly separate us from Jesus' love? No matter what life throws at us, struggle, hunger, poverty, even death, we are more than conquerors through Jesus, who loves us. Nothing, whether in life or death, angels or demons, the present or the future, no matter how big or how deep, nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God made possible by Jesus, our savior and lord.
I promise you I’m telling the truth when I tell you how devastated I am when I think of all my fellow Jews who refuse to believe. I would be willing to be cursed and cut off from Jesus if it would save my people. This is their inheritance they are rejecting, spoken of to their ancestors.
This doesn’t mean that God has let the Jews down. Not everyone who is descended from Abraham are counted as his children, if you follow me, because it isn’t your physical lineage that matters, but whether or not God has adopted you into his family.
But if only some of us get adopted you might ask, “why does God condemn some people?” Don’t forget that God created us all and has the authority over us. Also remember that all of us are born into sin and therefore we deserve punishment from God. So a better way to think about it is that God has shown great patience to some of us who deserve his wrath by saving us from destruction.
I wish that all my fellow Jews would be saved. They are passionate about God but they don’t understand what God wants from them which is why they reject Jesus. They try to use the law to create righteousness. But righteousness comes when you say, “Jesus is my lord,” and you also believe that God brought him back to life. Then you will have eternal life.
So I’ll ask the question again, because there are so many Jews who reject Jesus, does that mean that God has abandoned his people? Of course not. I’m a Jew, from the house of Benjamin, a descendant of Abraham. Throughout our history there have been times when we’ve turned from God. Elijah thought he would be the last prophet, but God saved a group of Israelites and that is what is happening again.
Because the majority of them have rejected Jesus, the story of Jesus has also been shared with gentiles who have readily believed it. I understand my own people. I hope that seeing God bless and include you makes them so jealous that more of them believe. But again, gentiles shouldn’t feel superior. You are like a branch from a tree found in the wild that was carefully grafted onto the tree in the garden of Israel. You receive your nourishment now from the same holy root as the Jews. You should instead focus on the kindness of God that he was willing to bring you into his family and not ridicule those who have fallen away.
Because of this, I want to encourage you all to offer yourselves to God as though you were holy sacrifices on the temple altar. Don’t be like everyone else in the world. Work with the holy spirit to completely change how you think, then you will be able to better understand God’s heart.
None of you should think you are better than anyone else. A body has many parts that each serve a purpose, so does God’s family. We all have different skills God has given us: prophesying, service, teaching, encouragement, giving, leading, and showing mercy.
Serve each other lovingly. Always be passionate about what God is passionate about. Always be hopeful, patient, and prayerful no matter how difficult life is. Be hospitable and give to those who are in need. Don’t hate those who torment you, but ask God how you can be a blessing even to them. Whether someone is joyful or mourning, honestly share in that feeling with them. Live peacefully with your friends and neighbors. Be willing to spend time with people that the world might say are beneath you.
Remember that God is the ultimate authority on earth and so all rulers are under his authority. So don’t pointlessly rebel against them. Good rulers are nothing to be afraid of if you do what is right. But if you are doing wrong, then yes, you can expect to feel their judgement, and for good reason. This is also why you should pay your taxes.
Ultimately, you can boil down the law into this one sentence: “love everyone else as well as you love yourself.” Behave decently. Wrap yourselves in the influence of Jesus rather than thinking about how you can fulfill the same old desires you had before you became Christians.
Don’t argue with or judge other Christians even if you think their faith is weaker than yours. Take eating for example. Some Christians will be comfortable eating whatever, others will feel like they can only eat vegetables. Neither should judge the other. God accepts them both because it is God that determines whether what they think and do is acceptable. Whether you eat meat or not you should be fully convinced in your mind that that is the right thing for you and give thanks to God. Whether in life or death, remember that your purpose is to glorify God.
By the same token, just because something is permissible for you to do doesn’t mean you should always do it without considering how it affects people around you. If eating meat is really upsetting to someone else, then don’t eat meat around them. But ultimately, remember that God’s kingdom isn’t about trivial matters like eating and drinking, it is about righteousness, peace, and joy through the holy spirit.
I’m convinced that all of you hearing this letter in Rome are good people who have the knowledge and character to teach each other what is right. But I wanted to share these thoughts with you so that you remember them especially as we Jews share our lives with gentiles to whom I have been given the priestly duty to share the story of Jesus so that they will be saved.
I’ve been wanting to visit you for years and now, since I’ve travelled everywhere in this region that I can with my message, I plan to visit you on my way to Spain. I’m headed to Jerusalem first to celebrate Pentecost. Pray that I stay safe there as I encounter those who don’t believe. Watch out for anyone who tries to divide you or teach you things that contradict what you have already been taught. These people don’t serve Jesus, only themselves.
To God be Glory forever through Jesus our Savior!
Paul
During that time God did amazing miracles through Paul. Even handkerchiefs he touched could heal the sick or those controlled by demons if it was taken to them.
Some Jews tried to heal people from demon possession by using the name of Jesus and Paul. One day, a demon answered them, “Jesus and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who was demon possessed attacked them so savagely that they ran away naked and bleeding. Many heard this story and Jesus’ name became highly respected. Many others who performed magic came and publicly burned their spellbooks.
But it would not last because of Demetrius, an Ephesian silversmith who made idols of the Greek god, Artemis. He called together all the other craftsmen in town and said, “You know we make a good living. Now this Jew, Paul, is convincing many people to follow Jesus. He says that gods made by people are not gods at all. Not only are we losing money, but Artemis and her temple are being disrespected.
When they heard this they were furious and they riled everyone up in the town and then went and captured two friends of Paul. Paul wanted to come and speak to the mob himself, but his friends wouldn’t let him because they thought it was too dangerous.
The mob was chaotically shouting over each other. Most of them didn’t even know why they were there. One official quieted the crowd and said, “Ephesians! The whole world knows that our city is home to the temple of Artemis. So calm down and don’t do anything rash. These men haven’t robbed the temple or said anything about Artemis. If Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a problem with anyone, handle it legally, in front of a judge. You are all in danger of being charged with rioting since there is no reason for all this.” Then he told everyone to leave.
When the rioting died down, Paul left Asia Minor and travelled throughout Greece, staying in Corinth for three months. As time went by, Paul found himself anticipating meeting with the church in Rome, so he decided to write them a letter.
Let me start by introducing myself. I’m Paul, a servant of Jesus called to share his story, first introduced to us by God’s prophets, who told us that Jesus was God’s son but also descended from King David. God brought him back to life, proving that he is our holy and powerful savior and lord. He has told me to show everyone, whether Jew or gentile, their need for faith in him. So I wanted to say hello and blessings to all of you in Rome who are a part of God’s loving family.
I’m so thankful to God for all of you. Your faith is being talked about everywhere I go. God knows I pray for you all the time and I hope he will allow me to visit you soon. I would love to continue to strengthen your faith, while you strengthen mine with your encouragement. I’ve wanted to visit for so long, but it’s been impossible until now.
It’s my responsibility and pleasure to tell the story of Jesus to everyone, whether Jewish, Greek, Roman, it doesn’t matter. This is why I’ve wanted to see you all so much. Because I’m not ashamed of Jesus’ story which saves everyone who believes in it.
God has made himself plain to see through what he has created to everyone, so those clinging to their wickedness and ignoring God's truth have no excuse and will feel God’s judgment. In the past people knew God, but ignored him or didn’t treat him with thankfulness for being the creator of the universe. Some people claim to be wise, but they are fools. They traded a relationship with God for images of gods they made with their own hands. So God let them have what they wanted, to be left to their own evil impulses. They ignored the importance of marriage. They are greedy, envious, lying, gossiping, arrogant, disrespectful, cold, unloving, unfaithful, ignorant, rebellious, murderous, God-haters.
But before you pass judgment on someone else, remember that you sin too. When you judge someone else you are forgetting how patient and kind God was with you. God’s kindness should lead you to repentance, not a judgmental spirit. Since you have no excuse, you will be judged by God to the extent that you judge others. Your stubbornness towards others is storing up punishment for you. If you seek God, you will find eternal life. But if you seek what you think is best for yourself you find God’s anger.
Whether you know the laws of Moses or not is not what matters. What matters is if you are working to obey God’s laws. Even the gentiles seek to do what pleases God and so they have their own version of the law. If you are a Jew and you think that you can tell everyone else how to live because you know the laws of Moses, do you follow all those laws yourself? Again, it doesn’t matter if you have the mark of Abraham on your body if you do not follow the law. If the gentiles, who do not have the mark, follow God’s law even without it being taught to them, shouldn’t they be treated as one of God’s people? You aren't one of God’s people because of what you know or what you’ve done to your body. The laws of Moses and the mark of Abraham should be in your heart. That kind of a person will be praised, not by others, but by God.
So does that mean it’s worthless to be Jewish? Of course not. We’ve received the very words of God. Even though many have been unfaithful, that doesn’t change God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people. In fact, our unfaithfulness increases God’s glory by showing us his faithfulness that much more. But don’t make the argument that it’s okay to do evil because it will increase God’s goodness. You will be judged all the same.
Regardless of if you are Jewish or not, it is important to remember that none of us are righteous on our own. We all turned away from God and committed all kinds of sins with both our words and actions. Those of us who are under the law know that keeping it doesn’t make us righteous, but it does make us aware of our sins and our need to be saved from them.
But now, separate from the law, God’s righteousness, which we first learned about from the prophets, is available to anyone that has faith in Jesus. Jesus’ death, because he was sinless, acted as a blood sacrifice for all people. God’s righteousness demanded punishment for the sins of every generation.
Our salvation isn’t based on how much good we do in the world, but whether or not we have faith in Jesus' death and resurrection. But that doesn’t mean we are disregarding the law. In fact, we are upholding it. Even Abraham, a man who could boast to anyone on earth about what he did, was blessed by God because he had faith that God would keep his promises. It wasn’t because of anything Abraham did that God promised him that his family would change the world, but because God could see Abraham’s faith even then. If all that matters is the law then faith wouldn’t matter.
So it is through our faith in Jesus that we are able to be reunited with God. Through Jesus, even our suffering can bring us closer to God because suffering leads to perseverance and eventually increased hope in God. Jesus died for us even though we were sinners. Few people would be willing to die for a good person, but Jesus loved us so much that he died for us even though we are not “good people” compared to his holiness.
Sin entered the world through one man, Adam, and so death comes to all people because we are all born to sin. And now, freedom from death comes to all people through one man, Jesus.
Again, just because Jesus’ sacrifice pays for our sins doesn’t mean we should continue sinning. We have died to sin. When we are baptized in the name of Jesus we join with him in death to sin and resurrection to new life. And that resurrection proves that we are no longer slaves to sin and death. So if you aren’t a slave to sin anymore, then stop sinning. What good did it ever do you? It only leads to the death of your soul. If you are a “slave” to anything, it is righteousness, which brings holiness and eternal life.
But going back to the law. Laws only govern us as long as we are alive. A woman is only married as long as her husband lives. If he dies, she is released and may go and marry another. It is the same for us. When we joined in Jesus’ death, we were no longer bound to the law.
The existence of the law caused our sinful minds to think more about sinning. So does that mean the law is sinful? Of course not. But I wouldn’t have known what sin was if it wasn’t for the law and when I learned it I found myself desiring to break it. So even though the law is holy, it still led me to sin and death.
When I was living in sin, my life didn’t make sense. I did what I hated doing and didn’t do what I wanted to because of the sin in me. I wanted to be good, but I was incapable because goodness didn’t live in me.
But now, because Jesus has paid our debt, we have been set free from sin and death. The law of Moses couldn’t do that because our own sinfulness made the law weak. But God sent his son as a man to fulfill the requirement of the law by being the final offering for sin. For those who believe, this changes us to our cores; we shouldn’t even think the way we used to. Before, our thinking only brought us closer to death and made us hostile and rebellious to God. But because the holy spirit lives in us, even though the sin we were born into will cause our bodies to die, the righteousness of the spirit will bring us back to life.
We are God’s adopted children. We are willing to suffer like Jesus because we are heirs to the same blessing. But honestly, any suffering we go through now is not even worth comparing to the blessing we receive. The whole world has been groaning in pain, as if it was about to give birth, and even we who believe feel that pain as we wait and hope for all of God’s promises to come true. We were saved because of this hope. But you can’t hope in something you already have, so we hope for what we don’t have yet and wait for it patiently.
God has always known who would become his adoptive children. He called to them, saved them from their sins, and made them righteous. What can you even begin to say in response to that? If God is on our side, who could possibly overpower us? We have faith in the blessings of a God who was willing to sacrifice his own son for all of us. And if God has made us righteous, who could possibly condemn us? Jesus, who died for us, but more importantly was brought back to life, now sits alongside God speaking on our behalf. So who could possibly separate us from Jesus' love? No matter what life throws at us, struggle, hunger, poverty, even death, we are more than conquerors through Jesus, who loves us. Nothing, whether in life or death, angels or demons, the present or the future, no matter how big or how deep, nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God made possible by Jesus, our savior and lord.
I promise you I’m telling the truth when I tell you how devastated I am when I think of all my fellow Jews who refuse to believe. I would be willing to be cursed and cut off from Jesus if it would save my people. This is their inheritance they are rejecting, spoken of to their ancestors.
This doesn’t mean that God has let the Jews down. Not everyone who is descended from Abraham are counted as his children, if you follow me, because it isn’t your physical lineage that matters, but whether or not God has adopted you into his family.
But if only some of us get adopted you might ask, “why does God condemn some people?” Don’t forget that God created us all and has the authority over us. Also remember that all of us are born into sin and therefore we deserve punishment from God. So a better way to think about it is that God has shown great patience to some of us who deserve his wrath by saving us from destruction.
I wish that all my fellow Jews would be saved. They are passionate about God but they don’t understand what God wants from them which is why they reject Jesus. They try to use the law to create righteousness. But righteousness comes when you say, “Jesus is my lord,” and you also believe that God brought him back to life. Then you will have eternal life.
So I’ll ask the question again, because there are so many Jews who reject Jesus, does that mean that God has abandoned his people? Of course not. I’m a Jew, from the house of Benjamin, a descendant of Abraham. Throughout our history there have been times when we’ve turned from God. Elijah thought he would be the last prophet, but God saved a group of Israelites and that is what is happening again.
Because the majority of them have rejected Jesus, the story of Jesus has also been shared with gentiles who have readily believed it. I understand my own people. I hope that seeing God bless and include you makes them so jealous that more of them believe. But again, gentiles shouldn’t feel superior. You are like a branch from a tree found in the wild that was carefully grafted onto the tree in the garden of Israel. You receive your nourishment now from the same holy root as the Jews. You should instead focus on the kindness of God that he was willing to bring you into his family and not ridicule those who have fallen away.
Because of this, I want to encourage you all to offer yourselves to God as though you were holy sacrifices on the temple altar. Don’t be like everyone else in the world. Work with the holy spirit to completely change how you think, then you will be able to better understand God’s heart.
None of you should think you are better than anyone else. A body has many parts that each serve a purpose, so does God’s family. We all have different skills God has given us: prophesying, service, teaching, encouragement, giving, leading, and showing mercy.
Serve each other lovingly. Always be passionate about what God is passionate about. Always be hopeful, patient, and prayerful no matter how difficult life is. Be hospitable and give to those who are in need. Don’t hate those who torment you, but ask God how you can be a blessing even to them. Whether someone is joyful or mourning, honestly share in that feeling with them. Live peacefully with your friends and neighbors. Be willing to spend time with people that the world might say are beneath you.
Remember that God is the ultimate authority on earth and so all rulers are under his authority. So don’t pointlessly rebel against them. Good rulers are nothing to be afraid of if you do what is right. But if you are doing wrong, then yes, you can expect to feel their judgement, and for good reason. This is also why you should pay your taxes.
Ultimately, you can boil down the law into this one sentence: “love everyone else as well as you love yourself.” Behave decently. Wrap yourselves in the influence of Jesus rather than thinking about how you can fulfill the same old desires you had before you became Christians.
Don’t argue with or judge other Christians even if you think their faith is weaker than yours. Take eating for example. Some Christians will be comfortable eating whatever, others will feel like they can only eat vegetables. Neither should judge the other. God accepts them both because it is God that determines whether what they think and do is acceptable. Whether you eat meat or not you should be fully convinced in your mind that that is the right thing for you and give thanks to God. Whether in life or death, remember that your purpose is to glorify God.
By the same token, just because something is permissible for you to do doesn’t mean you should always do it without considering how it affects people around you. If eating meat is really upsetting to someone else, then don’t eat meat around them. But ultimately, remember that God’s kingdom isn’t about trivial matters like eating and drinking, it is about righteousness, peace, and joy through the holy spirit.
I’m convinced that all of you hearing this letter in Rome are good people who have the knowledge and character to teach each other what is right. But I wanted to share these thoughts with you so that you remember them especially as we Jews share our lives with gentiles to whom I have been given the priestly duty to share the story of Jesus so that they will be saved.
I’ve been wanting to visit you for years and now, since I’ve travelled everywhere in this region that I can with my message, I plan to visit you on my way to Spain. I’m headed to Jerusalem first to celebrate Pentecost. Pray that I stay safe there as I encounter those who don’t believe. Watch out for anyone who tries to divide you or teach you things that contradict what you have already been taught. These people don’t serve Jesus, only themselves.
To God be Glory forever through Jesus our Savior!
Paul
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