16 That I should be the minister of Christ to the Gentiles, consecrating the gospel of Christ,
that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
17 I have therefore reason for glorying, through Jesus Christ, in the things of God.
18 I will not indeed dare to speak anything of those things which Christ has not done through
me, as to the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and work,
19 Through the power of signs and of wonders, through the power of the Holy Spirit; so that
from Jerusalem, and round about to Illyricum,
20 I have spread more fully^490 the gospel of Christ; thus endeavoring to preach the gospel, not
where Christ was named, that I might not build on another’s foundation;
21 But, as it is written, “They to whom it has not been declared concerning him, shall see; and
they who have not heard, shall understand.”
22 I have on this account also been often hindered from coming to you,
23 But now, having a place no longer in these regions, and having a desire for many years to
come to you,
24 When I go to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope that when I go there I shall see you, and
that I shall be brought on my way thither by you, if however I shall first be in part filled by a
converse with you.
25 But I am now going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints.
26 For it has pleased Macedonia and Achaia to make a contribution to the saints who are at
Jerusalem:
27 It has pleased them, I say, and their debtors they are; for if the Gentiles have partaken of
their spiritual things, they ought also to minister to them in temporal things.
28 When therefore I shall have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by
you to Spain:
29 And I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel
of Christ.
30 Now I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, that ye
strive with me in your prayers for me to God,
31 That I may be delivered from the unbelieving in Judea, and that my service, undertaken for
Jerusalem, may be acceptable to the saints;
32 That with joy I may come to you by the will of God, and may, together with you, be refreshed.
33 And the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
CHAPTER 16
1 Now I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a deaconess of the Cenchrean Church;
2 That ye receive her in the Lord, as it becomes saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever
matter she may have need of’ you; for she has been a helper to many, and to me also.
3 Salute Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus,
(^490) “I have supplemented,” is what Calvin approves: the gospel had already been partially preached, but Paul had filled up or
supplied what was deficient.