Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. —1 Corinthians 4:16
This is part of an open-ended series on Paul’s example to us.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. —Romans 1:8–15
Paul was personally invested in the spiritual growth of those whom God had placed under his care.
- He was thankful for those who would read his letter, that their faith was proclaimed, that they, like him, were “not ashamed of the gospel” (v. 8).
- He prayed for them “unceasingly” (v. 9–10).
- He desired to be with them (v. 10–12)—
- to encourage them in the faith,
- and to be encouraged by them. Paul, though an apostle, was humble, recognizing his need for fellowship with the saints. Though he was their ecclesiastical superior, he knew he was also their equal in Christ.
- He was “eager to preach the gospel” to them (v. 15).
We see that Paul’s desire for the saints in Rome makes a full circle: he is thankful for their faith; he desires to encourage that faith; and he wants to bring them back to the object of their faith, i.e., the gospel. The gospel is central to his every thought concerning them.
Should not the gospel be central to our desires for and interactions with those whose welfare God has entrusted to us?
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