Romans 15

¹Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the powerless, and not to please ourselves.

²Let each of us please his neighbor for good, toward his edification.

³For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written: 'The reproaches of those who reproach you fell upon me.'

⁴For whatever was written beforehand was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

⁵Now may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think the same thing among one another according to Christ Jesus,

⁶so that with one accord, with one mouth, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁷Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received you, to the glory of God.

⁸For I say that Christ Jesus has become a servant of the circumcision on behalf of the truthfulness of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,

⁹and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: 'Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and I will sing to your name.'

¹⁰And again it says: 'Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.'

¹¹And again: 'Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him.'

¹²And again Isaiah says: 'There will be the root of Jesse, and the one who arises to rule over the Gentiles — in him the Gentiles will hope.'

¹³Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

¹⁴Now I myself also am persuaded concerning you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another.

¹⁵But I have written to you rather boldly in part, brothers, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God,

¹⁶to be a cultic minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, performing the sacred service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable, having been sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁷I have therefore my boasting in Christ Jesus in the things pertaining to God.

¹⁸For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ accomplished through me for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed,

¹⁹in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and in a circuit around as far as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

²⁰and so making it my ambition to proclaim the gospel not where Christ has been named, so that I would not build upon another's foundation,

²¹But as it has been written: 'Those to whom it was not proclaimed concerning him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand.'

²²Therefore I have also been hindered many times from coming to you,

²³But now, no longer having a place in these regions, and having had a longing to come to you for many years,

²⁴when I travel to Spain — I will come to you, for I hope, while passing through, to see you and to be sent forward there by you, if first I may be filled with your company in part.

²⁵But now I am going to Jerusalem, ministering to the saints.

²⁶For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.

²⁷For indeed they were pleased to do so, and they are debtors to them; for if the Gentiles shared in their spiritual things, they ought also to minister to them in material things.

²⁸When therefore I have completed this and have sealed this fruit to them, I will set out through you to Spain.

²⁹And I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

³⁰Now I urge you, brothers, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in prayers to God for me,

³¹that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my ministry to Jerusalem may become well received by the saints,

³²so that I may come to you in joy through the will of God and be refreshed together with you.

³³And the God of peace be with all of you. Amen.