⁷ To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

 

       Grace to you and peace from God our Father

 

            and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you,

 

     because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.

 

⁹ For God is my witness,

 

     whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son,

 

     that without ceasing I mention you

 

          ¹⁰ always in my prayers,

 

       asking that somehow by God's will

 

            I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

 

     ¹¹ For I long to see you,

 

           that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—

 

                ¹² that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith,

 

                both yours and mine.

 

¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,

 

     that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented),

 

          in order that I may reap some harvest among you

 

          as well 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 I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

 

(Rom. 1:7-15)

 

 

 

The Epistle to the Romans is notorious for the complexity of the thought and flow of the writing. Paul chases a lot of rabbits! It’s almost like Paul was working with his scribe, Tertius, and said “I’m tired, and it’s bed time; we’ll pick this up in the morning,” and forgot where he was in his thoughts and either skipped something or repeated something else.

 

Paul is introducing himself to a church he had never seen, but who he regarded as “his” in the sense that he was the apostle to the Gentiles, and Rome was the ultimate Gentile capital of the Ancient Near East. But this church also had Jews in its membership, and they were more familiar with the Old Testament than their Gentile counter parts. Neither was superior in the other in grace and peace, as Paul goes to pains later to point out.

 

In this pericope, Paul states three purposes: 1) he thinks of them often, 2) he prays for them every time he thinks of them, and 3) Paul is eager to preach the Gospel among them. If Paul were not concerned for their welfare, his plan to launch into Span from there would have been merely utilitarian and without genuine concern for their welfare. Instead, Paul is anxious to both teach the Roman church things of God, and to learn from them as well. And Paul is indebted to both Jews and Gentiles, and to the educated (wise) and the foolish (uneducated). Spirituality is not about degrees and education (I have several degrees), or nationality (both Jews and Gentiles). Most nations consider themselves to be exceptional, superior to their neighbors. But all that matters is Jesus Christ, his crucifixion, resurrection, and eternal life in Him. Everything else is secondary (or tertiary, or quaternary even) in importance: “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,” (1 Cor. 1:23)

Things to notice when reading the Gospel of Mark.

Mark is thought to have been the very first of the four Gospels, and Matthew and Luke used it as part of their source material for their Gospels. This is not to say that the Holy Spirit was not involved in guiding the work of the evangelists. “Mark” was the John Mark that we read about in the book of Acts, and may have been the “young man” in Mark 14:51-52. Mark learned from his cousin Barnabas, ran away from Paul on the first missionary trip, and was associated with Peter later. He was not among the first disciples, but he had good mentors.

As you read the Gospel of Mark, notice how many of his sentences begin with the word “and.” “And” occurs over and over again in the Gospel of Mark. It’s Mark’s default for a new sentence, and may or may not indicate continuity with what went before; context must be your guide in that.

Also notice the “speed” of the flow of the story. When Jesus was baptized, “immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.” (Mk. 1:10) and then “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” (Mk. 1:12) “Immediately” is 35 times in Mark alone! The pace of Mark is fast, and the story moves fast.

Mark is simple in its language, it has been called “The Gospel for Dummies.” The theology, while solid, is not as complex as that of the other Gospels. Matthew was written for a Jewish audience that knew the Temple and the Old Testament, Luke was written for an educated Gentile audience and the Greek is more complex. John is also simple, deceptively so because it uses a lot of double meanings and subtleties.

Read it over and over to get the shades of meaning. Use a parallel Bible to see what the other Gospels say about the same story.

Happy reading of the Gospel of Mark!