Main news for 18 July 2024

King James Version (en)

Romans, Chapter 1, verse 14

¹⁴I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.

NOTES

Commentators often call the Letter to the Romans theological, having in mind its...

Commentators often call the Letter to the Romans theological, having in mind its complexity and the ambiguity of its interpretation. But the apostle himself, addressing the Roman Christians, as is clear, has theology by no means in view. He, as always, remains a preacher, a witness of the Kingdom that was opened to him when he met the Risen One on the road to Damascus (vv. 1-7). And all Paul's theological reasoning turns out to be for him only a means of such witness. In this he remains precisely an apostle in the full sense of the word, a messenger who cannot and must not say anything on his own, but must only convey what he was entrusted to convey by the One who sent him. And he must convey it in such a way that he is heard precisely as a witness, as one for whom the Kingdom is an unquestionable reality, and not simply as a herald, to whom it is often a matter of complete indifference what exactly he proclaims in the city streets and squares. That is why Paul rejoices that those to whom he addresses his letter themselves bear witness to the world about Christ and about the Kingdom (v. 8).

The apostle knows that he is not going to those to whom something must be explained and proved, but to his brothers, with whom he is united in the main thing: in the experience of the life of the Kingdom, which is in fact what is called Christianity. It would appear that those who have such experience no longer need any instruction. But Paul nevertheless wants to see the Roman Christians in order to give them a certain spiritual gift that will help them "be strengthened" (vv. 9-11). And for the apostle himself this, as is clear, serves as consolation, which he shares with his Roman brothers, rejoicing in their faithfulness to Christ and the Kingdom (v. 12).

As is clear, Paul looked at his ministry not as teaching, so characteristic of the rabbinic environment to which he himself had belonged before his conversion, but as the experience of jointly living through the reality of the Kingdom, which was known to every Christian. Paul's witness became, to use philosophical language, an actualization of this Kingdom, allowing the brothers who listened to the apostle to be strengthened in what was, of course, already known to them from their own spiritual experience. Thus preaching became witness, and witness became communion and unity in the Kingdom.

Interesting, what means the apostle, calling himself debtor of the Greeks and barbarians, scholars and ignoramuses? It is completely obvious that the antithesis "Greeks - barbarians" is similar to the antithesis "wise - unwise": because in the time of Paul the Greeks were people, as we would say today, civilized, and thus as was supposed educated, and barbarians were named the inhabitants little introduced to the civilization of the peripheries of the Roman Empire.

Paul himself, according to his words, considers himself debtor of ones as others. In what sense he thus says it? Probably, if it was about the preacher of a new religion, we would have had the right to interpret the words of the apostle as a reflection and the expression of the sense of duty of the preacher, who considers himself obliged to carry the truth of the new religion, the new revelation to everyone, regardless the social status and the level of education. But indeed, Paul has never looked at Christianity as a new religion: for him it was a new revelation, a revelation of the Kingdom, and the new life, the life of this Kingdom revealed through Jesus Christ.

And the apostle himself did not preach about a new religion, but testified about the Kingdom and the One, Who brought it to the world. But indeed, we can testify of it only as much as we live its life, the life that we can receive only as an undeserved gift and a spiritual advance: undeserved gift because we can’t enter the Kingdom by merit and by right but only without having sinned, and a spiritual advance because having receive the life of the Kingdom undeservedly and, according to the words of the apostle, "not by measure", it is also necessary to give it to others "not by measure".

Christianity is not a doctrine, which it is necessary to learn and to which should join those, to whom it has not revealed, but a new life, which we can only share with the neighbor and of which it is absolutely necessary to share. And if we don’t do that, the Kingdom not only will not expand, it will reduced again in size, because it cannot remain immovable, it can either expand, taking more and more new souls and hearts, or narrow, reduce, become less and less noticed in the world, where he remains in every case foreign. And Paul understands perfectly that, having once met with Christ, once having join the life of the Kingdom, he now has to be the witness of the One, with Whom he met, and what he touched. Not because otherwise awaits him punishment, which waits in the not transformed world every debtor, refusing to pay his debt, but because otherwise he will lose what he received. And thus, will also lose himself.

What Paul's preaching contains is fundamentally new for all his listeners, yet Paul does not regard the content of his...

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