Righteousness shared with others
But a more compelling reason for Paul’s delay was that, until now, there had been major areas not yet served with the gospel that required Paul’s attention first.
“This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you,” he explains. That situation has now changed.
But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to see you, 24 I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.
After having planted the gospel in the major urban areas between Jerusalem and Illyricum, Paul can say, “There is no more place for me to work in these regions.” This does not by any stretch of the imagination mean that Paul’s work is finished, however. He is quick to point out that he had his eye on another area where Christ was not known. That area is Spain—beyond Rome, to the west. Hence on his way to Spain, Paul intends to stop off at Rome and thus fulfill his long-felt wish of visiting the Roman Christians.
A personal visit with brothers and sisters in the faith— important as that was—was by no means the only reason for coming to Rome, however. Paul also intends to involve the Roman Christians in his projected mission expedition to Spain.
We should not think of Paul’s missionary procedure as being entirely comparable to our current methods of conducting overseas mission work. When a church body (through its world mission board) sends out a team of missionaries to distant lands, it assumes responsibility for outfitting and financing the endeavor.
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n early New Testament times, Christian missionaries were much more on their own. Think, for example, of Paul’s tentmaking in Corinth to support himself (Acts 18:1-5; see also Acts 20:33,34). Also, traveling missionaries often depended on Christians along the way to help them and outfit them for the next field of labor they were going to. John’s third epistle gives us a clear indication of such mission support from local congregations (verses 5-8).
Similarly, Paul seems to be expecting such aid when he comes to Rome, for he tells the Romans, “I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.” Those plans, however, are for the future. For the moment they will have to wait.