13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul’s Motivations
Paul closes by sharing several revealing personal matters. He expresses his confidence in the believers of Rome. They have the Spirit: they are “complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another”
14 I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.
Paul’s letter is an expression of his own giftedness, not a suggestion that he has no confidence in the giftedness of the body in Rome.
15 Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Paul also shares his desire to travel to Spain, to pioneer there dangers he may soon face in Judea, and tells his plans to visit them in Rome on his way to Spain.
20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.
It’s cold and dreary out there. But, I’m filled with joy and peace in the morning as I read the Bible with a cup of coffee. Fill my cup Lord so that I can be ready for today.
