(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
The weaker brother (continued)
- Now, we (the strong) ought to bear with the weaknesses of the weak and not to please ourselves.
- Let each of us please his neighbor for his good for building him up.
- For even the Anointed didn’t please Himself, but just as it is *written: “The slander of the men who slandered you fell on Me.”1quotation/allusion Psalm 69:9
- For whatever was previously written, it was [all] written for our instruction, so through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.
- And may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind in one another according to Jesus the Anointed,
- so that single-mindedly and with one mouth, you might glorify the God and Father of our Anointed Lord Jesus.
- Therefore, accept one another just as the Anointed also accepted you, to the glory of God.
The work of the Anointed
- For I say that the Anointed has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth in God, in order to confirm the promise to the fathers.
- and to the gentiles for the sake of mercy, to glorify God. Just as it is *written: “Because of this, I will confess praise to you among the gentiles, and I will sing of your name.”2quotation/allusion to 2 Samuel 22:50 and Psalm 18:49
- And again it says: “Gentiles, be merry with His people.”3quotation/allusion to Deuteronomy 32:43
- And again: “Praise the Lord All you gentiles; and exalt Him all peoples.”4quotation/allusion to Psalm 117:1
- And again, Isaiah says: “There will be the root of Jesse; and the One who arises to rule over the gentiles, and in Him gentiles will hope.”5quotation/allusion to Isaiah 11:10
- And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace among you to believe, for you to overflow in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- And my brothers, I myself have been convinced concerning you, that you yourselves are full of goodness; having been *filled with all knowledge and being able to admonish one another.
- And I wrote to you more boldly, in part reminding you because of the grace which was given to me by God,
- for me to be a minister of Jesus the Anointed to the gentiles, ministering as a priest of the gospel of God, so the offering of the gentiles might become acceptable; having been *made holy by the Holy Spirit.
- Therefore in Jesus the Anointed, I have a reason for boasting of things pertaining to God.
- For I won’t dare to speak of anything that the Anointed didn’t accomplished through me for the obedience of the gentiles in word and deed,
- by the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit [of God], in order to have fulfilled the proclamation of the gospel of the Anointed from Jerusalem and around as far as Illyricum.
- And so I’m earnestly desiring to proclaim the gospel where the Anointed hasn’t been named, so I won’t build on another man’s foundation.
- But just as it is *written: “They will see Him about whom it wasn’t reported, and men who haven’t heard will understand.”6quotation/allusion to Isaiah 52:15
- And because of that, I’m often being hindered from coming to you.
Paul’s travel plans
- But now – no longer having a place in these regions and having a yearning to come to you for many years –
- I hope to see you while passing through when I travel into Spain; and to be equipped by you there, so I might be satisfied by your company first.
- But now I travel to Jerusalem, ministering to the saints.
- For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution to the poor saints in Jerusalem.
- For, they were pleased and they are debtors of them. For if they shared their spiritual things with the gentiles, they ought to minister to them in earthly things also.
- Therefore, having accomplished this and having sealed this fruit to them, I will depart through you into Spain.
- And I have known that in coming to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the Anointed.
- And brothers, I urge you now because of our Anointed Lord Jesus and because of the ^love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in prayers to God for me,
- so I might be delivered from the men in Judea who refuse to believe, and so my service in Jerusalem might be acceptable to the saints,
- so that having come to you with joy through the will of God, I might be refreshed in spirit with you.
- And the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
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