A Debt and Obligation
I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome Romans 1:14,15
Paul is explaining in a little more detail why he wants to come to Rome. As part of his explanation he is also spelling out the effects of the gospel he has laid out in 1:1-7. He is coming to Rome as a herald of God’s gospel; this is part of his calling because the gospel is for everyone. He doesn’t need to be ashamed of it because it is God’s power to save people, and it does this by unveiling God’s justice, God’s age-old plan to put the world and humanity back into the right place with Himself.
‘I am obligated’ (1:14) is more literally’ ‘I am a debtor.’ There are two ways of being in debt to someone. The first is to borrow money from them. Until paid back, we are in debt to them. The second, used here, is to be given money for someone by a third party. We are in their debt until we pass the money onto them. Christ had entrusted Paul with the gospel for others and he saw himself as a debtor to the world until he fulfilled his commission.
Jews divided the world into two: Jews and everyone else. ‘Everyone else’ was sometimes referred to as ‘the nations,’ sometimes as Gentiles, and sometimes as ‘Greeks’ (as here), because as far as Jews were concerned, the rest of the world was Greek-speaking. As the apostle to the Gentile world Paul was in debt to the Gentile world, ‘both to Greeks and non-Greeks’ (literally: barbarians), ‘both to the wise and the foolish’ (1:14). These expressions cover the whole Gentile community.
Paul was motivated to evangelise and plant churches because he was a man under obligation. His obligation had at least one unique cause: Christ’s commissioning of him as ‘apostle to the Gentiles’ on the Damascus Road. This gave his ministry a clear foundation and special direction.
Few of us will have the clear direction about a call to ministry or about the direction of our ministry as Paul had, but the imperative to evangelise is still an obligation that all believers share.