As Christians, our role in the church amounts to more than just “follow your heart.” We have gospel duties to fulfill, and in Romans 1:8-17, the Apostle Paul gives us a powerful template to follow. First, he was thankful, despite the church in Rome being immature and imperfect. Second, he was prayerfully scheming of ways to minister to them more. Third, he was desirous to impart a spiritual blessing to them. Fourth, he was resolved to obtain fruit for their benefit. Fifth, he was large-hearted to all. Sixth, he was determined to preach the gospel. And, seventh, he wasn’t ashamed of the gospel. This window into Paul’s soul should compel us to pursue the Great Commission the way he did. 

In Romans 1, 8-17, the Apostle Paul is telling us how he positioned himself within the church in Rome. And when we're done with this in just a few minutes, I hope you're saying, I want to be like this. I want to apply the call of the Great Commission the way the apostle Paul did. I want to be like him in thankfulness. I wanna be like him in scheming.

I wanna be like him in all these different ways. And the apostle is talking about the obligation, the duty that he has. He says, I am under obligation. In other words, it was something that was compelling him to do. And one comment about this, biblical Christianity and our roles in the church is richer and more generous than just follow your heart.

There's obligation and obligation makes the church more capable. It makes the church more resilient. It makes the church more applicable. So while Christ's followers operate out of their hearts of love, they are also under obligation and this makes them useful. And there are, I'm gonna list seven obligations that Paul had upon him that was driving him to the church in Rome.

These were obligations that God laid on him. Let these obligations be my obligations and your obligations too. First, he was thankful. This is in verse 8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.

Paul is a thankful man. Do you think the Roman church was a perfect church? Do you think everything happening in the Roman church was worthy of thankfulness? No. It was actually a new church.

It was an immature church. But the apostle Paul is thankful. The second obligation is that he was— I love this one— he was prayerfully scheming. This is verses 9 and 10. He says that he's making a request, if by some means now at last I may be able to find a way in the will of God to come to you.

In other words, Paul was scheming. He wanted to find a way. He was trying to find some way to be a blessing to these people. He was thinking about the ins and outs, scheming, how can I come and be a benefit to you? The third obligation was to impart some spiritual blessing.

That's in verse 11. He wants proactively, intentionally to be a blessing to them. He's saying, I'm here to impart something. I'm not passive, I'm not waiting for you to talk to me. I want to impart something.

And a healthy Christian church member does not come into the church saying, what am I getting? You know, who's gonna come and minister to me? The healthy church member doesn't say, I'm not getting anything out of this. The Healthy Church member says, I'm going after it. I'm going to impart some blessing.

And he was under obligation to do that. The fourth obligation, he was determined to obtain fruit. This is verse 13. He was resolute, he meant business, Paul was calculating and deliberate in what he was seeking. He was seeking fruit.

The fifth obligation was to be large-hearted to all. Verse 14, I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians both to wise and unwise. This tells us that Paul was large-hearted toward everyone. There was no partiality, no jondasai, no intolerance, no discrimination, no bigotry. He was obligated both to Greeks and barbarians.

This is code for all kinds of people. The Greeks represent the socially sophisticated and the intelligent. The barbarians represent the country bumpkins, the unsophisticated. He's speaking the rednecks. He's speaking of barriers of culture and language and prejudices.

And he's saying, I appreciate all these people, I'm under obligation. The sixth obligation was that he determined to preach the gospel. That's verse 15. This was the heart of everything that was driving the apostle. And then seventh, he says he's not ashamed of the gospel.

And the reasons are stated. And so I hope that in hearing these verses, You'll be saying, I want to be like the Apostle Paul. I want to apply the call of the Great Commission the way that the Apostle Paul did. I want to be thankful for my church. I want to be carefully scheming, prayerfully scheming.

I want to impart some spiritual blessing. I want to receive fruit and I want to be large-hearted toward everyone. And this is why the apostle says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's so powerful. We've just gotten a window into the Apostle Paul's soul, and he's a blessing to that church.

And so should we be doing the same. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Scripture applied as a production of Church and Family Life. Visit churchandfamilylife.com for more resources.