Planning For the Future?

June 18th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Romans 15:22-27 For this reason I have often been prevented from coming to you; 23 but now, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you 24 whenever I go to Spain—for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while— 25 but now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. 27 Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.

Paul obviously had a previous plan to come to Rome (v. 22), the capital of the world at that time, and the place where a church had come together apart from his doing (cf. Acts 2:10). But since he was preaching the gospel where it had never been preached (15:20-21) while laying the foundation for new church plants, his visit to Rome was not a top priority. In fact, he had been “prevented,” or hindered (ESV), from going there. The imperfect tense of the verb indicates continual hindrance, and the passive voice of the verb indicates that the cause was from the outside, namely God (cf. Acts 16:7). So it is in ministry. There are many things that ministers could do and desire to do. But in order to achieve their God-given tasks successfully, God often prevents them from doing anything else, to include participating in other ministries at times.

Once Paul’s primary tasks had been accomplished—having preached Christ from Jerusalem to Illyricum (15:19), he had reached a point where he could travel to Rome (v. 24), but not to retire. Paul saw Rome as a half-way point between Antioch of Syria (his home church) and Spain where he hoped to evangelize. Spain was a major center of trade and culture, and with Paul’s desire to preach Christ where no one else had, Spain was the logical choice—at the edge of the empire. Later, Clement (circa AD 96) spoke of Paul’s fame saying, “to the whole world he taught righteousness, and reaching the limits of the West he bore his witness before rulers.”

While writing from Corinth, it would have been so easy for Paul to travel west to Rome. He was a mere 500 miles away. But he had a previous commitment to travel back to Jerusalem with a “contribution” (Gr. koinonia) to the struggling church there. Contribution, or “fellowship,” in this context concerns the sharing of money. At that time, circa AD 57, the Jerusalem church was suffering not only great persecution but also great poverty from a recent famine. While the church continued to grow, conditions only worsened, prompting Paul to take up an offering among the Gentiles for the mother-church in Jerusalem. Writing about this in his second letter to Corinth, he rejoiced in the generosity of the churches of Macedonia: “In a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord, begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints” (2 Cor. 8:2-4). Since “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22), then the Gentiles who have come to share in that “ought also to be of service to them in material blessings” (v. 27).

Food For Thought
Paul never took the easy route. Wanting to travel to Rome, all he had to do was go west about 500 miles from Corinth. But his priorities dictated that he go 700 miles east to Jerusalem and then the 1300 miles back towards Rome, onward to Spain. He thus would not let his future ministry plans cause his present ministry to suffer. Keep this in mind the next time you want to pull out of ministry for your own purposes or retire before your time. Stay the course, and finish the race. There may still be something left in your proverbial tank. Empty it before you die!