Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Paul longs to see the Roman Christians

⁸ Let me say first that I thank my God for all of you, through Jesus the king, because all the world has heard the news of your faith. ⁹ God is my witness—the God I worship in my spirit in the good news of his son—that I never stop remembering you ¹⁰ in my prayers. I ask God again and again that somehow at last I may now be able, in his good purposes, to come to you. ¹¹ I’m longing to see you! I want to share with you some spiritual blessing to give you strength; ¹² that is, I want to encourage you, and be encouraged by you, in the faith you and I share. ¹³ I don’t want you to be unaware, my dear family, that I’ve often made plans to come to you; it’s just that up to now something has always got in the way. I want to bear some fruit among you, as I have been doing among the other nations.

Good news, salvation and the justice of God

¹⁴ I am under obligation to Greeks and barbarians alike, you see; both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ That’s why I’m eager to announce the good news to you, too, in Rome. ¹⁶ I’m not ashamed of the good news; it’s God’s power, bringing salvation to everyone who believes—to the Jew first, and also, equally, to the Greek. ¹⁷ This is because God’s covenant justice is unveiled in it, from faithfulness to faithfulness. As it says in the Bible, “the just shall live by faith.”