For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established;
All Commentaries on Romans 1:11 Go To Romans 1
John Chrysostom
AD 407
For it was not merely as many now go travelling in a needless and profitless way that he also went, but for necessary and very urgent ends. And he does not tell them his meaning openly, but by way of hints, for he does not say that I may teach you, that I may instruct you, that I may fill up that which is wanting; but, that I may impart; showing, that it is not his own things which he is giving them, but that he was imparting to them what he had received. And here again he is unassuming, in saying some, he means, a small one, and suited to my powers. And what may this small one be which you are now going to impart? This it is, he says, to the end that you may be established. This then also comes of grace, namely, the being unwavering and standing fast. But when you hear of grace, think not that the reward of resolve on our part is thereby cast aside; for he speaks of grace, not to disparage the labor of resolve on our part, but to undermine (ὑ ποτεμνόμενος, as piercing a thing inflated) the haughtiness of an insolent spirit (ἀ πονοίας). Do not thou then, because that Paul has called this a gift of grace, grow supine. For he knows how, in his great candor, to call even well doings, graces; because even in these we need much influence from above. But in saying, to the end that you may be established, he covertly shows that they needed much correction: for what he would say is this: Of a long time I have both desired and prayed to see you, for no other reason than that I may establish, strengthen, fix you thoroughly in the word of God, so that you be not continually wavering. But he does not express himself so (for he would have shocked them), but in another way he hints to them the same thing, though in a subdued tone. For when he says, to the end that you may be established, he makes this plain. Then since this also was very irksome, see how he softens it by the sequel. For that they may not say, are we wavering, and carried about? And need we speech of yours in order to stand fast? He anticipates and does away any gainsaying of the kind, by saying as follows.
