To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
All Commentaries on Romans 1:7 Go To Romans 1
John Chrysostom
AD 407
See how often Paul uses the word called! … And he does so not out of longwindedness but out of a desire to remind them of the benefit which calling brings. For since it was likely that among those who believed there would be some consuls and rulers as well as poor and common men, Paul casts aside inequality of rank and writes to them all under one common heading. But if in the most important and spiritual things everything is laid out as common to both slaves and free men, e.g., the love of God, the calling, the gospel, the adoption, the grace, the peace, the sanctification, etc., how could it be other than the utmost folly to divide those whom God had joined together and made to be of equal honor in the higher things, for the sake of things on earth? For this reason, I presume, from the very start this blessed apostle casts out this mischievous disease and then leads them to the mother of blessings—humility. “Grace and peace!” Christ told his apostles to make peace their first word when entering into houses. So it is from this that Paul always starts also, for it was no small war which Christ put an end to, but a manysided and enduring conflict. And it was not because of anything we had done, but by his grace. Since then love presented us with grace and grace with peace … he prays over them that they may abide constant and unmoved, so that no other war may ever break out, and he beseeches the God who gave this peace to keep it firmly settled.
