But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.
Read Chapter 15
Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul wants the Romans to understand that they ought to be concerned with this sort of thing, for those who live because of mercy and who are justified before God ought to show their devotion to their brothers. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
But I shall go to Jerusalem By this St. Paul is thought to have written this epistle at Corinth, where he was about to set forward for Jerusalem, with the charities collected in Achaia and Macedonia, for the poor Christians in Judea. This he calls to minister to the poor saints, or to be serviceable to them. And to exhort others to the like charitable contributions, he says, (ver. 27.) they are their debtors; that the converted Gentiles are debtors to the converts, who had been Jews, as having been made partakers of the promises, particularly made to the people of the Jews, and sharers of those spiritual blessings, which Christ promised to the Jews, but were also conferred upon the Gentiles. He looks upon it, therefore, reasonable, that they relieve the Jews in their temporal wants. The apostle says, he goes to consign to them this fruit, to deliver to them their contributions. (Witham)
