What Does Romans 1:9 Mean?

(9) Proof that the Apostle takes this lively interest in the Roman Church conveyed through a solemn adjuration. **Whom I serve.**—The word for “serve” is strictly used for voluntary service paid to God, especially in the way of sacrifice and outward worship. Here it is somewhat metaphorical: “Whom I serve, not so much with outward acts as with the ritual of the spirit.” **With my spirit.**—“Spirit” is with St. Paul the highest part or faculty in the nature of man. It is the seat of his higher consciousness—the organ by which he communicates with God. “Certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.” (Bacon, *Essay on Atheism.*) Of itself the “spirit” of man is neutral. When brought into contact with the Spirit of God, it is capable of a truly religious life; but apart from this influence, it is apt to fall under the dominion of the “flesh”—*i.e.,* of those evil appetites and desires to which man is exposed by his physical organisation. **In the gospel of his Son.**—The sphere to which the Apostle feels himself called, and in which this heart-worship of his finds its field of operation, is the defence and preaching, &c., of the gospel. (9-11) It is the constant subject of the Apostle’s prayers that he may succeed in making his way to Rome; so anxious is he to open his heart to that Church in personal- apostolic intercourse.