Romans 15:3-19

³Christ didn't live to please himself, but as Scripture says of him, “The insults of those who abused you have fallen on me.”

⁴These Scriptures were written down in the past to help us understand, and to encourage us so that we could wait patiently in hope.

⁵May the God who gives patience and encouragement help you to be in full agreement among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus,

⁶so that you can with one mind and with one voice together glorify God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

⁷So accept one another, just as Christ accepted you, and give God the glory.

⁸I maintain that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show God tells the truth, keeping the promises he made to their forefathers.

⁹He also came that foreigners could praise God for his mercy, as Scripture says, “Therefore I will praise you among the foreigners; I will sing praises to your name.”

¹⁰And also: “Foreigners, celebrate with his people!”

¹¹And again: “All you foreigners, praise the Lord, let all peoples praise him.”

¹²And again, Isaiah says, “Jesse's descendant will come to rule the nations, and foreigners will put their hope in him.”

¹³May the God of hope completely fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you will overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit!

¹⁴I'm convinced that you, my brothers and sisters, are full of goodness, and that you are filled with every kind of knowledge, so you are well able to teach one another.

¹⁵I've been blunt in the way I have written to you about some of these things, but this is just to remind you. For God gave me grace

¹⁶to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the foreigners, like a priest sharing God's good news, so that they could become an acceptable offering, made holy by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁷So even though I have something to boast about because of my service for God,

¹⁸(I wouldn't dare talk about any of this except as Christ has done it through me), I have led foreigners to obedience through my teaching and demonstration,

¹⁹through the power of signs and miracles done with the Holy Spirit's power. From Jerusalem all the way over to Illyricum, everywhere I've shared fully the good news of Christ.