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Indeed, we believers in the Messiah who are strong are obligated to help support our fellow believers in the Messiah who are weak and immature. We must not {only} try to please ourselves. 2 Each one of us believers in the Messiah {is obligated to try} to please his fellow believers by doing what is good {for them, and} in order to {spiritually} support {them}. 3 Indeed, not even the Messiah {Jesus} tried to please himself! Instead, {he lived to please others}. This is exactly what the holy scriptures mean when they say, ”The people keep trying to disgrace you {O God} by saying disgraceful things against me!” 4 Indeed, all the words written beforehand in the holy scriptures were written in order to teach us. This was so that we believers in the Messiah could be confident, because what God promises in the holy scriptures helps us endure and encourages us. 5 I pray that God will allow you to patiently {endure} and will encourage you to focus together on {what God promises for his people}. This is what the Messiah Jesus desires. 6 {I pray this} so that, by being united what you intend to do and in what you say, all of you would glorify God, {who according to Jesus‘ divine nature is} the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.
7 This is why all of you must accept your fellow believers in the Messiah, in the same way as the Messiah {Jesus} also accepted you. If you do this, it will cause others to glorify God! 8 Indeed, I{, Paul,} say that God has sent the Messiah {Jesus} to serve the circumcised Jews, in order to show how trustworthy God is to secure what he promised to the Patriarchs {Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob}. 9 {God also sent Jesus} so that the nations would glorify God because he is so merciful. This is exactly what the holy scriptures mean when they say, ”Because {you are so merciful God,} I will confess you among the nations and I will sing psalms to {glorify} your name.” 10 The holy scriptures also say in another passage, “Celebrate along with God’s people, O nations!” 11 In yet another passage of the holy scriptures it says, “All the nations, praise the Lord! All the peoples commend him!” 12 {The Prophet} Isaiah says in another passage of the holy scriptures, “The {promised} descendant of {King David’s father} Jesse will be born, the king who will emerge to rule over the nations. God will assure the nations {who trust} in this descendant of Jesse.”
13 I pray that the God who assures {his people of what he promises} will cause you to be completely overjoyed and live peacefully as you trust in him! I pray that God will cause you to be excessively assured {of what he promises} as the Holy Spirit enables you to trust in God.
14 In fact, my fellow believers in the Messiah, I am also personally persuaded that each and every one of you are completely kind {to others}. Since God has also caused you to fully understand how to be able to instruct others. 15 It is true that I wrote more bluntly to you {who are at Rome} about certain things in order to remind you. This is because God has given me {this task} through his gracious {Holy Spirit}. 16 so that I can liturgically serve on behalf of the Messiah Jesus for the sake of the nations’ {salvation. In the same way} as a priest would {dedicate a sacrifice}, I am serving as a priest for God’s good news, so that I can offer the Gentiles to God as if they are a well-pleasing sacrifice. Like when a sacrifice is set apart for what God desires, similarly the the Holy Spirit sets apart the nations for what God desires for them.
17 So then, as an authorized representative of the Messiah Jesus, I have good reasons to boast about the things God is doing through me! 18 Indeed, I would not be so audacious to say anything–{not about any} word or deed–as it relates to those things that the Messiah has not produced through what I have done, {that has led} to the nations obediently {trusting in God’s good news}! 19 {The Messiah Jesus produced} powerful miracles and worked wonderful signs as God’s {Holy} Spirit enabled me! As a result, I have thoroughly proclaimed the good news about the Messiah {Jesus all the way} from Jerusalem and in a circle, as far {north of Rome} as the {region of} Illyricum. 20 And so, I aspire to proclaim the good news where people have never heard of the Messiah {Jesus}. This is in order that I would not interfere with another apostle’s work, as if I was building a house where another person had already laid the foundation. 21 Indeed, this is exactly what the holy scriptures mean when they say, ”What the people never heard announced about him, they will see. The people who have not heard {what was reported} will {still} understand.”
22 Because {I aspire to proclaim the good news where people have never heard of the Messiah {Jesus}, this also thwarted me from visiting all of you at Rome, again and again. 23 Yet at this present time, I have nowhere left to go in these regions {to proclaim the good news}, and I have deeply desired to visit you for a considerable number of years. 24 Because, whenever I travel to Spain, I expect to visit you while passing through. {Hopefully,} after we first spend some quality time together, then from there you can send me on ahead {with provisions}. 25 Yet, at the present time, I am traveling to Jerusalem in order to serve God’s people {there}. 26 This is because churches in the provinces of Macedonia and Achaia thought it was appropriate to collect shared funds to help the poor people of God who live in Jerusalem. 27 Certainly, they thought it was appropriate, and they are also obligated {to help}. This is because the nations spiritually benefit by sharing in what God promised to the Jews. So, they are obligated also to contribute to serving God’s people when they are physically needy. 28 So then, after I finish collecting these funds, and securely deliver these {spiritual} offerings to the church in Jerusalem, I will pass through {your city} on my way to Spain. 29 I know that when I visit you, the Messiah {Jesus} will fully bless our time together!
30 Now, my fellow believers in the Messiah, I appeal to you as an authorized representative of the Lord Jesus the Messiah, and because of how much I love you since we are united in the {Holy} Spirit. Please join me to fight in prayer and pray to God for me when you come together as a church. 31 {I ask for your prayers} so that God will rescue me from the unbelieving Jews living in Judea. {I also need your prayers} so that God’s people in Jerusalem will readily accept {the funds} I {am delivering in order to} serve them. 32 {I also ask for your prayers} so that I can joyfully visit you as God desires, and so that we can mutually revive each other’s trust in God. 33 Finally, {I pray that} God will cause you to live peacefully {and} sustain all of you. May it be so!