1:11 I long to see you. He had a special reason for visiting Rome. No apostle had ever visited the city. None of the spiritual gifts which were conferred by the imposition of apostolic hands had been conferred in Rome. If any of the brethren enjoyed them, as Ro 12:6 seems to imply, they have received them elsewhere, and he desires to impart them there (see PNT Ac 19:6 ).
Spiritual gift is used in the sense of a supernatural gift. See 1Co 12:1,4. It is a gift conferred by the Spirit. Elsewhere the phrase spiritual gifts refers to extraordinary gifts. There is no recorded instance in the New Testament of any one working miracles who was not an apostle, or who had not received the gift through the imposition of apostolic hands. See notes on Ac 6:8 8:14.
To the end. All these gifts of the Spirit were imparted for a purpose. The purpose in the mind of Paul was that they
may be established; that saints might be strengthened and the cause of Christ made stronger. The agent would be the Holy Spirit; Paul the instrument.
1:11 That I may impart to you - Face to face, by laying on of hands, prayer, preaching the gospel, private conversation. Some spiritual gift - With such gifts the Corinthians, who had enjoyed the presence of St. Paul, abounded, 1Cor 1:7; 12:1; 14:1. So did the Galatians likewise, Gal 3:5; and, indeed, all those churches which had had the presence of any of the apostles had peculiar advantages in this kind, from the laying on of their hands, Acts 19:6; 8:17, and c., 2Tim 1:6. But as yet the Romans were greatly inferior to them in this respect; for which reason the apostle, in the twelfth chapter also, says little, if any thing, of their spiritual gifts. He therefore desires to impart some, that they might be established; for by these was the testimony of Christ confirmed among them. That St. Peter had no more been at Rome than St. Paul, at the time when this epistle was wrote, appears from the general tenor thereof, and from this place in particular: for, otherwise, what St. Paul wishes to impart to the Romans would have been imparted already by St. Peter.
1:8-15 We must show love for our friends, not only by praying for them, but by praising God for them. As in our purposes, so in our desires, we must remember to say, If the Lord will, Jas 4:15. Our journeys are made prosperous or otherwise, according to the will of God. We should readily impart to others what God has trusted to us, rejoicing to make others joyful, especially taking pleasure in communing with those who believe the same things with us. If redeemed by the blood, and converted by the grace of the Lord Jesus, we are altogether his; and for his sake we are debtors to all men, to do all the good we can. Such services are our duty.
