Romans 15:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

After this, the Apostle shows that the prophecy was fulfilled in this way, saying, “As it is written: Those to whom nothing was announced concerning Him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand.” Do you see that Paul hastened where greater labor and sweat were required?

Here he shows that the prophecy has been fulfilled. Whoever undertakes to teach the uninstructed, as Paul did, must face much labor and sweat.

For I do not wish to preach the Gospel where the name of Christ has already once been proclaimed. But as it is written, “Those to whom He was not announced shall see Him.” I desire that this be accomplished through me. I will proclaim Him where they have not heard of Him, so as not to build upon another’s foundation. That is, I will not enter and preach in a place where my companions have already come.

Paul says that he always hastened to nourish the Gentiles with the truth of the Gospel, so that their understanding of the true Son of God might be firm and unshaken.

This means that the Apostle did not spare his labors. Taking fields not yet cultivated, he tilled them, sowed them, and made them abundant with harvests. By this he brought the prophecy to fulfillment.

As a new reason for his encouragement and boldness in the Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle points to his usual success in preaching. He speaks of “bringing the Gentiles to the obedience of faith by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.” “Thus,” the Apostle adds, “from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ.”

After indicating the great purpose of his epistle, the Apostle prevents anyone from thinking him self-confident. He says that his calling to preach is confirmed by the many signs of apostolic ministry. He also says that fruitful seeds of Christian teaching were sown by him over an immense expanse, from Jerusalem to Illyricum on the Balkan peninsula. His preaching was heard chiefly where no one had preached before. But in Rome the Gospel proclamation had already been sown earlier. Therefore the Apostle of the Gentiles, though he desired to be there, did not venture to go. Such a visit would have broken his custom of preaching chiefly to those who had not heard of Christ.

Cf. Is 52:15. In the prophetic prediction the Apostle sees a commandment for himself. Thus, he says, it was foretold from the person of God, and I therefore strove to act in this way. The prophecy concerns all preachers of the Gospel. Paul applies it to his own manner of acting because all the Apostles acted in this way. They were all sent to teach those who did not know the true God, worshiped in the Trinity. Wherever they went, they knew that they were going to those who did not know the true God and His holy truth, in order to enlighten them with knowledge. "Those to whom He was not proclaimed," those to whom it had not been announced concerning Christ the Lord that He, One of the Holy Trinity, became incarnate for our sake, suffered, and saved us, to them it will be proclaimed.