Chapter 1
V1 cf Acts 9:15-servant=doulos which is a bondman or slave. In Septuagint cf Ex 21:27, Joel 2:29, Lev 25:39,42 where doulos is definitely translated as ebed in Hebrew meaning slaves with no rights of their own. The last 3 examples given clearly demonstrate that once one has been chosen by Yehovah the Son or the Father, they belong to Him as ebed/slave (Lev 25:42) and are not his sakiyr/hired servant (Lev 25:39)
It is important to note that once one commits themselves to be a bondservant of Yeshua, you enter into a covenant that you MUST not break as the consequences of choosing to be in the light of truth, and then rejecting it at a later date can only be dire and one risks being destined for the lake of fire cf Josh 24:14-25 which clearly illustrates that choosing Yehovah as your Elohim is a very serious pledge not to be trifled with, as the consequences of breaking the covenant are dire. Also, cf Heb 6:4-8
Apostolos/delegate sent forth with orders. Orders are from Yeshua, not our own concocted orders. We must not corrupt the gospel freely given to us slaves of Yeshua to share with lost souls. It is not our gospel, but that of our Master Yeshua, as much as He chose Israel and made a covenant for them to be His priestly nation delegated with the duty of preaching truth of the true Elohim to the heathen/Gentile nations cf Ex 19:6, 1 Pet 2:9, Rev 1:6
Gospel/euaggelion-note that it is of ELOHIM the Father, concerning Yeshua the son (verse 3). This gospel was promised in innumerable prophecies in the Old Testament of the advent of Yeshua haMashiach. There are many man-made definitions of the gospel, but here is concrete evidence of the definition of these glad tidings.
V2-4 Paul expressly states that this gospel of Elohim, the Father is that spoken of in the holy scriptures. In his day and thereafter until the council of Nicaea of 325 AD, the only scriptures considered to be holy were that of the Tanakh or modern-day Old Testament! It is a great delusion on the part of Satan to state that the gospel is the doing away of the Old Testament and the Torah/law. Yeshua categorically stated the contrary in Matthew 5:17-19.
Furthermore verse 3 clarifies more that the gospel concerns Yeshua the seed of David, which identifies Him as being of royal blood to prove his Messianic status, and concurrently identifies his Jewishness i.e. of the tribe of Judah and ultimately being in covenant promises with His Father YHVH. This covenant promise is something Yeshua embodied and lived by here on earth. Never did He break Torah. He fulfilled it and lived in it as it should have been, and further brought greater understanding of how it should be lived inclusive of the boundaries within which Sabbath keeping fell.
He came to do away with the fences created by pharisaic apostasy and misinterpretation of Torah, which had been a tool used by Satan to keep the simple truth of Torah out of the understanding of the chosen people. Yeshua hence had the right to state that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life Jn 14:6 as these are the characteristics of Torah outlined in the Psalms: Ps 119:1,142,105 and Pro 6:23
Paul additionally highlights that Yeshua came in the flesh, just as we are, yet because He lived a sinless life, in Holy Spirit power, He defeated death and was qualified without a shadow of a doubt to be THE Son of Elohim the Father. Hence why when we are baptized in Yeshua’s name, we die to sin (when immersed in water) brought about by our carnal nature, and rise from out of the water a new man with Holy Spirit power cf Rom 6:4-10 and are adopted as sons of Elohim cf Gal 4:3-7
v5-6-grace/charis cf Jn 1;17 and Ps 25:10; 57:3,10; 89:14. Grace translated as chesed in the Hebrew and charis or eleos in the Greek, has the connotation of pity, compassion and mercy that Elohim has for us. This grace is afforded to those who have a heart willing to follow Torah as Ps 25:10 stipulates. Unfortunately, most born-again Christians/believers are like the seed that fell by the wayside cf Matt13:4,19, whereby Torah written in the heart of the new believer (born-again) cf Jer 31:33 have the truth of Torah snatched away by the
fowls of the air/wicked ones i.e. spiritual deception of demonic invisible powers, through false doctrine perpetuated by equally deceived ‘theologians’. This has been occurring since Yeshua’s ascension and is nothing new.
Paul by the Holy Spirit carefully placed the words obedience to the faith/pistis. Pistis is conviction to truth as defined in Strong’s concordance, and Truth being Yeshua is embodiment of Torah. What else could possibly be referred to as being obeyed?
The called/kletos means those invited as to a banquet cf Lk 14:15-24. We are all called by Yeshua by the gospel being preached to us. There is no excuse nor a leg to stand on at judgement day, as this gospel has been preached to us all, and it is our obligation to accept the invitation or reject it. For those accepting it, there is the additional condition of obeying the laws attached to the banquet i.e. obedience to the faith, which ultimately is embodied in Torah. There is no way of escaping this most indispensable biblical truth.
V7-9 saints/hagios=most holy ones. On accepting the invitation of the gospel, and submitting to Yehovah as His bondman, our very bodies become filled with the Holy Spirit and we become most holy cf 1Cor 3:16. It is not a light thing to be called a saint. We must wear that badge with honour, and live it through holy deeds, governed by Torah keeping. There is no other way of defining a Holy life. Paul in these verses on 3 occasions separates Elohim the Father from Yeshua the Son. This concept needs to be grasped from an early stage for the student of scripture to not lose track of whom Paul refers to when he uses the term Elohim.
We additionally are given clear understanding that the Father and the Son, although one as Yehovah, the deity we should serve (Yeshua was worshipped by several individuals in the gospel and hence is Yehovah since the commandment expressly states to worship no other than Yehovah), they are actually separate individuals within the Elohim-head. Paul throughout his epistles establishes this truth, hence any preconceived notions of oneness and anti-triune Elohim teachings need to be discarded as they oppose these biblical tenets of truth.
V9 Elohim is Spirit and hence must be served in spirit. Unfortunately many believers have the truth at their disposal but lead fruitless, powerless lives as they fail to grasp the concept of serving in spirit cf Jn 4:24. One must humble themselves, despise carnality, and allow the Holy Spirit to fill up the heart, replacing the carnal nature of demonic spirits, in order for one’s life to then be guided by the Holy Spirit of Yeshua in power evidenced in speaking in tongues, casting out demons, healing the sick i.e. setting captives free cf Mk 16:15-18.
V11-12-the Christian walk is not easy. Contemporary Christians congregate as a routine tick- the-box type of chore. We should meet to impart spiritual gifts through our experiences and to comfort one another in the wake of attacks from the enemy. Most churches are lulled in a sense of false security, never experiencing adversity, being themselves stroked into slumber in the lap of Satan’s beguiling, deceiving forces of evil. There is hardly any evidence of Holy Spirit power and there is much illness and captivity of other types in the so-called congregations. Only the mutual faith shared by Paul and the Roman ecclesia may allow Holy Spirit power to operate in our lives, faith of which Paul goes to great lengths to define and outline in this epistle and others.
V13-15 The purpose of our Christian walk is to bear fruits i.e. win true souls, make disciples of Yeshua out of lost souls of Greeks, Barbarians, wise and unwise i.e. from all walks of life. Otherwise one’s walk would be a waste of time cf Matt 25:14-30. The unfruitful servant is cast out into utter darkness i.e. lake of fire, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is a frightening and very much sobering thought to be a Christian sitting on his laurels and not seeking souls to win. I pray this teaching will win some souls for Yeshua and the Most High Elohim.
A sign of soul winning in one’s life, is the inevitable resistance from Satan and his cohorts, that would come as in Paul’s torrid walk. Praise Yeshua when you find yourself in times of trouble and give all thanks to Elohim, for the very knowledge that you are destabilising the kingdom of darkness, when affliction against your preaching of truth arises in your walk cf 2Cor 11:16-33
V16-if you as a Christian ever cast out demons or heal the sick, or simply speak in tongues by the power of the Holy Spirit, I can guarantee that you will never be ashamed of such power but would rather crave it more and more. The oracles of Elohim were bestowed upon Israel first, and Yeshua’s first advent was for the sheepfold of Israel cf Matt 15:24. These chosen were then expected to preach this gospel truth to the Gentiles.
Hence Paul is not being racially or ethnically fanatical in stating to the Jew first, then to the Gentile but is stating fact of Elohim’s will and plan for mankind. Unfortunately, we see from biblical and contemporary history the Jews’ wholesale rejection of Messiah, hence Gentiles should with humility be grateful for having been chosen to be a part of the commonwealth of true Israel cf Eph 2:12-13.
V17 cf Habb 2:4 where in Hebrew the just=tsaddiyq/righteous, lawful i.e. Torah keeping. Faith is emunah=faithfulness, truth, steadfastness, all of which are connotations of Torah-keeping in the Old Testament. Paul, as we shall discover, never introduced new doctrine of his own but simply gave a commentary of the Tanakh/Old Testament for it to be understood by both Jew and Gentile through Yeshua’s eyes and not fallen man’s perspectives. It is a travesty to gospel truth for this verse to be peddled in churches as justification for discarding the Torah, when it is actually advocating its obedience!
V18 This goes on to qualify my last statement, whereby both Jew and Gentile have been presented with truth, but have used it to their detriment, twisting it, being puffed up by it and ultimately being fooled and deceived by forces of darkness to oppose it willingly or through chosen ignorance. Humility and death to one’s carnality is the only means by which Holy Spirit indwelling of one’s soul, may allow for this truth to be profitable to the believer who serves in spirit, not in letter.
V20-21 This is self-explanatory in that even non-human creation i.e. birds of the air, beasts of the field and fish of the sea understand that Elohim is the creator, so we are without excuse. The order in nature is clear in proving that a designer of infallible magnitude is at play, that atheism and agnostic religions are fraught with pride and wanton ignorance. Even worse v 21 relates to those who know Elohim or experienced His power at some point in time, yet were blinded by pride instead of humbling themselves for further spiritual growth. Truth is indeed a double-edged sword which when respected leads to eternal life, but if handled outside the parameters of Holy Spirit power, will lead to destruction.
V22-32-most expositors feel this solely relates to non-Christians, yet Paul in v21 clearly refers to those who KNEW Elohim behaving this way through mishandling of the truth. All the behaviour described is rife in churches of today and I do not need to go into a philosophical exegesis of what is clear within our midst.
V22 fools/moraino=of salt that has lost its flavour depicting Christians who are no longer profitable in the kingdom of Yah.
v23-27 cf Eze 8:10 and typical of Roman Catholicism for example e.g. veneration of ‘saints’, statues bowed down to in churches, Mariolatry. Reformed churches are guilty too of bowing to the cross, venerating pictures of a blue-eyed, blonde, white Jesus; Pentecostals and Charismatics sucked in by prosperity gospels and placing preachers on pedestals, venerating them at times. Homosexuality has increasingly become accepted in all sects and denominations e.g. offshoots of SDA, Methodist homosexual churches, gay bishops in Anglican churches, paedophilia in Roman Catholic churches.
V28 is a terrifying reality-it is bad enough to know truth at first, and then wilfully abandon it. However, on doing so, Yehovah Elohim, the Almighty Father Himself goes out of His way to give us up to an unfit/adokimos mind to do that which is not convenient. The narrative in Job ch1 and 2 together with Elisha’s spiritual visualisation in 2 Ki 6:17, give us a glimpse of the order in spiritual warfare. It is hardly an inference but more so factual that in the heavenlies/spiritual realm, Satan and his cohorts may only act perfidiously and maliciously against us when Elohim allows it cf 1Ki 22:20-23; Is 19:14. More so this is allowed when we are no longer in communion with Elohim, by wilful rebellion or wilful ignorance/apathy to seek truth cf 1 Sam 16:14,16,23; 18:10; 19:9; Judge 9:23; Eze 14:9. Clearly protection by the Holy Spirit within us is lost, leaving the sinner open to demonic attack at the behest of Satan’s request as he seeks permission in the throne room of Yehovah cf Job 1:6 and 2:1.
V29-31 This is greatly descriptive of the cloak and daggers behaviour in power hungry assemblies in prosperity gospel churches and reformed and Roman Catholic churches.
V32 ultimately seals the proof that Paul is referring to all this evil occurring within the so-called body of Messiah.