Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans. Tonight is study 29 of Romans, chapter 1, and we are going to read Romans 1:14-15:

I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

We are going to take a closer look, to start with, in verse 14 where the Lord moved the Apostle Paul to declare, “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians,” and the word “Greek” is mostly translated that way, but it is also translated as “Gentile” or “Gentiles.” If we look at the next chapter, it says in Romans 2:9-10:

Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:

In both of these verses, the word translated as “Gentile” is the same word translated as “Greek” in Romans 1:14, so we can understand “the Greek” to refer to the natural man, the people of the world. And the word “barbarians” also refers to the natural-minded inhabitants of the earth. For example, if we look at Acts 29:2:

And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.

Also, it says in Acts 29:4:

And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.

So the barbarous people were inhabitants of the island of Melita or Malta – they were just people of the earth. Maybe we should get a better idea of how the Bible speaks of Barbarians. We may have the idea that they are a primitive sort of people, but not necessarily, but it may just be people of whom we do not know their languages, as it says in 1Corinthians 14:10-11:

There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.

So a barbarian would be someone’s language you cannot understand and, of course, that could apply to a great many nations and peoples. We can gather that the reference to barbarians in Acts 1:14 is basically the nations or the peoples of the earth. You might think of “elect” or “non-elect,” but it does not seem to indicate that. Both Greeks and barbarians can be seen to identify with the unsaved, but, of course, among Greeks and barbarians, there would also be God’s elect.

It also goes on to speak of the wise and the unwise. And the “wise” here does not seem to be necessarily referring to those that become wise through salvation, but we read in 1Corinthians 1:19-20:

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

Then it says down in 1Corinthians 1:25-27:

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

In these verses “the wise” are those individuals of the world who think they have wisdom. We could understand them to be such as the scientists as they teach evolution and the “Big Bang Theory,” and they sound so intelligent and wise. Oh, they have figured it out and, yet, according to the Bible it is complete and ridiculous nonsense. In that way, God confounds their wisdom.

There are the “wise” and the “unwise,” and the word “unwise” has the Greek negative prefix attached to the word that means “to understand” or “to know.” So to those who think they have knowledge and to all others, again, the wise and the unwise would refer to the people of the world. That causes us to have a problem of sorts, because Paul said he was debtor, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, and both to the wise and the unwise. And notice the preposition “to.” It is because these words are in the “dative case” used to express that which is toward the indirect object or whatever is in view: “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.” And Paul, the pattern of believers, is an example of God’s elect children, which would mean that we also are debtors to the Greeks, the Barbarians, the wise and the unwise. And that is the curious and unusual thing. Why is he a debtor to the Greeks and Barbarians? Why is he a debtor to the wise and the unwise?

We can understand that he is a debtor to God, but why does he hold some type of debt to the people of the world? Well, I think we will see why when we look up some of these words.

The word translated as “debtor” is Strong’s #3784, and it is also translated as “owe” and one time as “sinners,” so that would not apply here, but we will understand why it could be understood as “sinners,” even though we are not going to that verse.

Let us start looking at this word by turning to Luke 7 where Jesus is telling a short parable. It says in Luke 7:41-43:

There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

Christ spoke this parable to Simon in his house. Simon was a Pharisee, and remember that he had given Jesus no water to wash His feet, whereas a woman was weeping at Christ’s feet, using her hair and tears to wash them. Jesus’ point was that the one who is forgiven most would love most, and this woman was showing greater love toward the Lord Jesus than the Pharisee, the scholar of the law, who had provided no water for His feet, so we can see that being a “debtor” and being forgiven the debt provoked the woman to show love toward Christ, and Jesus said that she was showing love toward Him.

We will read one verse in Romans 13:8:

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

The word “owe” is the word translated as “debtor.” So, it says we are to “owe no man any thing, but to love one another.” Then let us go to 1John 3:16:

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

I did not mention earlier that this word is also translated as “ought.” The English word “ought” is a translation of the same Greek word translated as “debtor” or as “owe.” So let me read it again: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” We “owe” a debt to lay down our lives for the brethren. You see, Christ paid our debt by laying down His life. He paid our sin debt: “For the wages of sin is death.” He paid the wage of death on our behalf, satisfying God’s Law. He made the payment of everything we owe, which was an enormous debt we could never have paid, no matter how long we lived on the earth. (And, actually, the longer we would live on the earth, the larger the debt would be.) So Jesus paid that debt, and because He laid down His life for us, we “ought” or “owe” to lay down our lives for the brethren. It is our responsibility or obligation.

We also find in 1John 4:10-11:

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

That is, if God loved us in this way, and I just mentioned how He did so. He laid our sins upon the Lord Jesus Christ at the foundation of the world. He bore our sins and then God the Father poured out His wrath upon Him and struck Him dead in order to pay for our sins in the atoning work. Then, of course, He rose to justify us at the foundation of the world. If God so loved us, we “owe” (as a debt) to love one another. Our response to what Christ has done is to lay down our lives for the brethren or to love one another.

Of course, in the day of salvation when the Gospel was going forth, we had no idea who were our brethren among the nations of the world, so we had to go to all. So we can see why Paul said that he was a “debtor.” He owed God. He owed Christ. What did he owe? He owed obedience to show forth his love in response toward Him: “We love him, because he first loved us.” He owed a debt to the brethren that were among the Greeks and the Barbarians, and who are counted among the wise and the unwise. They are in Rome, Thessalonica, Colossae and Ephesus, and all the cities he was going to in the world. That is where God’s elect were found, and this is the debt that Paul owed, and that we also owe.

You know, the debt or obligation and this response of love are not finished, even in the Day of Judgment. At this time, the Lord has issued forth the commandment to His people: “Feed my sheep.” Who are the sheep? They are the brethren. They are the ones God has saved. We are to love one other. We are to lay down our lives for the brethren, whether it was bringing the Gospel in the day of salvation so they could hear and become saved; or whether it is bringing the Gospel in the Day of Judgment. Again, the definition of the Gospel is the truth of the Word of God, the Bible, in its proper time and season. So in the Day of Judgment, we are also obligated to bring the Gospel to minister to the souls of these chosen people, a multitude of them that are all over the earth. God has saved them, and we are to bring them the truth of the Word of God. And this is our duty, as a matter of fact. Let us go to Luke 17 where we read about the duty of the people of God. It says in Luke 17:7-10:

But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Yes, this word “duty” is the same word translated as “debtor” and “to owe.” It is our debt to do. If we look carefully at this passage, we notice the servant is coming from the field. He had been out in the field all day, and the field is the world. It was in the field where the seed was sown, was it not? The Gospel was sown, and the Lord’s people evangelized the earth or world, and then God completed His salvation on May 21, 2011. So the work was done, if we look at some parables like the parable of the vineyard where they worked twelve hours in a day; and we know the eleventh to the twelfth hour ties in with the time of the Great Tribulation. But when they came in from the field, they had an expectation that they were going to “eat” or “relax.” Spiritually, that ties into the end of salvation when the people of God were all prepared to sit back and “rest on their laurels” to consider the great works we were part of during the glorious day of salvation. And, yet, God said, “Hold it,” and in verse 8, He said, “Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink. You have another duty. It is part of the debt – now minister food and drink to me.”

Remember Jesus said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40) As we share the truth of the Gospel, the Word of God, in its proper time and season within this prolonged judgment period, we are carrying out a further duty or an additional responsibility to the Lord. So God says, “Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.” We are doing nothing we should be commended for. We are simply doing our duty, responding to our debt – that which we owe. So we are debtors to the Greeks and Barbarians, to the wise and unwise. But it is not a direct debt to them; that is, it is nothing we owe the people of the world – they have done nothing for us. But we owe them because of what Christ did on our behalf as He has paid our debt, and this is what His Word tells us to do. Christ laid down His life for us, so we ought to love the brethren or love one another.

Let us go back to Romans 1 and read the next verse, in Romans 1:15:

So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

The word “so” is an adverb which can have the meaning of “after this manner” or “in this way,” so we can see how it follows from the statement in verse 14 that he is a debtor to all the people of the world. Verse 15 picks up that idea, and He says, “So in this way, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.” This is another people group, and remember that “Rome” has to do with bringing the Gospel to the unsaved outside the churches and congregations in the nations, where God would save that great multitude during the second part of the Great Tribulation during the outpouring of the Latter Rain. So it is an explanation. Because he is a debtor, that is why he had to minister the Gospel to Greek and Barbarians, as we saw he did to the barbarous people on the island of Melita, and also to the Romans.

I want to point out one more thing, where he said, “I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.” The word “ready” is only found three times. It is found once here and a second time in Matthew 26:41:

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

The third time is in Mark 14:38. I will not turn there, but it is the parallel statement to what I just read in Matthew 26, except I think in Mark, it does use the word “ready.” So this word means “ready” or “willing,” but it is the spirit that is ready, but the flesh is weak, implying that the flesh is not ready or willing. But the spirit is willing. Of course, we know why that is. God had saved Paul and He saves all His people, and in saving them He has given them a new heart and a new spirit that has an ongoing desire to do the will of God – to pay the debt that is owed to God, to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to keep His commandments, whatever He would have us to do. “Whatever you say, Lord. You wanted me to go into the world in the day of salvation. Fine. You want me to go into the world to feed the sheep in the Day of Judgment. Fine.” It is because we have that willing spirit that is willing to preach the Gospel, the truth of the Word of God, in its proper time and season.