Romans 1:14-16

1:14 I am a debtor ¹  both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 1:15 Thus I am eager ²  also to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome. ³ 

The Power of the Gospel

1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ⁴ 

Acts 20:20

20:20 You know that I did not hold back from proclaiming ⁵  to you anything that would be helpful, ⁶  and from teaching you publicly ⁷  and from house to house,

Colossians 1:25

1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ⁸  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ⁹  the word of God,

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ¹⁰  brothers and sisters ¹¹  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ¹²  from God our Father! ¹³ 

Colossians 4:17

4:17 And tell Archippus, “See to it that you complete the ministry you received in the Lord.”

¹ tn Or “obligated.”

² tn Or “willing, ready”; Grk “so my eagerness [is] to preach…” The word πρόθυμος (proqumo", “eager, willing”) is used only elsewhere in the NT in Matt 26:41 = Mark 14:38: “the spirit indeed is willing (πρόθυμος), but the flesh is weak.”

³ map For location see JP4-A1.

⁴ sn Here the Greek refers to anyone who is not Jewish.

⁵ tn Or “declaring.”

⁶ tn Or “profitable.” BDAG 960 s.v. συμφέρω 2.b.α has “τὰ συμφέροντα what advances your best interests or what is good for you Ac 20:20,” but the broader meaning (s.v. 2, “to be advantageous, help, confer a benefit, be profitable/useful”) is equally possible in this context.

⁷ tn Or “openly.”

⁸ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

⁹ tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.

¹⁰ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

¹¹ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

¹² tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

¹³ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.