📜WEB · Romans 15:4
What does Romans 15:4 mean?
"For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
— Romans 15:4 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up.
For even Christ didn’t please himself. But, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”
For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Now the God of perseverance and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus,
that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God.
Explanation
Romans 15:4 tells us that everything written in the Scriptures beforehand—meaning the Old Testament writings available to Paul and his readers—was recorded with a purpose: to teach and instruct believers who would come later. Paul is saying that the ancient texts are not merely historical records or outdated religious documents, but living instruction meant for the ongoing benefit of God's people. The verse further explains the mechanism of this teaching: Scripture provides both perseverance (the strength to endure hardship) and encouragement (comfort and exhortation), and the result of these two things working together is hope.
The immediate context matters here. Paul writes this in the middle of a section (Romans 15:1-13) where he is addressing tension between "the strong" and "the weak" in the Roman church—likely a conflict involving Jewish and Gentile believers with differing convictions about dietary laws, sabbath observance, and other matters. Just before this verse, in Romans 15:3, Paul quotes Psalm 69:9, applying it to Christ, who "did not please himself" but bore the reproach of others. Paul then generalizes from this specific Old Testament citation to a broader principle: this is how Scripture works—it was written to instruct and sustain believers, using Christ's own example of self-denying love as proof. So Paul is essentially explaining why he just quoted the Psalms to make his point about Christian unity and self-sacrifice.
Theologically, this verse affirms the enduring authority and relevance of the Old Testament for the Christian church. Paul, a
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