📜WEB · Romans 15:9
What does Romans 15:9 mean?
"and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore will I give praise to you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.”"
— Romans 15:9 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.
Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers,
and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore will I give praise to you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.”
Again he says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”
Again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him.”
Again, Isaiah says, “There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope.”
Explanation
Romans 15:9 comes at the close of a section where Paul is addressing a practical problem in the Roman church: tension between Jewish and Gentile believers over matters of conscience, particularly food laws and observance of special days. This verse says that Gentiles have reason to glorify God specifically for his mercy — that is, God's kindness toward those who were not originally part of his covenant people Israel, but who have now been brought into relationship with him through Christ. Paul then backs this up by quoting Scripture, in this case Psalm 18:49 (or 2 Samuel 22:50), showing that God's plan to include the nations in praising him was not a new idea invented for the church, but something anticipated in Israel's own Scriptures.
Paul wrote Romans around AD 57, likely from Corinth, to a church he had not personally founded but hoped to visit on his way to Spain. The Roman congregation was a mixed community of Jewish and Gentile Christians, and by this point in the letter (chapter 15), Paul is drawing together the theological argument he has been building since chapter 1 — that both Jews and Gentiles are equally in need of God's grace, and both are equally recipients of it through faith in Christ. Verses 8-9 summarize this: Christ became a servant to the circumcised (the Jews) to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs, and he did this so that the Gentiles might also glorify God for his mercy. Paul then strings together a series of Old Testament quotations (from the Psalms, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah
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