16. I am a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit.
17. So I have reason to be enthusiastic about all Christ Jesus has done through me in my service to God.
18. Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them.
19. They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the power of God’s Spirit. In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum.
20. My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else.
21. I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says, “Those who have never been told about him will see,and those who have never heard of him will understand.”
22. In fact, my visit to you has been delayed so long because I have been preaching in these places.
23. But now I have finished my work in these regions, and after all these long years of waiting, I am eager to visit you.
24. I am planning to go to Spain, and when I do, I will stop off in Rome. And after I have enjoyed your fellowship for a little while, you can provide for my journey.
25. But before I come, I must go to Jerusalem to take a gift to the believers there.
26. For you see, the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem.
27. They were glad to do this because they feel they owe a real debt to them. Since the Gentiles received the spiritual blessings of the Good News from the believers in Jerusalem, they feel the least they can do in return is to help them financially.
28. As soon as I have delivered this money and completed this good deed of theirs, I will come to see you on my way to Spain.
29. And I am sure that when I come, Christ will richly bless our time together.
30. Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me. Do this because of your love for me, given to you by the Holy Spirit.