⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. ⁹ For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, ¹⁰ always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.

Theology in the context of life and relationships—that is the biblical pattern. Not discovered or propagated in academia, the Christian faith was forged in the rugged, earthy existence of tangible, physical life. Jesus came to people here on earth, who continue to live here on earth in anticipation of life after life here on earth. But the truth of the gospel makes a difference here on earth. So, in setting the stage for his proclamation of the gospel in its glorious details and reasoning, Paul is mindful that he is writing to people, not a generic readership. The gospel is personal; it is not just a system of philosophical propositions, no matter how true those propositions might be. It is significant that God did not inspire the original authors of Scripture to write complete “Systematic Theologies.” Theology is best conveyed and learned in life situations.

So Paul tells the Roman believers of his prayer for them. This is the only letter he wrote to a church that he did not plant, for he had never been to Rome before (1:10, 13). But we can make a few observations and conclusions: 1) Paul did not found the church at Rome, 2) he never wanted to build on another person’s foundation—that is, to preach to a church that someone else founded, 3) he obviously knew many of the people in the Roman church and 4) we conclude with others that the Roman church must therefore have been founded by converts of Paul, but not by the apostle himself.

The apostle was a man of prayer. High on his list was expressing thankfulness to God for those who were faithful in their witness. The Romans, in particular, were well-known for their faith, and not just among Christians—their faith even caught the attention of non-believers. That is why the gospel spread so quickly across the Roman Empire. It had penetrated even the imperial city. Paul was consistent and frequent in his prayers for them, at times just mentioning them individually by name.

If we take the teachings of Paul as inspired, then we must also take as inspired his example of prayer. We should faithfully pray—consistently, frequently, specifically, and honestly, for like the apostles, “God, whom I serve in my spirit … is my witness.”

Lord, I thank You for [insert names] who have been faithful in their witness in the world. I ask that You will allow me to be a blessing to each one of them.