God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.
Parallel translations
- WEB For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,
- KJV For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;
- BSB God, whom I serve with my spirit in preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you
- NKJV For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers,
- NASB 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,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul calls God as witness that he serves Him wholeheartedly in the gospel and constantly prays for the Romans. His ministry is sincere and his prayer life persistent.
Overview
Paul appeals to God as witness to the sincerity of his concern. He 'serves in his spirit' in the gospel of God's Son, indicating wholehearted, inward devotion rather than mere outward duty. His unceasing mention of the Romans in prayer models faithful intercession for fellow believers he has not yet met.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 33
- Eph 6:18with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints:
- 2 Tim 1:3I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day
- Eph 1:16–19don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,
- Rom 9:1I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,
- 2 Cor 1:23But I call God for a witness to my soul, that I didn’t come to Corinth to spare you.
- 1 Th 5:17Pray without ceasing.
- Eph 3:14–21For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
- Phil 3:3For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;
- 1 Cor 14:14–15For if I pray in another language, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
- Acts 27:23For there stood by me this night an angel, belonging to the God whose I am and whom I serve,
- 1 Th 1:2We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers,
- 2 Cor 11:10–11As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
- 1 Th 3:10night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
- Phil 1:4always in every request of mine on behalf of you all making my requests with joy,
- John 4:23–24But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.
- Acts 19:21Now after these things had ended, Paul determined in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”
- Acts 24:14But this I confess to you, that after the Way, which they call a sect, so I serve the God of our fathers, believing all things which are according to the law, and which are written in the prophets;
- 1 Jn 5:9–12If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is God’s testimony which he has testified concerning his Son.
- Col 1:28–29whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;
- Phil 2:22But you know the proof of him, that, as a child serves a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the Good News.
- 2 Cor 11:31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie.
- Acts 3:26God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to you first to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your wickedness.”
- Acts 12:5Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but constant prayer was made by the assembly to God for him.
- Job 16:19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.
- Gal 1:20Now about the things which I write to you, behold, before God, I’m not lying.
- Mark 1:1The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
- Phil 1:8–11For God is my witness, how I long after all of you in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus.
- 1 Tim 2:7to which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth in Christ, not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
- Luke 18:1He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up,
- 1 Th 2:5–10For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),
- Col 1:9–13For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
- 1 Sam 12:23Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Yahweh in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and the right way.
- Phlm 1:4I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers,
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 1:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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