Romans 1:14-17 (NIV)
I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
The way the world divides people up varies from nation to nation and from time to time. The Jews divided people into Jews (those who were circumcised and who followed the law of Moses) and the gentiles (those who weren’t and didn’t). The Greeks divided people into Greeks (those who spoke the Greek language) and the barbarians (those who didn’t and whose “unsophisticated language” sounded to the Greeks like they were saying “bar bar”). Sages and philosophers divided people into the wise (those who followed their instructions) and the foolish (those who didn’t).
In using some of these terms Paul is not assigning the Romans into any category. Some Romans spoke Greek fluently, some did not. Some were wise, some were not. He was merely reinforcing the concept that, as gentiles, they fell into his “target audience,” the people to whom he was specifically sent out with the gospel.
Paul’s whole mission was focused, not on who people were, their nationality, culture, language or background, but on the good news of Jesus, the gospel. The reason for that focus was Paul’s own life-transforming encounter with Jesus. Paul knew that the power of the gospel could change a person completely from the inside out. It didn’t matter if the person was a “good person” as judged by society, or someone with blood on their hands as he had been. Anyone who put their faith in Jesus could be transformed, made genuinely righteous, not just in man’s sight, but in God’s sight as well.
The righteousness Paul mentions here is not just a legal state, but genuine righteousness, a right life and right actions that spring from a transformed heart that is now right with God. And this righteousness that comes from faith in Jesus, the Messiah, is not just for the Jews, although they received it first. It is for every gentile (Greek) as well.
Father, we still divide people up into categories today, whether it is by their skin color, their national origin, their language, or their political leanings. But in Your economy, there are only two categories: those who have responded to the call of the gospel to believe in Jesus, and those who have not yet, and so are the target group for the Church’s evangelistic efforts. But if we allow ourselves to categorize people using those other metrics, it can become a hindrance to our seeing them clearly as someone worthy of our best efforts in bringing them to the salvation that is only available in the gospel. Help me to only see people as You see them, Lord, today and every day. Amen.