Romans 15:22

(Recapitulation.) ( d ) “Who having examined me,” says he, “found nothing in me” ( v. 18 ). When those ought to have rescued, they “delivered (him) into the hands of the Romans.” And such the superabundance, * * because those had not power to condemn but delivered him prisoner. “Not as having aught to accuse my nation of,” ( v. 19 ) am I come. See what friendliness of expression “my nation:” he does not hold them as aliens. He does not say, I do not accuse, but, “I have not (whereof) to accuse:” although he had suffered so many evils at their hands. But nothing of all this does he say, nor make his speech offensive: neither does he seem to be sparing them as matter of favor. For this was the main point, to show that they delivered him prisoner to the Romans, when those ought to have condemned him. ( a ) “For this cause,” he says, “I wished to see you” ( v. …

Ver. 22 . “For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.”

What sayest thou? does Satan hinder? Yes, truly, for this was not the work of God. For in the Epistle to the Romans, he says this, that God hindered him (from Rom. xv. 22 .); and elsewhere Luke says, that “the Spirit” hindered them from going into Asia. ( Acts xvi. 7 .) And in the Epistle to the Corinthians he says, that it is the work of the Spirit, but here only of Satan. But what hindrance of Satan is he speaking of? Some unexpected and violent temptations: for a plot, it says, being formed against him by the Jews, he was detained three months in Greece. But it is another thing to remain for the sake of the dispensation, and willingly. For there he says, “Wherefore having no more place in these parts” ( Rom. xv. 23 .), and, “To spare you I forbare to come unto Corinth.” ( 2 Cor. i. 23 .) But here nothing of this sort. But what? That “Satan hindered” him. …