Romans 1:13-17: in context

Paul, writing to the believers in Rome, the center of worldly power and culture, declares his readiness to preach the gospel there without embarrassment. For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, he says, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. However foolish or offensive the message of a crucified Savior might seem to the wise and influential of Rome, Paul is not ashamed of it, because he knows it to be nothing less than God's own power to save all who believe.

Paul's declaration, I am not ashamed of the gospel, is worth weighing, because there was much that might have tempted him to shame. The message he preached, a crucified man as the Savior of the world, seemed foolishness to the Greek and a scandal to the Jew. To the sophisticated culture of Rome, it could appear absurd, unworthy of a thinking person, an embarrassment. And yet Paul is not ashamed. He holds the gospel with confidence, and he tells us why: because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. What looks like foolishness is in fact God's own power to save; and that is nothing to be ashamed of, however the world regards it. There is a call here that comes to us as well. The gospel is still, to much of the world, foolishness or offense; and we can be tempted to shame, to embarrassment about the good news, to keeping quiet about it lest we seem foolish or narrow to the sophisticated and the influential. Paul's confidence rebukes this temptation. He was not ashamed, because he knew what the gospel truly is: not human wisdom to be embarrassed about, but the power of God for salvation. What looks foolish to the world is in fact God's power to save all who believe; and there is no shame in that. The message of the cross, Paul says elsewhere, is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. This calls us to hold and share the gospel with confidence rather than embarrassment. Are we ashamed of the good news, tempted to keep it quiet lest we seem foolish to the world, embarrassed by a message the sophisticated dismiss? Paul was not ashamed, because he knew the gospel to be God's power to save. Do not be ashamed, he tells Timothy, of the testimony of our Lord. The gospel that looks foolish to the world is God's own power for salvation; and we are called to hold it and share it not with embarrassment but with the confidence Paul had, unashamed of the good news because it is the power of God to save all who believe.

Am I ashamed of the gospel, tempted to keep quiet about the good news lest I seem foolish or narrow to the sophisticated and the influential, embarrassed by a message the world dismisses, and can Paul's confidence, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, move me to hold and share the good news not with embarrassment but with the assurance that what looks foolish to the world is God's own power to save?