Bible Study Romans Part 22-Prosperous Journey

“Prosperous journey” sounds like money talk until you slow down and read Romans 1 the way Paul meant it. We’re working through Romans 1:8-11, where Paul thanks God for the believers in Rome, prays for them without ceasing, and then pleads for a clear path to finally visit them, not for sightseeing or status, but to serve and strengthen the church.

Along the way, we take a hard look at how “prosperity” language gets hijacked by prosperity gospel preaching, and why that distortion turns Christian faith into a sales pitch. Then we dig into the Greek behind Paul’s request often translated “prosperous journey” (euodoo), showing how the sense is closer to a “good road,” a smoothed way, an unobstructed path for ministry. The point is practical: God is not a vending machine, and real Christian prayer is not bargaining, boasting, or demanding.

We also wrestle with the phrase that some people hate to hear in a prayer: “the will of God.” Paul includes it without hesitation, reminding us that submitting our plans to God’s will is not doubt, it’s reverence and humility. If you want your prayer life and your sense of calling to be shaped by Scripture rather than hype, this study will challenge you in the best way.

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Transcript

Why Scripture Is Life And Death

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Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel. God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries. We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God. We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day. The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture. Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible. It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision. Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us. It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word. We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death. In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death. Never treat what God has said lightly. There's truly nothing more important to you. Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

Why Romans Shapes Christian Living

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The letter to the Romans is so important to the Christian church. We have spent a lot of time trying to study this doctrine-rich letter for a very good reason. It tells us what the Christian life looks like. It is packed with basics, it's packed with the advanced doctrines that we need in order to serve our Lord properly. We have been at this for a few months now. We've only covered the first seven verses tonight. We're going to pick it up in verse eight. So let me go ahead and read that. We'll start with verse eight of the letter to the Romans, Paul's letter to the Romans. We're just going to start, as I said, at verse eight. I read out of the King James. Please read out of the Bible that is in front of you. If you did not bring a Bible with you, we have the verses up on the screen. But I do encourage you when you do come to Bible study to bring your Bible with you because this is a personal journey. This just isn't me telling you what's in the Bible. This is you making it personal, making a personal connection with Scripture. And therefore, you should have a Bible in your personal possession whenever you're studying. It helps you. So as I said, verse 8. Here we go.

Paul’s Gratitude And Unceasing Prayer

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Paul, by the way, is addressing the Romans. He spent the first few verses talking about himself, his calling to spread that glorious good news of God's concerning his Son, Jesus Christ. Now his attention has turned to those receiving the letter. Here we go. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. That is a glorious verse. 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. Verse 10, making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. God, whatever it takes, please make it possible for me to go to Rome. That's what Paul is praying for. And he says he does so without ceasing, non-stop prayer. Can you imagine? He seems, dare I say, desperate to get the opportunity to spread to those Romans the good news he's been talking about. This shows us how intensely Paul desired to serve Christ. This isn't pursuing one's own destiny. This isn't asking God to help you get accepted to Princeton Law so you can finally start making serious bucks. This isn't praying for your soulmate to finally walk through the front door of that coffee shop you're sitting in. Paul has long since jettisoned any thought of his own personal success. Elsewhere, Paul says, Philippians 3:13, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, here in the second sentence of his letter to those Romans, Paul is expressing his great desire to spread the gospel among them, making request if by any means now at length. This almost sounds like someone is bargaining for something, doesn't it? Of course, Paul is smarter than that. He knows, like the rest of us, he has nothing with which to trade with God. What could we possibly offer God that didn't already belong to him? To use something as a bargaining tool, you have to have clear ownership of that item. But everything in our possession is only with us temporarily, and we only have whatever we have so that we can use it in the service of God. That goes for all of us, by the way, not just Christians, including God's enemies. He even gave his enemies, those that hate him, skills and abilities that he will then use against their master, Satan. So of course, Paul isn't bargaining, but I can tell you, and it sure seems like it. All of this is an intense pleading to be allowed to glorify God through his own word. By the way, I hope that encourages you. Even this man who was trained by the Lord Jesus Himself, someone who, as he describes it, was called from his mother's womb to do this work. He considers the fact that he was born to do the work of the gospel. And that's another thing. God called him. This wasn't Paul's idea. He was doing just fine as a famous, well-known Pharisee in his Saul life. And then Jesus himself punched a hole in time and space and grabbed this man, pressed him into service. You would think that under those circumstances, pleading for a clear path to fulfilling that call wouldn't be necessary. A favored, brilliant, Holy Spirit-led man who still has to beg God for things in his prayers. There is no saint on earth that doesn't have to struggle with delayed answers to prayer. Even prayers, the answering of which would lead to God's glorification. Seems ironic, but just another reminder that God is in complete control when it comes to his glory. And he never wants any of us to forget it, not even the mighty Apostle Paul. Kind of makes you want to stop whining for a bit.

The Problem With “Prosperous” Language

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Now, as lovely as this statement is, it's also a bit awkward. In fact, this translation is a little misleading, but we can kind of forgive that since the original is not so easy to unpack. Now, in the grand scheme of things, this is not terribly important, but we are at the moment looking at this closely in order to catch a glimpse of how this man, Paul, thinks. Now, why is that important? Listen to me. If you're interested or curious about how to serve God by spreading the gospel, this is the man you want to learn from. If your desire is to serve to the utmost the Lord Jesus, Paul is the one to emulate. If you want a heart that's purely dedicated to God and His Son, then this is what that looks like. If by any means, now at length, making request by all means, I might have a prosperous journey. Now, if if there was one word I would love to ban from all church services, it would be this one, prosperous. Not too far from here, a couple of years ago, a pastor was robbed in his church during a church service. Now they recently caught the guy, and he's been accused in that robbery of stealing more than, you ready for this? One million dollars worth of jewelry from just one person, the pastor. Why do you have one million dollars worth of jewelry? And why do you have one million dollars worth of jewelry on you during your service? This pastor and many others preach what is called a, and this is why I cringe at the word, they preach what is now known as a prosperity gospel. Now, I'm not going to dignify this aberrance with more than a few words, but the philosophy is that Christians have a right to be wealthy. Nay, they have a destiny to be wealthy. Now, just as a quick side note, the only ones who ever get wealthy under such a system are the ones who are preaching it. And one of the tactics to entice church members to figuratively and literally buy into this is to parade around in luxury. Fancy cars, expensive clothes, believe it or not, private jets, and lavish jewelry. The poor saps that fall for this scheme are gilted into increasingly outrageous giving so that their pastor can show off, show off God's blessings on them. All along, the givers go broke, they lose their homes, go into debt just to line the pockets of Satan's pulpit frauds. It's such a giant stain on the church that just that word prosperity or prosperous turns me completely

“Good Road” And The Meaning Of Euodoo

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off. And you know what? I actually don't believe prosperous is the right translation for this verse. Let's take a closer look. Now, this is very interesting because the word is uadao. And it's not just, well, this is actually part of my argument against the use of this word prosperous. Uadao is not just translated into the word prosperous, it's actually translated by using both the words prosperous and journey. The King James scholars used the two-word phrase prosperous journey as the translation of u-a-dao. Now the reason they did that was because u-a-dao is actually a compound word. It's made up of the word you, e you, which means good. In the Greek, you means good. We've come across this word a few times in the past. It's commonly found in other Greek compound words. For example, youangelion. That's a word you are very familiar with. I'd ask if anyone remembers what that means, but I'm sure that you do. Youangelion, the word with UEU, the word that means good. Uangelion means good news, right? You've heard me say that before. Youangelion, good news, the gospel. Youangelion. So the word you, EU, in this word is in this word too, the one we're talking about, you ado. Now, the other part of that compound word is a form of the Greek word chodos. And it just means road. That's it, just road. Putting it all together, u a do literally means good road. Now, let me say, I do not think Paul is asking for God to give him a good road, but I do believe he is more or less poetically asking God for a clear path to facilitate a way for him to get to Rome, to be with that congregation. That's why, again, I think prosperous is not necessarily the right word. Some translate this as to mean a smooth journey. The Cambridge commentary has it, have the way smoothed. In other words, Paul is simply asking God to make it happen, his journey happen to Rome in the most expeditious way possible. Now, having said all of that, there are some who still feel that Paul's prayer is for God to prosper him enough, give him enough resources that he could then use to make this journey. Now, I don't have a big problem with that one. It still uses the word prosperous, but in a way that sounds less, I don't know, financially minded. Nonetheless, I believe we can safely interpret this statement of Paul's as him meaning or asking God to facilitate an easy, or at least an easier path, both figuratively and literally, to visit those fine Roman Christians. Why did we spend so much time there? Because I don't like the word prosperous when it comes to Christian living. We aren't called to be rich, we are called to serve. That is the prosperity that we should be seeking. The prosperity of resources that we can then turn over to God for his glory. Now, having the means to make the journey, whatever that may involve, is definitely part of making the way smooth and the road smooth and free of obstacles. Such an interpretation is still in keeping with the original thought, in my opinion. So if they mean that Paul is praying for enough prosperity for himself that then he could turn in to making him go to Rome more easily, I'm fine with

Praying With God’s Will In View

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that. But there's more. Isn't there always more? Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. You know, there are some fundamentalists who will see this, believe it or not, as a betrayal of faith. When we say something like what Paul does here, they tell us we are expressing doubt that God wants to grant our requests. It's sort of a cop-out way of praying, they tell us. Adding, if it is thy will, O Lord, just means you don't think God can or will do what you ask. You're letting your distrust invade your prayer request. Now, all of that foolish mentality comes from the blab it and grab it crowd. They'll tell you all you need to do is ask God for something and he'll grant it, provided your faith is strong enough, as if your entire blessing resources come from your ability to be faithful enough. That is the boldly approaching the throne of God method of getting what you want. They say that God only rewards overconfident, boastful, demanding prayers. Dear Lord, if it's your will, please heal my granny's cancer. Up you messed up now. You just impued impugned God's power, love, and care by bringing his will into it. Nana's never going to get better now, and you have no one to blame but your weak faith. I hope you're happy. How about we ignore all that and look to Paul? Making request if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. It's probably better translated in the will of God rather than by the will of God. Making request if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey in the will of God to come unto you. Now, does anyone think Paul lacked faith? Of course he didn't. This is the listen to me, this is the prayer of a man who knows that his knowledge and understanding of his own role in God's plan is small and limited. If that is Paul's status, it should be ours too. Paul, as I said earlier, was trained by the Lord himself, and he still wonders what it is that God wants from him. He has his own idea of what is the right and good thing to do, we all do, but he is also painfully aware of the stain of humanity on his motivations and desires. There was a time when Paul was an overachieving, boastful, dangerously arrogant Pharisee. To be honest, if you're paying attention, you can still see what some of that residue of that old man in some of his writings. No time to prove that to you, but we can sure see that now when this apostle prays, you can just feel the skepticism of his own view of things. Anyone who senses the need to constantly keep the will of God in front of them is someone who doesn't want to make a mess of the calling God has put on his life. And the best way to do that is to make sure that you are constantly seeking God's glory and not your own. Often when we rush into the spiritual equivalent of a burning building in order to rescue some floundering saint, it's only because we're hoping to get the glory from it. We're hoping to get our names added to the church hero's hall of fame. No, you're not insulting God when you consider his will on a matter. You're honoring him. And Paul shows us that right here: making request if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

Longing To Strengthen The Church

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For I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end ye may be established. True confession time. If I received a note from some small congregation in London asking me to come and spend a couple of Sundays with them teaching out of God's word, I'd immediately jump at the chance and surely forget to ask God what he thought. Inquire of him whether or not it was a good idea or if it was his will that I should do so. And if I'm being honest, I'd probably not even think about the impact it would have on this ministry or how blessed it would be to be a part of bringing revival to England, one of the most important early sites of reformed Christianity. I wouldn't even think about those things. I'd be like, I want to see Big Ben and I want to go Trafalgar Square and I want to eat fish and chips, that sort of stuff. But that's not Paul. He wasn't asking God if he can go to Rome so he could catch a chariot race or see the Parthenon or dip his toes into the mighty Tiber. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end ye may be established. I've said before that it's obvious that Paul's soul purpose and soul desire from the day he got knocked off that horse on his way to Damascus to serve his savior. Paul longs, Paul says he longs to visit these people. The word is epipatheo in the Greek. It conveys not just a desire, but an earnest desire. Strong's list is the phrase intensely crave in its definition of this word. Listen to me, I want to be in this place. I want to feel that way. Nothing else mattered to Paul, and nothing else thrilled him, certainly not enough to challenge his thrill for his Lord. Paul wanted earnestly to go to Rome to advance the kingdom. He wanted to go to that church to see what he could do to keep them on track. He wanted to bring what he called a spiritual gift. Now, those that try to make the Bible more interesting run with that phrase. Ooh, spiritual gift. What's Paul saying? What mysterious, fascinating treasure is he going to give to those Romans. Well, we'll see if we can answer that next time. See you then.

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