Romans 15:20, commentary and pictures

Paul made it his settled aim to preach the gospel where Christ had not been named and was not yet known, rather than build upon another man's foundation and work already laid by another preacher. His ministry carried the gospel into new regions from Jerusalem toward Illyricum so that those who had not heard could come to understand. Striving to preach the gospel in this way is service, and only when brain-power and the talent of speech are sanctified is a person fitted for that service. A genuine calling to preach is shown by an unmistakable burden and yearning for souls outside the truth who have never heard, to carry the message where it has not been preached, bring people into the truth, convince souls, and raise up individuals or a company to keep the truth. Those truly set apart cannot be content merely to travel from church to church among believers.

Gospel workers who feel the burden of labor laid on them must seek new ground where Christ has not been proclaimed rather than prove their gifts and test their calling among established churches. The churches are generally in advance of them in experience and self-denial and just as well off without such labor, while the right field is large in the world outside those churches, with the world lying in wickedness and plenty of room to work and gain experience in self-denial and holiness. The verse refuses entering into other men's labors and building upon a foundation not laid, and warns against treating other people's labors as though they were one's own calling. Those not truly called and prepared take too easy a path by taking up work already begun by others. A minister must not step into another man's field where a good work is in progress to tear it in pieces and destroy his harvest with insinuations, criticism, severity, and overbearing control over men the Lord is using and loves, for to do so dishonors the position of a Christian worker and acts the part of a thief and a robber.

A person who has not established a body of converts from sin to righteousness has no right to impose peculiar views on an established church, for building such teachings on another person's foundation is like adding wood, hay, and stubble that will be consumed in the last-day judgment. Those without this burden to work in new fields should not give themselves unreservedly to traveling ministry or throw themselves on the church for support, but should labor with their hands at what is good to supply their own necessities. They may help only as needed where ministers are absent, such as to baptize or administer the ordinances. The principle of carrying the gospel to places where Christ had not yet been preached calls for investing in other regions that had not heard the message, so the truth could be planted there. The importance of carrying the truth to places where it has not yet been proclaimed applies to Adventist families leaving Battle Creek and going out to new places rather than remaining amid established associations.