That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
The heaviness described is no ordinary passing wish but an extraordinary, constant inner burden of intense grief and unceasing anguish in the heart. It was felt for Paul's fellow Jews, his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh, the people of Israel. The cause of that continual sorrow was that the Israelites had failed to recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah.
That grief did not rest idle but kept him petitioning God to work in their behalf, with constant desire and prayer that they might be saved. Joined to that intercession was a longing to help them gain a clear understanding of the gospel message. The same burden of great heaviness and continual sorrow in the heart is shared with Christ over the guilt and obstinacy of people who reject God.
So understood, the verse applies to grief over the wicked cities of the earth and over neglect of the salvation of their people.
The heaviness described is no ordinary passing wish but an extraordinary, constant inner burden of intense grief and unceasing anguish in the heart. It was felt for Paul's fellow Jews, his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh, the people of Israel. The cause of that continual sorrow was that the Israelites had failed to recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah.
That grief did not rest idle but kept him petitioning God to work in their behalf, with constant desire and prayer that they might be saved. Joined to that intercession was a longing to help them gain a clear understanding of the gospel message. The same burden of great heaviness and continual sorrow in the heart is shared with Christ over the guilt and obstinacy of people who reject God.
So understood, the verse applies to grief over the wicked cities of the earth and over neglect of the salvation of their people.