⁸ First I thank my God through Jesus Christ about you all, because the news of your faith is spreading all over the world. ⁹ As God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in spreading the good news of his Son, I never fail to mention you when I pray, ¹⁰ and to ask that somehow by God's will I may some day at last succeed in reaching you. ¹¹ For I long to see you, to convey to you some spiritual gift that will strengthen you; ¹² in other words, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by one another's faith.

¹³ I want you to understand, brothers, that I have often intended to come to see you (though thus far I have been prevented) in order to produce some results among you, as well as among the rest of the heathen. ¹⁴ I owe a debt both to Greeks and to foreigners, to the cultivated and the uncultivated. ¹⁵ So, for my part, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome also.