"Bridging the gap between Paul’s travel plans and application today is not easy. Straightforwardly applying the main points of these verses – where Paul has been, where he is going, what he hopes to do in Rome, and what he wants the Roman Christians to do – is simply not helpful to us today."

"Yet God inspired these words for our benefit. What and how are we to learn from them? . . . We may not derive much spiritual benefit from knowing that Paul was going to Spain, but knowing why he is going there may shed light on New Testament principles of ministry."

- The NIV Application Commentary

"Paul was much more interested in what a man could be than in what he was. He saw faults with utter clarity and dealt with them with utter fidelity; but all the time he was thinking, not of the wretched creature that a man was, but of the splendid creature that he might be."

- William Barclay, The Daily Bible Study

"If only one man would give himself entirely and without reserve to the Holy Spirit, what that Spirit might do with him!" Moody said to himself: "Why should I not be that man?”

- William Barclay, The Daily Bible Study