¹³ For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,

In verses 13 to 15 Paul singled out the Gentile believers in the Roman church. He warned these Gentiles about the spiritual pride of Israel that caused God to reject them.

¹³ For [now] I speak to you Gentiles;

Paul specifically addressed the Gentiles here. He said that he “magnified” his ministry to the Gentiles. Bringing Gentiles to the grace of God (v. 6) would cause Jews to see the wonders of that grace as well.

Since Paul referred so much of chapters 9 through 11 to the Jews, his Gentile readers might have wondered where they stood in all of this and how important the Gentiles were in God’s economy.

inasmuch as [since] I am an apostle to the Gentiles,

In the Greek, one sentence is formed beginning with this phrase and going through verse 14.

God called Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles. An apostle was the most powerful office in the New Testament. The apostle had the right to write Scripture and found the church. It was a position of greatest authority in the New Testament.

I magnify [glorify] my ministry,

The word “magnify” means to glorify. Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles was a glorious ministry. Paul had no hesitation to announce that God had given him a special ministry to the Gentiles as the apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul magnified his task, not what he accomplished. His pride was in his task, not in what he did.

PRINCIPLE:

We do not glory in self but in what God is doing through us.

APPLICATION:

Christians should not glory in themselves but in what God does through them. It is amazing what God does through people with feet of clay. We possess a powerful dynamic in the gospel, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit.