Romans 15:20

20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.

Romans 15:20 in Other Translations

20 Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation:

20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation,

20 My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else.

20 This has all been pioneer work, bringing the Message only into those places where Jesus was not yet known and worshiped.

20 yea, making it my aim so to preach the gospel, not where Christ was [already] named, that I might not build upon another man's foundation;

20 My goal was to spread the Good News where the name of Christ was not known. I didn't want to build on a foundation which others had laid.

20 So my aim is to evangelize where Christ has not been named, in order that I will not be building on someone else's foundation,

20 I have always wanted to preach the good news where Christ was not known. I don't want to build on what someone else has started.

Romans 15:20 Meaning and Commentary

Romans 15:20

Yea, so have I strived to preach the Gospel
The sense is, not barely that he strove to preach the Gospel and not the law, the pure Gospel, and, not a mixed one; nor only that he endeavoured to preach it fully, and leave out nothing; but that he had an holy ambition to preach it,

not where Christ was named;
as in Judea, where he had been for many ages spoken of and expected, and where he had lately appeared, lived, suffered, and died, and where his Gospel had been preached by all the apostles; as also in such parts of the Gentile world, where others of the apostles had been, and had made mention of his name, and published the glad tidings of salvation by him; but he chose rather to go to such Heathen nations, as were wholly without any knowledge of him; who had only the dim light of nature to guide them; had had no promises nor prophecies of the Messiah, nor so much as any hints, at least very distant ones, concerning him; and where as yet the sound of the Gospel bad not reached:

lest I should build on another man's foundation;
meaning not the law of Moses, nor the doctrines of the false teachers, but the foundation of the true apostles, and which was no other than the foundation Christ, he himself laid; but he chose not to go where they had laid the foundation by preaching Christ and his Gospel, that he might not take another man's crown, or boast in another man's line, or of other men's labours; but rather to go where others had never been, that he might first lay the foundation himself, by preaching Christ, and him crucified, and so the more act up to his character as an apostle, and as the apostle to the Gentiles.

Romans 15:20 In-Context

18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—

19 by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.

21 Rather, as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.”

22 This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you.

Cross References

• 1. Romans 1:15
• 2. 2 Corinthians 10:15,16