Romans 1 Part 2 ( Verse 8)

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. 

In Verse 8 and 9 we observe Paul executing two important spiritual disciplines 1. Thanksgiving and 2. Prayer.[1] He thanks God for the Roman Church. He is not thanking God for their various achievement but for their faith.[4] Paul is thanking God for the trust they have put in Christ. Are we not happy to see people trusting Christ? Are we not happy when see people coming to Christ from various religious and cultural backgrounds? Paul had the same feelings, but he is expressing his thanks to God for his faithfulness is establishing the Church in Rome. Karl Barth said in his commentary about this verse, "The resurrection has proved it's power: There are Christians-even in Rome."[4] 

Are you thanking God for his people and the Churches you are in contact with? Have you? Add it to your "To do list". 

Now let us understand the word faith. Here it means trusting Jesus, not just a belief. I believe Prophet Mohammed lived and wrote the Quran. But I don't trust him. I don't trust Mohammed is the Prophet of God or that Angel Gabriel spoke to him. But I don't just believe Jesus lived and died and rose again from the dead. I trust him because he has proved his love for me on the cross of Golgatha. My faith or trust in Christ is evidenced in history and it based on proof that God loves me and has paid my penalty on the Cross thus proving his unconditional love for me. This is the biblical faith and this is what Paul is thanking God for. Karl Barth defines faith, "This is faith then: The fidelity of men encountering the faithfulness of God" [4]. Faith is man trusting the trustworthy God.

Paul acknowledges God's work among the gentile Church in Rome. And the news of the establishment of the Church in Rome has reached different parts of the world. How did this news reach all the world? In Rome resided people from all parts of the then known world. Roman coins were excavated in a small fishing village called Arikamedu, near my home town Pondicherry, South India.[5] Romans were trading and came even to this part of the world. It can be easily hypothesized that some people would have traveled to Rome from South India. It would not be an exaggeration to say, that in Rome resided all the world. So when the Gospel reached Rome and people started trusting Christ, the news of it spread that a new cult of Judaism was spreading in Rome. Thus all in Rome i.e people from different parts of the world came to know the Roman Church. [2] 

Paul does not just thank God. He thanks God through Christ, the mediator, the only one between God and man. There is no other way anything neither thanksgiving nor petition can reach God.[3] This is unique to Christianity. We cannot just thank God. We have to thank God through Christ with the Spirit of God leading us in the act of thanksgiving. 

[1] Matthew Henry Concise commentary, http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-concise/romans/1.html

[2] People's New Testament, http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/peoples-new-testament/romans/1.html

[3] Wesley's explanatory notes, http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/romans/romans-1.html

[4] The Epistle to the Romans, Karl Barth

[5] www.academia.edu/414274/Arikamedu_Ancient_port_city_of_India