Charles Spurgeon Commentary Romans 10

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

No curse falls from his lips, though they had persecuted him without mercy, hunted him from city to city, and gnashed their teeth at the very mention of his name. Yet he has no desire for them but their salvation; he utters no malediction against them, but the prayer goes up from his very heart, that they might be saved. Let that be your worst wish for any living man. Whatever he may do to you, let this be your heart's desire and prayer for him, that he may be saved.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

Paul had a tender heart towards all unconverted men and women, and he longed and pleaded with God that they might be saved. Do all of us have this unselfish, compassionate feeling? I am afraid that some Christians are very deficient in it; yet, in the dread of an immortality to be spent in woe unutterable by all unbelievers, our hearts' desire and perpetual prayer should be, as Paul's prayer for Israel was, that they might be saved. And if there is one class among the ungodly which should touch our hearts more than all the rest, it is those who are earnestly seeking salvation, but who are seeking it where they will never find it, namely, by the works of the law.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

They had hunted Paul from city to city, but the only feeling for them that he had was a wish that they might be saved. Such a wish as that should be in the heart of every Christian; his desire for his bitterest enemy should be that he may be saved.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

Desire is the mother and the soul of prayer my heart's desire and prayer. These Israelites had hunted Paul and sought to kill him. They were his deadly enemies; but the only return he made them was to pray that they might be saved. I hope you will never have a worse wish for your worst foe.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

A fault—a pitiable and grievous fault—that people should be in earnest and very zealous, and yet nothing should come of it, because they spend that zeal in a wrong direction.

People seek to make themselves righteous. They seek to come before God in the apparel of their own works, whereas God has already made a righteousness, which he freely gives, and for us to try and produce another is to enter into rivalry with God—to insult his Son, and do dishonour to his name.

May God grant that anyone here who is very zealous in a wrong direction may receive light and knowledge, and henceforth turn their thoughts in the right way.