<p>15:30- see on Col. 2:1.</p><p><i>Now I beseech you brothers</i>- Paul was so earnest for their prayers because he knew that prayer for others does really affect outcomes. Prayer for others either works or it doesn't, and each person must simply pray for their issues alone. But seeing that clearly prayer for others does 'work', Paul urges their prayers for his project. And we should have the same attitude. </p><p><i>By our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit</i>- The idea of <i>dia</i> here is more 'for the sake of...'. He wanted their prayers for the Jew-Gentile fellowship project because he was doing it for the sake of the Lord Jesus. He knew it would please the Lord, such unity and expression of love was what He died in order to achieve and enable. And it was for the sake of the love inculcated by the Spirit working within their hearts. Elsewhere Paul defines the fruit of the Spirit in the singular- simply, &quot;love&quot; (Gal. 5:22). The love brought forth by the Spirit was what would motivate their prayers for the fellowship project. Paul's idea so far in this chapter has been that the Spirit is within both the weak and the stronger in Rome, it is operating in and through Paul too; and he asks that they channel the love brought forth by the Spirit into praying for his work with the Gentiles.</p><p><i>That you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me- </i>The allusion may be to Jacob's wrestling with God in prayer. Paul had so many times been hindered in coming to the Romans (1:9-11; 15:22,23); and he thinks those hindrances were from God, who had wanted to keep him focused on breaking new ground for the Lord Jesus. A visit to the church in Rome would not achieve that. And it seems Paul was as it were praying, even struggling with God, to be released from his calling to preach to the Gentiles, for his existing work to be counted as if he had fulfilled the ministry completely- so that he could then visit the existing church in Rome with God's blessing. Their prayers were so that Paul could come to Rome &quot;through the will of God&quot; (:32), with God's will behind it. So he believed that prayer could alter or at least affect God's will.</p><p>Paul read the OT prophecies of how &quot;to whom he was not spoken of, they shall see&quot;; and he didn't just see them as descriptions of what would ultimately happen. He realised that the fulfilment of this prophecy depended <i>to some extent</i> on our human freewill; and therefore he <i>strove </i>(against so many odds) to preach Christ where He had not yet been named (Rom. 15:19,20). And he asks the Romans to <i>strive together </i>with him in prayer (15:30)- i.e. to join him in the struggle to witness world-wide, in that they would pray for his success. It was God's prophesied will that the Gospel would go world-wide; but it required the freewill strivings of Paul to enable it, and the strivings with God in prayer by the brethren.</p>