Romans 1:14

We can see how in a short time this religion has grown up, making progress through the persecution and death of its adherents and through their endurance of the confiscation of their property and every kind of torture. And this is particularly miraculous, since its teachers are themselves neither very skillful nor very numerous. But in spite of everything, the Word is now preached in all the world, so that "Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish" now adopt the Christian faith.

Now we must inquire how the Apostle is a debtor to Greeks and barbarians, to the wise and the unwise. For what had he received from them, whereby he should become their debtor? I think that he was made a debtor to the various nations for this reason, that he received through the grace of the Holy Spirit to speak in the tongues of all nations, as he himself also says: "I speak with tongues more than you all." Since therefore one receives the knowledge of tongues not for himself, but for those to whom he must preach, he is made a debtor to all those whose language he has received the knowledge of from God. And to the wise he is made a debtor through this, that he received the wisdom hidden in a mystery, which he might speak to the perfect and the wise. But how also to the unwise? In that he received the grace of patience and of long-suffering. For it belongs to the highest patience to bear the impulses of the unwise.

Paul says that he is under obligation to those whom he names, because he was sent for the purpose of preaching to everyone. For this reason he states that they are all under obligation to believe in God the Creator, from whom and through whom are all things, for obligation and honor form part of the salvation of the believer. He wrote Greeks instead of Gentiles," but this includes those who are called Romans, whether by birth or by adoption, and barbarians, who are those who are not Romans, whose race is inimical, and who are not Gentiles. He speaks of those who are wise, because they are learned in worldly sciences and are called wise in the world whether they are stargazers, geometers, mathematicians, grammarians, orators or musicians. Paul shows that none of these things is of any advantage, nor are these people truly wise, unless they believe in Christ. He calls them fools, because in their simplicity they lack knowledge of spiritual things. He testifies that he has been sent to preach to them all. But he says nothing about the Jews, because he is the teacher of the Gentiles. And this is why he says that he is under obligation, because he has accepted this teaching in order to pass it on, and in passing it on, to acquire it himself.