Romans 1:14-17 // Debtors or Prison

Based on Romans 1:14-17

14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
How is Paul a debtor to them? A debtor owes something that he must repay. Paul owes it to all Gentiles to preach the gospel to them, including those at Rome. Why does he owe it to them?

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
The gospel was given to Jews like Paul but it was not given for only them. Paul knew that the Jews that believed the gospel had a responsibility to preach it to the Gentiles. In this way Paul says he is a debtor to the Romans.
The gospel was given for Gentiles as well as Jews because in the gospel is the power of God that saves everyone that believes it, no matter their background. What is the gospel? It can be preached so it must consist of information, but it can also be demonstrated, so it must also be personal. It includes the cross of Jesus, which was considered utterly shameful. But Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because this information lived out has power to save every person that believes it. Save them from what?

17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
The gospel looks like the just living by faith in the gospel. The just can be any person, and the gospel shows the righteousness of God so the gospel saves people from lacking God's righteousness. The unjust becomes just by faith in the words of the gospel and God's righteousness is demonstrated in the lives of people by a life of faith in the words of the gospel.
What does "faith to faith" mean? Similar to "strength to strength" it means when you are living the gospel life you have faith, so you live, and are saved, but you go from faith to greater faith and live by your greater faith. So when you live by the words of the gospel because of your faith in them, the result of this will be a growing faith. That is what it means to be "growing" spiritually.
The righteousness of God is an extreme goodness which is not illogical or unrealistic, it is 'extreme' though. Jesus showed us God's righteousness, and he was so good that he was even willing to die a painful death in the hope that people would be able to be saved. Jesus is not on earth now, but the Holy Spirit empowers people to reflect his righteousness by showing the same kind of sacrificial kindness. I've met a few of these people, have you met any?

If you act on the words of the gospel in a way that shows you believe them, you have received the gift of salvation and your faith is growing along with your victory over sin. If this is true for you then you are obligated to share your faith with others so they can share your great privileges.

I have long been a bit pitying of people who are passionate about the poor in developing countries. I have never met one who gave realistic ways that their ideals could actually become reality. They are quick to quote dubious statistics claiming that there are enough resources for everyone to share but none of them seem to have considered the enormity of the task of actually sharing global resources. At the very least, the majority of people on Earth would need to become a part of a fanatical cult with an invincible army just to get the job started. In the process of humanity enforcing goodness on the world much evil would need to be done. For a long time my cynicism was a combination of cold logic and selfishness, after all, I live in one of the world's most privileged countries (I even have internet, and so do you). But I have come to appreciate the desire of these people to do good, though I still think they are misguided. The closest sinful humans have brought us to world peace seems to be wars and revolutions, often started by optimistic idealists. Jesus' plan for world peace is for his servants to spread the gospel everywhere and then to return to bring justice and eternal peace. It is a mistake to think that we can bring justice to the world, only Jesus can do that, and don't wish it were fair already; if the world were just, you wouldn't be able to read this right now.

I should add that I have nothing against helping people in developing countries, this passage in Romans shows that we owe it to them to do so. But we should go ourselves and help people with the gospel and temporal aid together; the gospel is the only real cure for our problems.