Romans 15:30

Now I beseech you brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.

Paul was well aware of the dangers and difficulties that lay ahead, especially in Jerusalem; and this is an earnest plea for the prayers of his fellow Christians. Only God could protect Paul from those enemies whose vigorous hatred made Jerusalem a place of extreme hazard for him. Paul was especially warned by the Holy Spirit through Agabus (Acts 21:10) that bonds and imprisonment awaited him; and one may not accept the proposition that Paul continued his journey because of other considerations except the highest and purest motives. There were holy reasons for that trip to Jerusalem, reasons of the greatest magnitude and importance, not merely for Paul, but for the church of all ages. Those reasons are not all clearly visible from this time and distance; but that they did truly exist is absolutely certain. This appears from the fact of Paul's making the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the Spirit to be the basis of his request for the prayers of fellow Christians as he moved to accomplish it.