Love for the Saints, Part 1

Romans 16:1‑16

     Let's open our Bibles tonight for our study of God's Word to Romans chapter 16...Romans chapter 16.  As we begin this chapter, I just kind of draw your attention to the fact that it is very likely a chapter that you have never studied.  It may be a chapter that you can't even remember reading because as soon as you started it and saw all those names, you just skipped them over.  It's not one of those most favorite chapters of those who preach and teach the Word of God and yet in many ways it ought to be.  It is sad that it's neglected by many, in fact by most Christian teachers, because it is by far the most extensive, the most intimate and the most specific of all the words of personal loving greeting ever to come from the inspired heart and mind of the Apostle Paul.  It's a rich and thrilling chapter.  And it appears almost as an addendum to such a tome of theology that it gets overlooked.  And so what I want us to do is take a good look at it, it may be the only time in our whole lives we'll do this, and I believe with all my heart it will be extremely rewarding for you as it has been in preparation for me.  In fact, I've been locked up with this chapter in isolation for several days this week, much to my own great blessing and benefit.

     Now in this closing chapter Paul continues what he really began in chapter 14...pardon me, in chapter 15 verse 14, what he began in 15:14 was to reveal his heart, to give you a little bit of personal insight into the man himself, the nature of his ministry, how he viewed the role that he was to play and his gifts and callings within the will of God.  And here in 16 we again look into something of his own heart, his theology he gives us through chapter 15 verse 13, and then he wraps up that great theological treatise and now he wants the Romans and us to know him as much as possible, as well as his theology.

     Now as he began in chapter 15 verse 14 to unfold a little bit about himself, he started with a view of his ministry and now in chapter 16 he focuses on his relationship with people...chapter 15, his relationship to the Lord in ministry, chapter 16 his relationship to people in ministry.  And you will notice in this chapter a myriad of names of given, specifically identifying people who were a part of his life and ministry.  Now the emphasis of the chapter is to show his love, his mutual accountability and his dependence on people within the loving community of the redeemed.  In many ways, this chapter is sort of a living illustration of the love he talked about in chapter 13 verses 8 to 10.  So as he signs off this great epistle before a final benediction that comes from verse 25 to 27 which is his actual closing sign off, he ends things with a look at relationships that tell us a lot about his accountability and his love and dependence upon the saints.

     Now let's focus, if we might, on the idea of Paul's love for his fellow brother and sister believers.  And as we focus on that we will see his love revealed in three ways in the chapter...first, by his commendation, secondly, his cordiality and thirdly his caution.  We know that love warns and we shall see that later on in the chapter.

     To begin with let's note Paul's commendation.  We see in the first two verses the commendation of Paul given toward a certain individual, look at them for a moment.  "I commend unto you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchreae that you receive her in the Lord as becometh saints and that you assist her in whatever business she has need of you for she has been...literally...a succorer or a helper of many and also of myself."

     Now we begin the chapter with a name and the name is the name of a lady, Phoebe.  In someways I suppose the names in the chapter are incidental because we don't know these people and for the most part we don't even know who they are.  Phoebe, we have a little of information about, some of them we have absolutely no information about.  The names are then somewhat incidental if interesting, still incidental.  The real insight that I want you to see here is the character of Paul's love and the networking of loving relationships that make ministry possible.  This chapter provides for us one of the clearest insights into the community of believing people in the early church and how that community functioned together. And we'll see that as we go through.

     Now let's look then back at the commendation in verses 1 and 2.  This masterful later, the epistle to the Romans, when completed was taken to Rome by a very special Christian lady by the name of Phoebe.  And that is why Paul commends her to them.  There is little doubt in the mind of those who study this epistle that she is the one carrying the Roman epistle to the church at Rome.  Now remember, Paul is writing in Corinth.  Corinth is in what we now know as Greece.  Rome is in what we now know, of course, is Italy.  And that is a significant journey.  And this great epistle would be carried as a very delicate and a very valuable message to that church in Rome.  There was no Xerox machine in that day, there was no way to copy what was penned and to maintain it in case of some disaster or loss, so Phoebe is given a very sacred trust to handle the Word of God and reach the destination of Rome and give it to the redeemed saints there in the church. 

     This special lady in arriving on Rome will give that letter and they will as they look at it note that in the beginning of the sixteenth chapter she is commended to them as one worthy of their hospitality, worthy of their care, worthy of their fellowship.  And so at the very beginning we sense in the commendation of Paul the expression of love toward this faithful Christian lady to whom he entrusted this great epistle of Rome.  And on that epistle did not only hinge his plans, he wanted them to read about his desire to come to them and to find there the resources to go to Spain, but the articulation of the great truth of justification by grace through faith.  And so to a lady that he trusted greatly, a lady that he loved in Christ greatly, he gives this wonderful ministry.

     Then in verse 1 look now and we note the word "commend."  It basically means to introduce, only it's a richer word than that, it isn't just to introduce in a casual way, but to introduce with an affirming statement of commendation.  Now this is a very common thing in the early church.  Letters of commendation were written, that was a well‑worn custom in Paul's day, when a believer, for example, would be traveling to another city and would want to go and fellowship with that church, that believer could carry a commending letter from the church in their own home town which would ensure to that new congregation that this was indeed one of the children of God, a brother or sister to be loved and received with hospitality.  The reason for that was the need for a place to stay.  In those days inns were nothing short of brothels.  They were places where there would be perhaps looting and stealing.  They were not safe places.  And as Christian people traveled around in the Roman world, the letters of commendation allowed them to be received with love in to varying Christian communities and shown hospitality and care for whatever matters of business they needed to carry on.

     We find such letters of commendation referred to throughout the New Testament and I would just direct your thinking to several passages.  We won't take time to read them all, but you can note them all.  In Acts chapter 18 and verse 27 it says, "When he was disposed to pass into Achaia the brethren wrote," and he's speaking here of Apollos, "exhorting the disciples to receive him."  A very common thing.  Here is Apollos moving along in his journeys, a mighty preacher of the Old Testament and a servant of God and he is commended in a letter so that the saints will know to receive him and to demonstrate to him hospitality, not be fearful but be responsible for his care.  In 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 18, "And we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches and not only that but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord and to show our ready mind, avoiding this that no man should blame us in this abundance which is administered to us, providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of men, and we have sent with them our brother whom we have often proved diligent in many things but now much more diligent upon the great confidence which I have in you, whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker concerning you or our brethren being inquired of, they are the messengers of the churches and the glory of Christ, wherefore show you to them and before the churches the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf."  So in commending Titus and those who came with him to the Corinthians comes this part of the eighth chapter of the second letter as a commendation of them so they will be granted a certain amount of hospitality and grace by those who are to receive them.

     We have a similar note to call to your attention in 3 John where it says, "I wrote unto the church but Diotrephes who loves to have the preeminence among them, receives us not."  In other words, the indication is...I wrote, there's a commendation, there's an affirmation of my coming but a refusal to receive me...and he goes on to speak about the evil deed of one Diotrephes.  So it was common to give advance notice of a certain saint coming, either in a biblical letter or in a private letter of commendation.

     Many such letters, by the way, according to archaeologists, have been found, particularly in the Egyptian desert sands that provide for us in rubbish heaps some insight into the character of those ancient letters of commendation.

     Now Paul in commending Phoebe to the church at Rome expresses his love for her and his desire that she be properly treated.  The idea here is that they are to receive her.  He says in verse 16, "Because she is our sister, because she is a servant," and in verse 2, "because she is a succorer," which is an old word for a helper.  He has a loving commendation for this gracious woman.  By the way, her name means "bright and radiant," and perhaps that was true of her testimony.

     Notice first of all that she is commended because she is our sister.  That is not to say our sister in a physical sense but our sister in a spiritual sense.  She belongs to the family of God.  She is your sister, she is my sister.  She is a member of the body of Christ.  She is united to all Christians in the common resurrection life of Christ.  As we know from Ephesians 2:16 to 22 and many other passages, all who love Christ are a part of His family and they belong together.  There is one body, no separate bodies of Christ, and she must be received as one who belongs to that body.  We are one family, we are all the children of God and we must fellowship with one another according to the common eternal life.  And so based upon her identity as a believer, belonging to the family of God, she is to be received.     That's a good word for us to remember.  Anyone who comes naming the name of Christ and belonging to His family is family to us as well.

     Secondly he says, she is not only our sister but she is a servant of the church which is at Cenchreae.  Now Paul is writing from Corinth and about nine miles away, eight or nine miles, on the Saronic Gulf was a port city, really the seaport for Corinth, known as Cenchreae.  Any shipping that needed to be done from Corinth would be done at Cenchreae.  It's very likely that the church in Cenchreae was founded as a result of the ministry of the church at Corinth, that church spawning, if you will, a daughter church in that seaport town.  This dear lady, Phoebe, no doubt had some particular role of service that she rendered in this congregation.  Now note that the word "servant" is the word diakonos from which we get our familiar word deacon.  Now that word knows no gender.  It is neither a masculine word nor is it a feminine one.  Diakonon defies that kind of gender distinction, thus it refers in very general terms to one who serves...to one who serves, be he male or she female.  And its use in the New Testament is very broad and very general.  I try to point this out in a little book I've written called "Deacons," what the Bible teaches about deacons.  It is a very broad and general term.  Now frankly it doesn't necessarily mean anything official.  There are many many uses of that word which originally meant to serve a table, to wait on a table and came to mean any kind of simple humble service, or any kind of ministry in general.

     It's not until 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 8 that there comes to be a very specific title of deacon in the local church.  Up to that point all the biblical uses in the gospels, the book of Acts and even the epistles are very general about those who serve the church.  As Paul at the end of his ministry, after his first Roman imprisonment, writes to Timothy, there has formed a sort of formal office of deacon within the church that is now recognized, you might say, with a capital "D" as an official title for those who serve in a very unique way, who are recognized as special appointed servants of the church.  It is likely and very possible that Phoebe was one of those special servants who had been identified as such.  Which is to say there were women deacons which we come to know as deaconesses. 

     Now some people want to debate whether there was such an office as deaconess.  It is my conviction that in 1 Timothy chapter 3 you have elders very clearly defined called bishops there, then in chapter...that's 1 through 7, then in verse 8, likewise deacons, and then in verse 11, likewise...and it uses the word women.  Now the likewise takes us back to the likewise of deacons which takes us back to verse 1 and the bishop and the fact that those two "likewise" are there indicates to me there is a sequence from elder, or bishop, which is the same thing, to deacon, likewise another office, if the first two are offices officially recognized as such, the third must be as well.  Some people say no it's just deacons' wives.  Well why would there be very clear definition for the character of a deacon's wife and not the wife of an elder?  That makes no sense.  So I'm convinced that the text is saying there are to be in the local church elders, or bishops, pastors, overseers, all the same, deacons and deaconesses.

     You say, "Well why didn't it say deaconess?"  Because that word has no gender and has no feminine form.  Therefore the only word that can be used is the word woman, and that's why it's used.  So I believe that in the early church there came to be a formally recognized group of women who served in the church in an official capacity and it's my conviction that this dear lady was one of those recognized as a servant among the women as a deaconess, if you will.

     Now what was their role?  Well you could look at 1 Timothy chapter 5 and probably get a little bit of an idea because there you have some qualifications in verses 9 and 10 for someone who is taking on the roles of the church as a widow to be supported.  What kind of women is the church to support in their widowhood?  Here are the kinds of women.  They are to be women who have reached the age of 60 so that they're no longer desirous of marrying again.  They are to have been one‑man women, that is women who were not unfaithful to their husbands. They were well reported of women for their good works, women who had brought up children, who had lodged strangers...and again we're back to the fact that hospitality was very important in that world...women who washed the saints feet, who relieved the afflicted, who diligently followed every good work.  Now that would be sort of the characteristic of deaconess, and surely those widows put on the list would function in that capacity as a deaconess.

     As we look in the history of the early church we find that the role of those women in the first few centuries was to care for the sick, to care for the poor, to minister to strangers, to show hospitality, to serve martyrs in prison, taking them supplies and needs and providing for whatever might be desperately needed because of the exogensies of imprisonment.  Those deaconesses were used to instruct new women converts in the discipling process, to assist in the emersion of women and to exercise a general supervision over ministries to the needs of women in the churches.  Now that was the role of a deaconess and this was such a woman, a sister in Christ and a servant of the church who was no doubt recognized as one worthy of commendation.

     Notice in verse 3 it says, pardon me, verse 2 and thirdly it says, "That you are to receive her in the Lord as becomes saints and assist her in whatever business she has need of you for she has been a succorer, or a helper of many and of myself also."  We can use the word succor which is to say she has been a helper of many.  The word actually means a benefactor.  Now when I say the word "patron" do you know what that means?  Do you know what a patron is?  If you ever read any of ancient European history you understand the word patron.  A patron was someone who financially supported someone else.  Many artists had a patron.  They would paint and they would do their sculpture and they would do whatever they needed to do.  There were people who were researchers and students and scholars and people like that would find a patron who would support them.   Apparently this woman had enough means to provide a patronage for not only the Apostle Paul but for others in the church.  The term is prostatis and it basically in the Jewish community came to refer to a wealthy supporter.  So this dear woman was a wealthy supporter, no doubt, of the church at Cenchreae.  It may well have met in her home.  She may have been to that church what Lydia was to the church at Philippi.  And she also offered some support in some way to the Apostle himself.

     So here is a lady distinguished for those three reasons. And because of her godly ministry she is entrusted with the epistle to the Romans in her care on her journey to Rome. And she is commended by Paul.  And look at verse 2 again, the church is told to receive her in the Lord as becometh saints.  Now what does that mean?  Well it means to accept her as one who belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, accept her in the sense that you accept Him.  You remember the words of Jesus...that whatever you do to the least of these My children you have done it unto Me...anyone of us who is in Christ when treated by any other one of us is in a sense receiving the treatment that Christ Himself is receiving.  She was no alien to spiritual intimacy.  She was no alien to the spiritual community.  And she was to be received in the love bond of fellowship and union with Jesus Christ.  Receive her in the Lord.  Then he says, "As becometh saints." That is to say fitting for the way Christians should receive other Christians.  True to our sainthood...and you know the word saint means one set apart to God, as those who have been set apart to God, as those who are different than everybody else, as those who are distinct from the world around us, we are to receive one another with a measure of love and hospitality the world doesn't know anything about.  The obligation of love is an obligation to hold no strangers, it is an obligation to love to all those who name the name of Jesus Christ, it an obligation to embrace into our arms, into our compassion, into our care and to supply needs for all those in the body of Christ.  When a stranger in Christ comes among us, we are to receive that stranger with an open heart.  And so he says receive her in the Lord in a way that fits the way a saint ought to act toward another saint.

     And...I like this...you assist her in whatever business she has need of you.  She was on her way to Rome for some business, if indeed she was a wealthy patron it's obvious she was probably going with some special business in mind.  The word, by the way, there is not specifically the word business, it is a Greek word pragmateia from which we get pragmatic, she was there for some pragmatic reason, for some transaction would be the technical translation.  She had come to Rome for a transaction of some sort, perhaps a legal matter related to her business and he tells the church assist her.  Now isn't that an important thought.  When someone comes to us, a stranger, we are in the church to provide not only love and spiritual affection but assistance in the matters of finance or business or whatever other matters that person might have in view that are not necessarily related directly to the Kingdom of God.  In other words, we're to provide all of the resources necessary for bidding God's speed and allowing that person to accomplish whatever objectives are in mind.

     And it's a wonderful thing for the church to do that, to assist each other in these kinds of things.  Whatever she did, Paul said, whatever her business might be, whatever transaction she enters in, you know the people in Rome, you know how things are, you know who to see, you know who to talk to, you expedite that situation on her behalf.

     Now whatever she had done for Paul, whatever she had done for the church at Cenchreae and we really don't know specifics, it was sufficient for him to commend her in love to this congregation. And in a very real way, to memorialize her forever in the pages of God's eternal Word because of her devoted service.

     Now you're looking into the heart of a man and you're seeing his love for people.  There are some people who reach a plateau and a plain of sort of self‑glorification who reach a place where they really lose touch all together with those who have assisted them in the process and have little thought for them, but not the Apostle Paul.  It should thrill us, frankly, to find him so gracious and so generous and so commending of this dear woman.  She bears the gospel of God.  I mean, let's face it, in the book of Hebrews it tells us that the law of God was brought to men by angels.  And here is something for this age and this dispensation more important than Old Testament law, more important than the Mosaic legislation, here is the gospel of the living God not entrusted to angels but to one faithful lady.  What a commendation of the kind of woman she was...to bear the message of the gospel of grace to the center of the Gentile world, the city of Rome.

     And may I encourage all of you ladies that are here tonight that God has always used women and still does and uses them mightily in the advance of His Kingdom.  And though He did not use a woman to write a book of the Bible, He used a woman to transport that book, that most important perhaps of all books in terms of its presentation of the gospel.  And therefore demonstrated that within the bounds of biblical definition and function designed by God for women, He uses them in marvelous and glorious tasks that do not violate His holy design for them.  And so this woman is emblematic of all those women who within the framework of God's design have borne a place of honor.  And we see in the love of Paul the commendation of one woman that no doubt would extend to many other people who served him so well.

     So, the first insight into His love and into his relationships with people, his accountability, his dependency is related to this commendation.  Now let's look at the second one and that's his cordiality.   And that takes us from verse 3 all the way to verse 23 with a little break in verses 17 to 20 which we'll probably pick up next time.  But starting in verse 3 we begin a list of names that runs down to verse 16 and then stops where there's a greeting.  And then we pick up more names in verse 21 to 23.  Now all of these names really extend to us insight into Paul's love because it's a whole lot of cordiality, a whole lot of loving greeting to everybody.  It is a real display of open love.  He greets the saints.  I love the fact that he knows who they are.  I mean, they're not a lot of nameless folks.  This is not a man who is so isolated from reality, who is so into his own thing, who has reached such a level of esteem in the minds of everybody and in himself that he just loses touch with everybody.  Not at all.

     We see here...Paul knew who was his helper.  Paul knew who stood by him.  And he loved them and they were an essential part of his life.  The breadth of his ministry, the sweep of it can be seen in the fact that though he has never been to Rome he names here 24 individuals, 17 men and seven women, and he names two households along with some unnamed brothers and unnamed sisters in the Savior who are at Rome.  Though he had never been there he had been instrumental in winning so many to Christ who had gone to Rome and were now there as a part of that church in that great city.  Undoubtedly what we have in these 24 individuals and two households and unnamed sisters and brothers is a catalogue of very choice Christians.

     Now as I said at the beginning, we don't know very much about them.  But there are a few fascinating highlights to examine.  And we could just read names and say...well, we don't know who they are...and go on, but there are some in history who couldn't do that and we're grateful to them.  A great exegetical commentator by the name of J.B. Lightfoot seemed to be preoccupied with finding out who all these people were. And he has some fascinating data.  William Barclay also personally preoccupied with trying to find out who all these people were add some very important and interesting data and I want to intersect with a little bit of that, anyway, as we go through because I want you to see that these are flesh and blood real people.  And some of them, even the New Testament, gives us a little information about.

     So let's enter into the greeting, the cordiality section which gives us Paul's heart for individuals who served alongside of him.  Verse 3, "Greet Prisca and Aquila, my helpers," or better, "my fellow workers," my sunergos, from which we get the word ergo which has to do with work, sunergo, my fellow workers.  Now he names Prisca and Aquila.  They were not apostles.  They were not prophets.  But they were his fellow workers.

     You say, "What were they?"  Well, they were tent makers.  You go back to Acts 18:3 and they had the same profession that Paul did.  And when he went to Corinth he went to the synagogue, you read about it in the first part of the eighteenth chapter, he went to the synagogue and when he went to the synagogue he met them.  How did that happen?  I remember when I was studying Acts 18 I got a little bit into the structure of the synagogue and found out that it was customary for people in the synagogue to sit in this fashion...men on one side and women on the other side.  And the men sat not just on one side but they sat in the area of their profession.  So it would not be uncommon for Paul to take his seat with the tent makers and therefore strike up an acquaintance with this man named Aquila and as a consequence meet his wife whose name actually is Prisca, Priscilla is a diminutive form which is used by Luke.  Luke favors the diminutive forms on many names whereas Paul favors the more classical formal forms.  This is true not only of Prisca and Priscilla, but of Silas and Silvanus.  That tends to be a difference between L