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