Love for the Saints, Part 2
Romans 16:16‑24
Let's open our Bibles together to Romans chapter 16 and we're fast coming to the end of I think it must be three years now of studying Romans on Sunday night. And any of you who know more specifically can relate that to me at the conclusion, I'm kind of curious, I can't really remember. But it's been a wonderful wonderful time in my life and in the life of our church as well.
And as we come back to the closing chapter of this great doctrinal epistle, we find that the Apostle Paul is continuing to open his heart so that the Roman readers may share in his personal attitudes, as well as his inspired theology. He has given to them through chapter 15 verse 13 his theology, really the theology of the Spirit of God through him by the inspired Word.
Having given that great treatise on theology, on justification by grace through faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and drawing it to a conclusion in chapter 15 verse 13, from then on through the remainder of chapter 15 and inclusive of chapter 16, he shares his heart so that they might know him as an apostle as well as that which he taught. The intent of that is that not only they might trust his teaching because of the genuineness of his heart, but that they might get to know him a little bit because he wants to come to Rome and he wants them to assist him in a great dream that he has to reach Spain with the gospel. And in order to establish a meaningful relationship with them, he unbares his heart. In the process in chapter 15 he explains something of that dream to go to Spain, he explains something of his commitment to do the will of God, he lets them see how totally committed he is to his apostleship and that which God has placed upon his heart.
Then in chapter 16 still revealing his heart to them he gives a long list of commendation and cordial greetings to people who were in Rome at that time who were significant, important folks in his life and ministry. This way he identifies himself with a great number of the congregation of the church at Rome though he himself had never been there. And in so doing provides a sort of base of relationship and friendship upon which he can build so that when he does come if in the will of God it be so they will be able to assist him on his way to Spain. It's our belief that he never did make it to Spain, but nonetheless this was his intent if in the will of God.
And as we've been looking at chapter 16, we started last Sunday night, we've been kind of looking at his great love for the saints. Here we have this catalogue of names, people who had a very important part in his life and ministry. And we have reminded ourselves that Paul was not an isolationist. He didn't see himself as above everyone else because of his many visions, because of his many revelations, because of the unique nature of his apostle and in his calling. He was not so consumed either with the monumental nature of his task, that people had really no part in his life, they were merely helpers and folks to be used to get to the great ends of his intended mission...he didn't see it that way. People were more than just elements of success. They were more than just someone to help. They were more than a faceless mass supporting one who had a great task, he really cared.
He saw them as friends. He saw them as beloved. He saw them as coworkers. And we remember, too, that he never traveled alone, he always took some people with him and the only time really you find him alone is in the seventeenth chapter of Acts when he was hussled out of Macedonia because there was so much trouble brewing because of the riot that started in Thessalonica over his preaching. He went down to Berea and there, you remember, he found those who were so noble because they searched the scriptures daily to see whether the things that were said were so. And even while he was there the Thessalonians who were enraged by his teaching followed him there and his friends, Silas and Timothy, feeling that for his own protection he ought to be taken out of town sent him to Athens. And he was in Athens alone. And that's a very rare thing in the life of the Apostle Paul and it didn't last very long. He went there for a little R&R, a little rest, a little time to recuperate, a little relief from the persecution, but when in Athens was so moved when he saw the city given to idolatry that he went to the place in the city where you would be heard, to Mars Hill among the Athenian philosophers and there he told them who the true God was and the result was chapter 17 verse 34 that many believed and joined him. Two of them were named Dionysius and Damaris and he was no longer alone.
He was much more comfortable with accountability. He was much more comfortable in a relationship situation. He was much more comfortable when there was someone into whom he could pour his life, when there was someone with whom he could pray, when there was someone who could strengthen his hand. And so we find in the life of this man that he was ever and always surrounded by people who supported and cared and ministered alongside and who received in great proportion the love of this man and who gave back in equally great proportion their love to him.
Now this affection that Paul has for people oozes out of his epistles. And I don't want to belabor the point by reading all of the things that we could possibly read to prove that, but to suggest to you some reminders of it. In Philippians 1:7 he says, "Even as it is right for me to think this of you all," that is of the fact that the Lord would perfect in them what He began, "because...I love this phrase...I have you in my heart." And that was really true. He carried a long line of people in his heart, people for whom he unceasingly prayed. In Philippians chapter 4 verse 1 he says, "Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown." People were everything to Paul. They were everything in terms of this world.
In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, one of my favorite passages expressing the heart of one who really serves in the Lord's work, "We were gentle among you even as a nursing mother cherishes her children," and there is nothing more tender, more gentle, more gracious than a nursing mother, nursing that little infant life. "And that's how we were with you being affectionately desirous of you we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only but our own souls because you were dear unto us." And he goes on to talk about the labor and the travail and laboring night and day because we wouldn't be chargeable to you, we preached to you the gospel of God. This goes on all the way down to verse 20 where he says, "You are our glory and our joy." People...an essential part in the life of this marvelous Apostle.
In Titus 3:15 he says, "All that are with me greet thee," and then this phrase, "greet them that love us in the faith." He had created a network of loving relationships.
Now the book of Acts gives us many of the names of these people who were a part of that intimate fellowship of laborers for Christ that surrounded the Apostle Paul. And had we time we could begin with the beginning of his ministry in chapter 13 in the four co‑teachers and prophets who labored with him in Antioch. And we could march right on through to chapter 28 and just begin a cataloging of those people who were part of the love bond of the Apostle Paul who shared his life and ministry.
We could look at the end of 1 Corinthians, chapter 16, and we could find a list of them there. We could look at the last chapter of Colossians, chapter 4 verses 7 to 18, and find them there. We could look at the end of 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 19 to 22 and hear again the heart of Paul expressed in love toward those for whom he had great affection. But nowhere, frankly, nowhere in all of the writings of the New Testament is there as rich and comprehensive and insightful a list of those who were part of his life as in the sixteenth chapter of Romans.
Now I'm certain that some names were left out. There were, no doubt, other folks who labored alongside Paul who were also now in Rome. But in spite of the fact that he might have left someone out, he nonetheless was compelled in his spirit by the Spirit of God and, no doubt, by his own affection to express personal cordiality and commendation to these who are named in this great sixteenth chapter. And he knows by identifying himself with them he is, in a sense, identifying with this church to which he has never gone and thus establishing a relationship which may serve him in the future.
So the chapter reveals his heart for those who served with him. And as I said to you last week, I think it really is the mark of someone effective in the service of God that they are not only beloved of the people who serve with them but that they love those people as well. And if I can be so bold as to press that home into my own heart and my own ministry, I would say to you that the richest and sweetest and highest joy and privilege in ministry that I've had in 17 years of ministry in this church is without question the relationships of those who labor alongside of me. They have enriched my life in ways that are inestimable to me. And I can only hope and pray that in some small way the love that they have bestowed upon me unceasingly has been given back to them.
Now Paul shares his affection by expressing...what we can do is just kind of draw them into four different categories: accommodation, cordiality, a caution and then a list of companions at the end. And this is not an easy chapter to outline with any great theological alacrity. It just sort of has to be divided up in a way that you can kind of hang your thoughts on some hooks.
So let's remember then that back in verses 1 and 2 he began with a commendation and he commended Phoebe, and he commended her basically for being a sister, a servant and a helper or patron or benefactor of the church. This dear woman was perhaps to the church something like Lydia was to the Philippian church, she had expressed a marvelous ministry to the church of patronage, perhaps in some great way supporting. She, I believe, was the bearer of the Roman epistle to Rome. She is given a very unique responsibility and they are instructed to receive her, assist her in the business she's involved in because that would be consistent since she is a sister in Christ, since she is such a faithful diakonos of the church at Cenchreae which would have been a daughter church of the Corinthian assembly and since she has been so much a helper of many, he says at the end of verse 2, and of myself also.
So we started with a commendation. Then there was his cordiality. And remember last week verse 3 through 16, or actually 15, is a long list of greeting. And we went through that list and we just had a marvelous time endeavoring to identify the wonderful truths that sort of appear in that list, an open display of loving affection for individual friends who stood alongside the Apostle Paul. It is an intimate thing, it is very transparent, it is warm hearted, it is affectionate, it is rich and it is so very human. It brings Paul down right to where we are as he pours out his affection to these who mean so very much to him.
Now that cordiality section comes to a conclusion in verse 16. Let's pick it up there where we left off. In summing up all of his love to these friends now residing in Rome, he calls on them for a very familiar duty to be expressed. He says in verse 16, "Greet one another with an holy kiss, the churches of Christ greet you." Greet one another with an holy kiss. This calls for a demonstration of physical affection and is an old custom in the east.
You can go all the way back into the New Testament...pardon me, you can go all the way back into the Old Testament period and you will find the commonness of this kind of kiss. It was common for people to kiss, it could be just an embrace, it could be a kiss on the cheek, it could be a kiss on the forehead. We find illustrations of a kiss on the hand. It was even common to kiss the beard. And even on a rare occasion to kiss the mouth. This as a sign of affection. There's nothing erotic in this kind of kiss, this was rather a sign of warm affection.
Now such kisses we find also were for relatives. They were also for people who were highly respected and honored. They were for friends and they were for rulers as well. Commonly also this kind of kiss would be given at a greeting when people came together and also at a parting when they separated. And usually the exchange was between those of the same sex, though there is no reason to believe that it did not occasionally occur between those of the opposite sex. The New Testament church obviously picked up this form of salutation