Romans 16

1I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea. 2I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me. 3Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. 4They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. 5Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia. 6Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you. 7Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was. 8Greet Ampliatus, whom I love in the Lord. 9Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys. 10Greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus. 11Greet Herodion, my relative. Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. 12Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord. 13Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too. 14Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brothers with them. 15Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the saints with them. 16Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.

17I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. 19Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.

20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

21Timothy, my fellow worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.

22I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord.

23Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings. Erastus, who is the city's director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings.

25Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him— 27to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Main Points

1. As we hear Paul describing the people whom he wants the Roman church to greet on his behalf, we get some brief but revealing descriptions of what God wants the church to be (vv. 1-16, 21-23).

-Phoebe and Mary are models of helping others (vv. 1-2, 6; Ac 20:35; Heb 6:10)
-Priscilla and Acquila are willing to lay down their lives for their fellow Christians (Php 2:25-30; 1 Jn 3:16-19)
-Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis are very diligent in their work for God (v. 12; Rom 12:11; 1 Co 15:58; Gal 6:9-10; Heb 6:10-12)
-Apelles persevered through testing (Jas 1:2-4, 12; 1 Pe 1: 6-7)
-Rufus' mother treated fellow Christians as if they were her own family members (1 Th 2:6b-12)

2. Christians are not to have fellowship with those who claim to be of the faith but teach doctrines that contradict the gospel (vv. 17-19).

- there is a defined body of doctrine that Christians are to believe and practice (2 Tim 1:13-14; Acts 20:27, Jude 3)
- "Christian doctrine teaches us about God, His purposes and will for our lives, what we are like spiritually apart from God's grace, how God's grace changes us -- in short, everything we need to know in order to pursue true spirituality (Rom. 6:17-18; 1 Tim. 1:5, 10; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). Doctrine provides external, objective controls for our inward, subjective experiences so that we may discern genuine spirituality from fraudulent, artificial, or even demonic spirituality (Col. 2:22-23; 1 John 4:1-3)" - Robert Bowman, A Biblical Guide to Orthodoxy and Heresy (well worth reading - Part 1 and Part 2)
-"Keep away from them" (v. 17) - does this mean we are not to talk to, nor to have anything to do with, such people? Answers John Piper: "Avoiding someone does not mean: Stop caring about him, or stop praying for him, or even stop talking to them. When Peter acted contrary to the gospel in Galatians 2, Paul did not first avoid him. He first confronted him with a view to winning him back. That kind of contact is not forbidden. What Paul commands with the words avoid them, is not no contact at all, but the kind of contact that communicates life can go on as usual between us. It can’t. If you, as a professing Christian, persist in departing from the doctrine the apostles taught, we can’t simply hang out together like we used to." - taken from this sermon on November 5, 2006

3. Christians can take heart that Satan will soon be destroyed (v. 20).

-how often do we give thought to Satan?

-Satan is the enemy of God and the church - he who controls the world in its thinking (2 Co 4:4) and masquerades as an angel of light (2 Co 11:14) seeks to destroy the faith of Christians by lying to them (Jn 8:44) and accusing them (Rev 12:10).

-verse 20 is a fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 - which is really the first promise of the gospel.

4. The same God who has brought us from death to life, through the revelation of His word and the proclamation of His Son, will not fail to strengthen us to the end. For this reason (and many others), we must give him all praise and glory (vv. 25-27).

As a fitting conclusion to the study of Paul's letter of Romans, may we meditate once again on Rom 11: 33-36.