1. Notice the names. There are twenty-seven names. More people are greeted, but twenty-seven are named—twenty-six of them in Rome, and Phoebe (the first mentioned) on her way to Rome. Surely we should learn from this that names matter. I wish I could call you all by name. Jesus does. John 10:3 says, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” Strive to know each other’s names. Paul is working here at building a relationship with the church he wants as his sending church in the mission to Spain. It’s amazing how many names he knows in Rome when he has never been there. Let’s be like him in this.
2. Notice the different the relationships and partnerships. It is remarkable the words that he uses to describe who these people are in relationship to him and to each other: sister, brother, servant, saints, patron, fellow workers, church, firstfruits, kinsmen, fellow prisoners, beloved, approved in Christ, elect, mother to me. The more you connect with people the more different and the more enriching are the ways that they bring blessing into your life—and you to theirs.
3. Notice how Christ-saturated these relationships are. Verse 2: “Welcome her in the Lord.” Verse 3: “My fellow workers in Christ Jesus.” Verse 5: The “first convert to Christ.” Verse 7: “They were in Christ before me.” Verse 8: “My beloved in the Lord.” Verse 9: “My fellow worker in Christ.” Verse 10: “Apelles, who is approved in Christ.” Verse 11: “Greet those in the Lord.” Verse 12: “Greet those workers in the Lord.” Verse 13: “Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord.” Verse 14: “Rufus, chosen in the Lord.”
This is not a simple list of greetings. This is the way a person who is drenched in Christ talks about his friends. When you write your family or friends, or when you talk on the phone, or send an email, is Christ there like this? If you say, as I have heard some say, “I don’t wear my faith on my sleeve,” be careful. The issue isn’t what’s on your sleeve. The issue is what’s in your mouth, because Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). If Christ isn’t there in your talk and in your emails, it’s not a sleeve issue—it’s not merely a personality issue, it’s not merely an ethnic issue, it’s not merely a family-of-origin issue—it’s a heart issue. Let’s be a church drenched with Jesus like Paul in Romans 16.
4. Notice that these folks are spread over several churches in Rome. Verse 5, referring to Prisca and Aquila: “Greet also the church in their house.” So there is one church that he gives a generic greeting to through Prisca and Aquila. Then there are all these other names. Look at verse 14: “ Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.” That probably means: the church that meets with these brothers. Similarly in verse 15: “Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.” And there are probably other groupings. So we learn that the church in Rome was really churches in Rome. So the church in the Twin Cities should be the churches in the Twin Cities. May the Lord multiply Bible-believing, Christ-drenched churches in these cities!
5. Notice the most common command—to greet. Thirteen times in sixteen verses he tells them: Greet so and so. And greet so and so. Who is he talking to? I assume that this letter is written to all the Roman Christians. Romans 1:7, “To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.” If I am talking to Kenny Stokes, I don’t say, “Greet Kenny Stokes.” So it seems that Paul expects this letter to be handled and read and taught by the leaders of the church in Rome. He is telling them: Greet these twenty-six people that I have named and all the churches they represent.
6. Notice the love that permeates this chapter. Four times Paul uses the word loved or beloved. “My beloved Epaenetus” (v. 5), “Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord” (v. 8), “my beloved Stachys” (v. 9), “Greet the beloved Persis” (v. 12). And then we read things like: “Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you” (v. 6) and Prisca and Aquila “risked their necks for my life” (v. 4). This is the language of love. May the Lord take last week’s message on wrestling and resting together and draw us into these kinds of relationships.
I'm not sure what I can add to this. The thread is community and people matter. I love that.
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