Romans 16:1-16 (NIV)
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea. I 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.
Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.
Greet 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.
Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you. Greet 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.
Greet Ampliatus, whom I love in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.
Greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.
Greet Herodion, my relative. Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
Greet 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.
Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.
Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brothers with them.
Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the saints with them.
Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.
It was common in letters of Paul’s day to send greetings to people who were known to the writer of the letter. Paul frequently, though not always, did this in his letters.
But before he got to that, he wrote a bit about Phoebe, a woman who served as a deacon in the church of Cenchrea, near Corinth. Her calling was serving the people and providing for their needs, as opposed to being involved in the preaching or teaching ministry. Phoebe was traveling from Corinth to Rome and had agreed to transport Paul’s letter to the Church there. That was the normal way that personal letters were transported from place to place in those days.
Paul urged the Christians in Rome not to simply receive his letter, but to receive the messenger, Phoebe, as well. She was a woman of fine character who played a significant role in the Church, and was deserving not only of their hospitality, but of any help that they could provide for her while she was in the city.
Priscilla and Aquila are singled out for special greetings. Paul had first met them in Corinth, where they had fled after Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome in AD 49. There had been an immediate rapport between the couple and Paul, partly because both Paul and Aquila were tentmakers. So, they stayed and worked together. (Acts 18:1-3).
The couple traveled with Paul when he left Corinth and decided to stay in Ephesus (Acts 18:18-19). It was there that Aquila and Priscilla met and discipled Apollos (Acts 18:24-26). Later they moved back to Rome.
Of the rest to whom Paul sends greetings, little is known. But his brief descriptions show at once that his ministry had touched many lives, and, in turn, had been touched by many lives. There are both men and women mentioned, as well as younger people and older people. Of many it is said that they were hard workers in the service of the Lord. And all of them played an important role in the growth and expansion of the kingdom of God.
Paul’s final greeting in this section is a general one: to all the rest of the Church from all the Churches of Christ. All Christians are fellow-workers in the kingdom, brothers and sisters in the Lord, and he instructs them to greet one another with a holy kiss, a normal greeting of the day in the Church (1 Corinthians 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:26).
Father, we can sometimes forget that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and that we are all coworkers in the work of the kingdom and in the spiritual battles that go with it. Lord, bind us together as, not just a family, but as Your kingdom people. Help us to work together in harmony, to live together in love, and to serve together with abundant joy, so that Your kingdom will grow, and so that more and more people will come in and find eternal life in You. Amen.