ROMANS 16
It is interesting to see that we have here an inspired example of a letter of commendation. We ought to be exercised as to being such as could be truly commended. It is good when brethren who write letters [p. 240] of commendation can refer to definite spiritual features in the persons commended. There may be commendable features even in a child — a simplicity of heart that, makes much of the Lord, and that loves His people, and is ready to serve them. How commendable it is when young people are prepared to stand aside from the course of this age — from its pleasures, and from the many things that men think highly of — and to find their happiness in walking with the saints, and in learning more of the preciousness of Christ!
The more spiritual brethren are, the more they will appreciate any characteristics which it might be suitable to mention. Phoebe was “minister of the assembly which is in Cenchrea”; she was marked by active service for the assembly, which would intimate that she had been the ready servant of the whole company. She had been a helper of many, and of Paul himself. Higher commendation could hardly be given to a sister, and yet her qualities were such as every sister might possess. All may in some way serve the assembly and be a help to others. Phoebe was to be received in the Lord worthily of saints, and assisted in whatever matter she had need of the brethren.
It is very striking that, though there is no mention of “the assembly” in the teaching of this epistle, there are five references to “the assembly” or “the assemblies” in this last chapter, Intimating that it is all to be taken up in an assembly setting. The twenty-eight brothers and sisters who are expressly named, and the others who are alluded to in more general terms, are saluted as persons who will quite understand Paul’s references to local assemblies.
[p. 241] They were set together at Rome, like all other “assemblies of the nations” (verse 4), to take up locally their mutual relations. These references to “assemblies” clearly imply that the saints in Rome were walking according to the truth and principles of the assembly as found in the first epistle to the Corinthians. No other order could be spiritually recognised anywhere, for that epistle had in view “all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”, 1 Corinthians 1: 2, as well as “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”. All assembly truth is universal in its application, for “in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit”, 1 Corinthians 12: 13. Neither sectarianism nor independency could have place in such an order of things, for all the local saints were of the local “assembly”, and they were all part of a company that was “one body in Christ”.
The assemblies are not spoken of in Romans 16 as “the assemblies of God”, but as “the assemblies of the nations”; thus, in keeping with the whole truth of the epistle, emphasising the grace which had secured assemblies in so many parts of the Gentile world. They were local companies of Gentiles, set together in assembly order by the grace which had called them.
They are also spoken of in verse 16 as “the assemblies of Christ”. It was He, indeed, who had formed them, for He is the true “Former of assemblies” (see note to Ecclesiastes 1: 1 in New Translation), and in any assembly formed by Christ we may be sure there will be a great place for God; His Name and His praise will be there, and all will carry the impress,
[p. 242] not of man after the flesh, but of Christ the Anointed of God.
This last chapter of Romans thus links up the truth here presented with that of 1 Corinthians, and also, by the reference to “the revelation of the mystery” in verse 25, with Colossians and Ephesians. The truth is one indivisible whole, and no one part of it, however important in itself, is to be detached from the other parts. They all go together to make up “the unity of the faith”.
The number of salutations here has been often commented upon. It seems to suggest that there were a number of men and women at Rome whose names could be suitably connected with this epistle. They would be persons whose lives were not inconsistent with the contents of the epistle. They are like so many living witnesses brought into evidence to make manifest that what Paul has written is not merely abstract doctrine, but that it is something which has found an experimental and practical place and power in actual living men and women. Think of these twenty-eight persons, and others not so expressly named, as being worthy to be saluted in immediate and abiding connection with the truth of this epistle, and this by one who was writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit! We may be quite sure that they were persons who were not unworthy to have their names put by the Holy Spirit alongside the precious truth of this wonderful letter. We might ask ourselves, as a weighty and searching question, whether the Holy Spirit could take account of us as those whose names might be suitably put alongside theirs?
Prisca and Aquila were marked by such devotion [p. 243] to Paul that all the assemblies of the nations were under obligation to them, and thanked them. And the assembly was at their house; probably the saints came together there. What a home for the assembly! A house of persons so devoted to the testimony that they would stake their own neck for Paul’s life!
Then Epaenetus was distinguished as being “the firstfruits of Asia for Christ”. He came forth without any one of his own countrymen to give him a lead. I am sure there is peculiar pleasure for the Lord in one who first gives Him what is due in a town or district. There were going to be at least seven assemblies in Asia, but Epaenetus was the firstfruits; he had a very distinctive place in that locality.
Maria laboured much for the saints at Rome. Then Andronicus and Junias were old saints, known to the apostles, and had been in Christ before Paul. And, as he mentions one after another, he has a distinctive word for some, only the name for others, but his personal salutations for all. As “one body in Christ” some have a more distinctive place and service than others, even as it was amongst David’s mighty men, 1 Chronicles 11, but each may be faithful and devoted in filling his place, so as to be worthy to be saluted with an honour which is from God.
“But I beseech you, brethren, to consider those who create divisions and occasions of falling, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learnt, and turn away from them. For such serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting”. From the earliest days Satan has had his instruments in the assemblies, seeking to divide those whom God had set in unity, bringing in occasions of falling when God [p. 244] would have His people to stand, and introducing human thoughts contrary to the doctrine which has been learnt under divine teaching. Our attitude in relation to all such persons is to “turn away from them”. It was never more important than it is today not to be deceived by good words and fair speeches. There are people and books about, full of good words and fair speeches. You may read page after page, and chapter after chapter, and find nothing but what seems to be sound and scriptural. Then, when suspicion is disarmed, something is slyly brought in “contrary to the doctrine which ye have learnt”. Something subversive of the truth as to the Person or the work of Christ, or that turns souls aside from the glad tidings of God to something that is purely of man. There are many insidious errors abroad. It is not good to listen to their advocates, or to read their books. Having the truth in Christ as divinely taught, go on with it! Do not seek to know the evil! “I wish you to be wise as to that which is good, and simple as to evil”.
The doxology of the last three verses sums up the good, and ascribes all the glory of it to “the only wise God”. He is able to establish us according to Paul’s glad tidings and the preaching of Jesus Christ. We have considered this glad tidings as we have passed through this epistle. Now Paul would leave upon our hearts the serious, and yet encouraging and elevating, thought, that the power of “the only wise God” alone can establish us according to it.
Then there is another thing according to which also the same blessed power can establish us. That is “the revelation of the mystery, as to which silence has been kept in the times of the ages, but which has [p. 245] now been made manifest, and by prophetic scriptures, according to commandment of the eternal God, made known for obedience of faith to all the nations”. Paul would leave upon our spirits, by his solemn closing words, a deep impression of “THE MYSTERY”. He would awaken the most profound interest of our souls by the thought of what is peculiar to, and distinctive of, the assembly. He would have us to note the fact that silence had been kept as to it in the times of the ages. It was a secret reserved in the wisdom of God for the present time, bringing out by its revelation the utmost depths and heights of divine wisdom and love, and the blessedness of God’s eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul would prepare our hearts, as he closes his present letter, to be intensely interested in what he afterwards wrote in his epistle to the Ephesians. But neither the present epistle, nor that which, we may say, it anticipated, were to be apprehended or known in any human or natural way. Saints would only stand in the good of them as established by the power of God. Whether we think of the glad tidings, or of the mystery, or of the establishment of the saints in both, the glory all belongs to God. The apostle turns adoringly to Him! “Now to him that is able to establish you ... the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever. Amen”.