Calling Their Names, and Walking On (Romans 16:1-16)
Today’s Word
[Personal Greetings] (NIV)
1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae.
2 I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.
3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus.
4 They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.
5 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.
6 Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you.
7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.
8 Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.
9 Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.
10 Greet Apelles, whose fidelity to Christ has stood the test. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.
11 Greet Herodion, my fellow Jew. Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
12 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.
13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.
14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the other brothers and sisters with them.
15 Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the Lord’s people who are with them.
16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.
Background
Most of us skim this passage. More than twenty names, most of them hard to pronounce, and nothing said about them except “greet.” So we skip ahead. The great argument of Romans finished in the previous chapters, we assume, and what remains is just the polite closing of a letter.
But look at where this list sits, and the picture changes.
Paul is not in Rome. He has never been to Rome. And yet he knows this many faces there. These are people who moved along the roads between Rome and Asia Minor, people expelled from Rome by an imperial decree and later allowed back, people Paul met and worked beside in other cities before they scattered. Priscilla and Aquila alone were driven out of Rome to Corinth, where Paul met them (Acts 18:2); from there they went to Ephesus, and now they have settled in Rome again.
More important is the direction Paul was facing when he wrote this. He was not traveling toward Rome. He was traveling toward Jerusalem — and he had a fairly clear idea of what was waiting for him there (Romans 15:30-31). A city full of people who loved him lay to the west. A city full of people who wanted him silenced lay to the east. He turned east.
So this list is not a formality. It is what a person leaves behind when he pours out his whole heart toward the place he wants to go, and then moves his feet down a different road.
Key Terms Made Simple
- Phoebe: A servant of the church in Cenchreae, the port town of Corinth. The Greek word is *diakonos*, describing a recognized role of service. In verse 2 Paul calls her a “benefactor,” a word closer to patron or protector than to helper. It is widely held that Phoebe was the one who carried this letter to Rome.
- I commend: In the letter-writing culture of that day, this was the formal language of a letter of recommendation for someone arriving in a strange city. It carries the weight of “treat this person as you would treat me.”
- Co-worker: Someone who labors alongside. This list is the plainest evidence that Paul never did ministry alone.
- A holy kiss: The ordinary close greeting of the Mediterranean world, taken up inside the community of faith as a way of treating one another as family. It is not a ritual but a declaration: we are not strangers.
- The church that meets at their house: The early church had no buildings. Someone’s living room was the sanctuary. Verse 5, and the “households” of verses 10-11, point to gatherings like these.
Key Expressions to Notice
- “They risked their lives for me.” (v. 4)
- Before these people were ministry partners, they were people to whom Paul owed his life.
- That is the weight of this passage: he is not going to the city where people like this live.
- “His mother, who has been a mother to me, too.” (v. 13)
- Rufus’s mother did not give birth to Paul. And still he calls her mother.
- The gospel gives a person a new family. And that family hurts to leave.
- “Who work hard in the Lord… who has worked very hard in the Lord.” (vv. 6, 12)
- Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis. Their names survive; their stories do not.
- Unrecorded is not the same as never happened. Paul remembered each labor and wrote it down.
Main Points of the Text
- Sending one person well (vv. 1-2) — Paul commends Phoebe and asks the Romans to welcome her properly and to give her whatever she needs, because she has already given so much to others. Ministry begins not with a grand proclamation but with sending one person well and receiving one person well.
- Twenty-six names (vv. 3-15) — Paul calls them out one at a time. A married couple, relatives, a fellow prisoner, believers who came to Christ before he did, women who worked hard, whole households. Not one of them is folded into a general “all of you.” Love always speaks in proper nouns.
- Handing the greeting over to each other (v. 16) — At the end Paul shifts the direction. Not “greet me,” but “greet one another.” Even if he never gets there, these people can hold on to each other.
Applying to My Life
- Say their names as you go — Anyone who has left a place knows the feeling. There is a mountain of things to sort out, and yet what stays on your mind is faces. Are they all right? Will they hold steady? Paul did not suppress that. He wrote the names down instead. Do not try to erase the missing; spend it on saying names. I met this passage while leaving Mahanaim, the community I had served. Instead of trying to forget the faces I love, I learned to call them one by one in prayer — the most honest thing a person leaving can do.
- Tell apart the road you want from the road you are given — Paul wanted Rome. He went to Jerusalem. Two roads often open in front of us as well: the familiar one where people are glad to see us, and the one God is holding out today. When those two diverge, it is all right for your heart and your feet to point different directions. The person of faith is not the one who walks without wavering, but the one who wavers and still takes the next step.
- Build something that does not need you — Paul’s last request was “greet one another.” A relationship that survives only while I am present is not actually healthy. A good ending means leaving people able to hold on to each other without me. The best thing I can do today for those I am leaving is not to hold them tighter, but to place them in God’s hands and let them love one another.
Think About It
- Whose name is sitting on your heart right now? Could you say that name out loud in prayer today?
- Have you ever sensed a gap between the road you wanted and the road God was giving you? Which way did your feet go?
- What could you put in place today so that things keep working well even after you step away?
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