“I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae, that you receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, and of my own self.
“Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life laid down their own necks; to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles. Greet the assembly that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ. Greet Mary, who labored much for us. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners, who are notable among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved. Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet them of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord. Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved, who labored much in the Lord. Greet Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The assemblies of Christ greet you.”
Paul has spent fifteen chapters explaining the gospel. He has moved from humanity’s universal guilt to justification by faith, from union with Christ to life in the Spirit, from God’s faithfulness concerning Israel to the practical shape of Christian obedience. He has addressed Jews and Gentiles, the strong and the weak, governing authorities, love of neighbor, Christian liberty, missionary work, and prayer.
Romans 16 now fills the page with names, but the change is not a departure from everything that came before it. The people Paul greets are what the theology of Romans looks like when it takes shape within a church. Men and women, Jewish and Gentile believers, fellow workers and former prisoners, members of households and Christians gathering in homes throughout Rome have been brought together by the gospel Paul has spent the letter explaining. Some are known elsewhere in the New Testament, while others appear here and nowhere else. Paul nevertheless remembers their work, their sacrifices, their relationships, and their service to Christ.
The chapter begins with Phoebe, whom Paul does more than greet. He commends her to the Roman Christians and asks them to receive and assist her. From there his greetings spread through the Christian community until the command becomes mutual: “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” The gospel has created not merely individual believers but a people who belong to Christ and therefore to one another.
I Commend to You Phoebe
Romans 16:1–2
“I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae, that you receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, and of my own self.”
Paul begins by commending Phoebe to the Roman church. She is introduced through her relationship to Christ and his people: she is “our sister” and a servant of the assembly at Cenchreae.
Paul asks the Romans to “receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints.” Phoebe may arrive among Christians who do not personally know her, but their common belonging to Christ establishes responsibilities before any personal relationship has been formed. Receiving her in the Lord means recognizing her as one of the saints and treating her accordingly.
That reception is immediately practical. Paul asks the Romans to assist her “in whatever matter she may need.” Christian fellowship is not exhausted by recognizing another believer as a brother or sister. The relationship becomes tangible when another Christian has a need we are capable of helping meet.
Phoebe has already lived according to that pattern. Paul describes her as “a helper of many, and of my own self.” Whatever form that assistance had taken, she had used what was available to her for the good of other believers, including Paul. He now asks the Roman Christians to extend to her the kind of service she has already extended to others.
The final chapter of a letter that has repeatedly called Christians to serve one another therefore begins with the commendation of a woman known for doing exactly that.
My Fellow Workers in Christ Jesus
Romans 16:3–5
“Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life laid down their own necks; to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles. Greet the assembly that is in their house.”
Prisca and Aquila occupy a prominent place among Paul’s greetings because they share a history of ministry with him. They appear elsewhere in the New Testament working alongside Paul and helping instruct Apollos more accurately concerning the way of God. By the time Paul writes Romans, they are in Rome, where an assembly meets in their house.
Paul calls them “my fellow workers in Christ Jesus.” Their relationship has been formed not merely through friendship but through shared service to Christ, and that service had involved real danger. Paul says they “laid down their own necks” for his life. He does not identify the circumstances, but whatever occurred placed them at sufficient risk that Paul remembers it as a willingness to hazard their lives for his.
His gratitude consequently extends beyond himself. The assemblies of the Gentiles also give thanks for them because the ministry they helped preserve continued to serve churches throughout the nations. An act performed for one fellow Christian became part of a much larger work.
Their home in Rome now serves that same work as a gathering place for believers. Prisca and Aquila have carried their service across cities, opening their lives and their household to the people of Christ. Paul’s brief greeting therefore gives a concrete picture of the church he has described throughout Romans: believers labor alongside one another, risk themselves for one another, practice hospitality, and use what they possess for the life of the body.
Who Labored Much for You
Romans 16:5–12
“Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ. Greet Mary, who labored much for us. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners, who are notable among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved. Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet them of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord. Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved, who labored much in the Lord.”
The repeated command to “greet” could make the passage appear to be little more than a list, but Paul distinguishes these believers by remembering particular features of their lives and service. Epaenetus is beloved and remembered as an early convert to Christ. Mary has “labored much.” Andronicus and Junia share both family connection and imprisonment with Paul and were believers before his own conversion. Urbanus is a fellow worker, Apelles has been approved in Christ, and Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Persis are remembered for their labor in the Lord.
Paul’s language gives us a church in which ministry is distributed throughout the body rather than concentrated in the apostle. He may possess a distinctive calling and authority, but he does not speak as though Christian work begins and ends with him. He is surrounded by people whose labor has contributed to the life and spread of the church.
Women are particularly conspicuous in that work. Phoebe has helped many, Prisca is a fellow worker, Mary has labored much, Tryphaena and Tryphosa labor in the Lord, and Persis has labored much in the Lord. Whatever distinctions of office and responsibility Paul recognizes elsewhere, he has no difficulty publicly acknowledging women whose work has served Christ and his people.
Several of these believers are otherwise unknown to us. Paul gives no biography of Mary, no description of the work performed by Tryphaena and Tryphosa, and no account of what Persis endured in her labor. Their significance did not depend upon becoming prominent figures whose ministries would be remembered by later generations. Paul knew what they had done, and the churches in which they served had received the benefit of their faithfulness.
Romans has repeatedly described Christians as members of one another, possessing different gifts and using them for the good of the body. The names in Paul’s greetings show that instruction embodied in actual people whose labor helped sustain the church.
His Mother and Mine
Romans 16:13
“Greet Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.”
Paul’s greeting to Rufus becomes unexpectedly personal when he mentions Rufus’s mother and calls her “his mother and mine.” He is not claiming a biological relationship. His words reflect a relationship formed within the Christian community in which this woman had apparently cared for Paul with the affection and concern of a mother.
The brief greeting adds warmth to a letter remembered largely for sustained theological argument. The apostle who has reasoned through justification, union with Christ, election, Israel, conscience, and Christian liberty has also depended upon ordinary acts of Christian care. He remembers not only fellow missionaries and those who shared imprisonment with him but a woman whose place in his life is summarized by saying that she had become a mother to him.
That relationship belongs naturally within the vision of the church Paul presented earlier in the letter. Romans 12 called believers to brotherly affection, generosity toward the saints, and hospitality. When those commands are lived over time, the language of brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers becomes more than a metaphor for shared religious affiliation. Relationships are formed in which Christians genuinely take responsibility for one another’s good.
Paul tells us almost nothing else about Rufus’s mother, but what he does tell us is enough to show the kind of fellowship the gospel had created between them. She had cared for Paul in a way he remembered as maternal, and years later her service remained part of the affection with which he addressed the church in Rome.
All the Saints Who Are with Them
Romans 16:14–15
“Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.”
Paul’s greetings appear to move among groups of believers associated with one another. He names several Christians and includes “the brothers who are with them,” then names another group together with “all the saints who are with them.” Alongside the assembly meeting in the house of Prisca and Aquila, these greetings suggest a Christian community in Rome spread among multiple gatherings and networks of believers.
Paul nevertheless writes to them as one church and expects them to recognize responsibilities extending beyond their immediate circles. That expectation is especially important after Romans 14–15. The Christians in Rome differed in background, conscience, and ethnicity, and they apparently did not all gather in the same household. None of those differences altered the fact that Christ had received them into the same people.
Their unity therefore depended upon something deeper than occupying the same room. They belonged to the same Lord, had received the same mercy, and shared membership in the same body. Paul can address distinct gatherings without treating them as independent Christian communities whose obligations stop at the boundaries of their own group.
The gospel had created one people across the households of Rome, and Paul expects the believers within those households to recognize one another as saints.
Greet One Another
Romans 16:16
“Greet one another with a holy kiss. The assemblies of Christ greet you.”
Paul’s series of personal greetings ends by turning the command toward the Roman Christians themselves: “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” He has named particular people whom he wants greeted, but the fellowship expressed in those greetings must also characterize the relationships of the Romans with one another.
The holy kiss was a recognizable expression of affection and fellowship. Paul describes it as “holy” because the greeting belongs to a people set apart to God in Christ. The significance lies not in an empty social gesture but in what the greeting expresses: Christians who have been received by Christ visibly receive one another.
That command reaches directly back into the preceding argument. Paul told the Romans to “accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you.” The strong and weak were not required to erase every difference of conscience before sharing fellowship. Jewish and Gentile believers did not need identical histories in order to belong to the same people. Christians gathering in different homes were not separate bodies simply because they did not always occupy the same room. Their common reception by Christ established the fellowship their greeting acknowledged.
Paul then widens the circle beyond Rome by adding, “The assemblies of Christ greet you.” The Roman believers belong to a people extending across cities and nations. Churches separated by geography recognize one another because all belong to the same Christ, making the greetings of Romans 16 an expression of a fellowship much larger than Paul’s personal network of friends.
Greet One Another
Romans 16 places names and relationships upon the theology Paul has spent the letter developing. The gospel has not merely produced conclusions about justification, grace, Israel, Christian liberty, and the mission to the nations. It has created communities in which people who otherwise might never have belonged to one another now share their homes, resources, labor, suffering, and affection because they belong to Christ.
Phoebe has served and supported other believers. Prisca and Aquila have risked themselves for Paul and opened their home to the church. Mary, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Persis are remembered for their labor. Andronicus and Junia have shared imprisonment. Rufus’s mother has cared for Paul with maternal affection. Other Christians gather throughout Rome in households whose members Paul addresses together as saints. These relationships are not incidental details appended to the theological substance of the letter. They show what that theology has produced.
Romans began by placing humanity together under sin. Jew and Gentile alike stood guilty before God, unable to establish righteousness for themselves. The gospel revealed the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, and those justified through him were brought into a new life in which distinctions that once produced hostility could no longer determine who belonged to the people of God.
By Romans 16, that people has names. Paul knows them not merely as examples of theological categories but as brothers, sisters, fellow workers, servants, hosts, prisoners, and people who have cared for one another through years of Christian life. Their different histories have not disappeared, but those histories now exist within a fellowship created by Christ.
The command that concluded Paul’s discussion of the strong and weak was to accept one another as Christ had accepted them. His final greetings give that acceptance an ordinary and visible expression. The people Christ has received are to recognize, welcome, serve, and show affection toward one another as members of the same body.
Paul has spent the letter explaining the gospel that created this people. He now addresses them by name and tells them to live like people who belong together: “Greet one another.”