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20. GEMS IN GREETINGS

Very often, when we come to the close of an epistle where the writer is signing off with a series of personal greetings and messages, we do not give too much attention to these greetings. Yet to do so, really, is to do an injustice to these seemingly inconsequential scriptures. There is indeed much information on the state of affairs of the ancient churches that we can glean from these personal greetings and messages. Thus, Chrysostom was to write:
     I think that many even of those who have the appearance of being extremely good
     men, hasten over this part of the epistle [Romans 16, mine] as superfluous...
     Yet ‘the gold founders’ people are careful even about the little fragments...
     it is possible even from bare names to find a great treasure. (cited from Stott)
It is with this frame of mind of wanting to be ‘gold founders’ that we approach Romans 16.

With even a cursory glance of the chapter the reader will at once be impressed by the long list of individuals to whom Paul sends his greetings. All in all, Paul greets twenty-six individuals - twenty-four of them by name. The alert reader will at once ask: How does Paul know so many individual Christians in Rome since he neither founds the church nor has he ever visited with them prior to the epistle? The clue to the answer lies in the names of Priscilla and Aquilla. In Acts 18:1-4, we learn that Paul met the couple in Corinth. They had ‘come from Italy...because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome’. This happened in 49. It is quite conceivable that Paul would have met with a good many other exiled Roman Jewish Christians in his missionary travels during this time and forged some close ties with most of them, or at least, become acquainted with them. And when Claudius died in 54 and with the lapse of his edict, the Roman Jews simply went back to their homes in Rome and to the church. And since Paul has expressed his intention to visit with the church when he makes his way to Spain, it is only to be expected that Paul will want to remind his Roman friends of their close associations forged during their Claudian exile. Hence, the greeting of so many by name.

It is interesting to note that in his epistles to the churches which Paul has helped to establish, there is a dearth of these personal greetings by name. By and large, it is only greetings to the general body: ‘saints’, ‘brothers’, or just a plain ‘you’. This is further confirmation that Paul is not the one who established the church in Rome contrary to the assertions of some.

Looking again at the list of greetings, one cannot help but be impressed by the terms of endearment and compliments that Paul so freely sprinkles on his receivers: ‘my dear friend’, ‘my fellow workers’, ‘my relatives’, ‘outstanding among the apostles’, ‘whom I love’, ‘worked very hard’, ‘tested and approved’, ‘chosen in the Lord’, ‘risked their lives’, or, ‘a servant of the church’. This may be a public relations exercise on the part of the apostle; but to just write off these complimentary descriptions as just that is to deny the quality of the faith and the zeal of these early Christians in Rome. If these compliments were just mere puff, then they would cast a slur on the apostle. He would be insincere; and thus, inconsequential. But we know the apostle much better. As a person and as an apostle he always strives to be a man ‘approved by God...entrusted with the gospel’. In his engagement with people throughout his missionary travels, he does not use acts of trickery nor words of flattery to gain any personal advantage. He is not a man-pleaser. He only seeks to please God ‘who tests our hearts’ (see 1 Thes. 2). And thus, as we look at the greetings extended by Paul to the Romans, we must be impressed by the faith, the zeal and the work of these Roman Christians.

Take for example, Priscilla and Aquilla. We know them from Acts 18. Paul stayed and worked with them while they were in Corinth. They shared with him the same trade of being tentmakers. When Paul left Corinth for Syria and Ephesus, they followed him. In Ephesus, they taught the eloquent Apollos ‘the way of God more adequately’. Here, in Romans, Paul calls them ‘my fellow workers in Christ Jesus’ - a most fitting epithet in light of what we know about them from Acts. But there is more. Paul says, ‘They risked their lives for me,’ and further, ‘all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them’ (Rom. 16:3-4). We do not know the circumstances that caused the couple to risk their lives for Paul or the things that they did on behalf of the Gentile churches for these churches to be grateful to them. But we can say for certain that whatever they did sprang from a deep and consistent faith and a heart of love for Christ. This is further evidenced by the fact that a church met at their house. In those early days of church formation, there were no church buildings, only house churches - a potentially dangerous proposition for the house-owner, Yet, Priscilla and Aquilla were not fearful of this. They and others like them are role models of faith for us in this twenty-first century world.

Archive
The Romans Series
1. Being the Community of God’s People
2. Ethno-Religious Tensions
3. The Power and the Wrath of God
4. Justification by Faith
5. Justification Brings Blessings
6. While We Were Still Sinners
7. Died to Sin
8. Slaves to Righteousness
9. The Difference of the Spirit
10. The Israel Problem
11. The Gentile Problem
12. Community Living
13. Community Unity
14. Community Ethics
15. Loving the Enemy Ethic
16. Extra-Community Ethics
17. The Weak and the Strong
18. Community Formation
19. Paul, the Minister
20. Gems in Greetings

Articles on The Da Vinci Code, Gnosticism and
the Gospel of Judas
1. The Da Vinci Code: A Christian Response
2. The Nag Hammadi Documents and Gnosticism
3. The Gospel of Judas
4. The Gospel of Judas - A Retake
5. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 1)
6. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 2)
7. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 3)
8. Canonicity and the Gospel of Judas

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