Not forgotten
I commend to you Phoebe our sister … and Quartus a brother (Romans 16:1 and 23).
I have always found the first and last words and chapters of the books of the Bible particularly interesting. Having said that, you might be forgiven for thinking that Romans 16 is mostly a list of the names of Paul’s friends, with little relevance today. God has written lists of the names of lots of people in the Bible. Most of them we know nothing about. But God knows everything about them. Unless we are particularly famous, our names will be forgotten by people relatively quickly. The pressures of modern life, and certainly the increasing restrictions of the COVID crisis, can make many of us feel lonely and isolated. But God’s value of us is immense and we have a Saviour who tells us our names are on His shoulders, on His heart (see Exodus 28:12, 29) and on the palms of His hands:
“I will not forget you.
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15-16).
Paul gives us a sense of this value as he remembers his friends and fellow believers. He recalls a lot of people by name and refers to others. These include 10 women: Phoebe, Priscilla, Mary, Tryphena and Tryphosa, Persis, Rufus’ mother, Nereus’ sister, Junia and Julia. Phoebe is mentioned first as a servant of the church and helper of many. That is such a simple but powerful description: the Holy Spirit is called the Helper. Paul remembers Andronicus and Junia, who may have been husband and wife. They were his kinsmen (ESV) and fellow prisoners, well respected by the apostles and had been Christians for about 25 years. Paul highlights the features we should value as the people of God: lives of service, strong Christian relationships, suffering, experience, generosity and learning. We should never let the frailty and weakness of older Christians cause us to forget the value of lifelong discipleship lived for God.
At the same time, younger people were also in Paul’s heart and mind. Timothy is an outstanding example of this in verse 21. The Christian homes and families of Priscilla and Aquila (v. 3), Aristobulus (v. 10), Narcissus (v. 11) and Gaius (v. 23) are highlighted. Family homes were places of hospitality and often where churches met. The Christian home was central to the early Christian church. Today, against a background of widespread family breakdown, our homes are at the forefront of the Christian testimony. The greater and the less are placed together in verse 23: “Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you” (ESV). The early church was not a place where partiality was permitted, but the distinguished and the ordinary were equal in the sight of God.
Paul ends his great letter with the God of peace and grace (20), power (25), and wisdom and glory (27). We know the God of peace and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the all-powerful Spirit of God dwelling within our hearts. The wisdom of God is revealed to us in His word, and in Christ we have the hope of glory. He has not, nor will he ever, forget any of His people:
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand (Psalm 95:7).
