The Romance of Romans-Part 121

The Romance of Romans Chapter 16

I highly recommend Phoebe to you. She is a servant of the church in Cenchrea. Receive her freely as a servant of the Lord and show her your hospitality. Assist her in her mission to you, whatever it may be, for she has helped many, including me. Give my love to Priscilla and Aquila who have assisted me in Christ Jesus. They have laid their lives on the line for me, and not only am I grateful, so are all the churches of the Gentiles. Also greet the church that gathers in their home. Say hello to my dear Epaenetus, who was the first believer in Christ in Achaia. Greet Mary, who worked hard for our sakes. Honor Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and, onetime, fellow prisoners. They were in Christ before me and they have a great reputation among all the divinely appointed ambassadors of the Church at large.

Comments:

It seems that a lot of folks have an image of Paul that he was caustic and impersonal in his style of relating to others. This is probably because he didn't live in the "fear of man" and his letters often reflect the boldness within him to confront erroneous teachings and the people behind them. However, if we dig a bit deeper into the narratives and letters we discover that the apostle was very warm and deeply connected to other people. This chapter in particular reveals how he took the time and spent the energy to encourage, affirm, remember and express gratitude to other people who had touched his heart.

Moreover, because Paul highlights some wise and basic "differences in divine design" of females and males in some of his writings, there are many folks throughout the centuries that have concluded that Paul is down on women and specifically down on women assuming leadership roles within the Church and/or churches of Jesus Christ. There is much ongoing debate surrounding this issue among Scripture-believing teachers and movements and all of the points that need to be considered are far beyond this scope of my purposes here.

However, I think it is sufficient to say that it is vital to examine the narrative sections of the gospels and epistles to help provide a context for interpreting and applying the didactic portions of the epistles when it comes to such a vital issue as and...serious danger of...potentially putting artificial, inconsistent, hypocritical and misguided limits on so many believers...a criticism I am indeed leveling against many in the fundamentalist traditions. (I would guess that there are more women in the earth who truly follow Jesus than there are men.) Here is my challenge: Those who would put limits on women filling leadership functions in the Body of Christ need to make room in their practical theology for heroic leading women like Phoebe, Priscilla and Junia...not to mention other Biblical characters and the hundreds of ladies like them, who have risked all and sacrificed so much throughout the whole history of the Church and in our own generation, to promote and live out the message Jesus Christ in this world.