The Romance of Romans-Part 121

[Michael]

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.