Long-Haul Faith, Pt 4: Paul
As a kid, I loved to ride with my grandfather. Part of it was the car. Fuzz, as we called him, loved his land yachts that just begged you to crank down the windows, point them down the road, and open them up wide. Part of it was the company. Fuzz would regale us with stories of his life and whistle some tune while the cigarette smoke curled out the window. And part of it was the CB radio under the dash. Long before cell phones became ubiquitous, CB radios were the ultimate highway communications device, and as a long-haul trucker, Fuzz always had one. Every now and then, that box would squawk, and a voice would rattle off something about road conditions, a reckless driver, or anything else under the sun. Because of the CB radio, no matter how far Fuzz was from home, he was never alone, and I can only imagine that made the lonely hours behind the windshield a little more bearable.
Whether one is introverted or extroverted, Genesis 2 tells us that humans were not designed to go through life alone. Indeed, many of the best stories in the Old Testament involved a hero and a sidekick: Abraham and Elijah, Moses and Aaron, David and Joab. In the New Testament, Jesus sent out his disciples in pairs (Luke 10:1), and the Teacher of Ecclesiastes waxed eloquent about how “two are better than one” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).
In Romans 16:3-16, we see that even the great apostle Paul did not minister alone.
Give my greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life. Not only do I thank them, but so do all the Gentile churches. Greet also the church that meets in their home. Greet my dear friend Epaenetus, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked very hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews and fellow prisoners. They are noteworthy in the eyes of the apostles, and they were also in Christ before me. Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our coworker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodion, my fellow Jew. Greet those who belong to the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who have worked hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, who has worked very hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother—and mine. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters 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. All the churches of Christ send you greetings.
Romans 16:3-16 CSB
At first glance, this is simply a list of 28 names. When we come to lists like this in Scripture, it is easy to let our eyes glaze over as we skim to find the end of the list and the start of the next important part, but if we really believe that all Scripture is God-breathed and useful (2 Timothy 3:16), then we must also believe that there is something inspired and useful in a list such as this. Indeed, the fact that Paul routinely included personal greetings in his letter suggests that he understood the importance of friends, fellows, and what is called in theological circles the communion of the saints. That word, communion, is typically used to describe what Christians do with a bit of bread and wine. According to the dictionary, though, it really means “the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings” (Google), and if we examine this list of names and the words Paul said about each of them, we can discover four reasons why this idea of communion was and is so important to a long-haul faith.
We must collaborate.
The first of these reasons is found in the way Paul described his friends Prisca and Aquila in verse 3 and Urbanus in verse 9. Of course, Prisca and Aquila first appeared in the Bible when Paul met them in Corinth during his second missionary journey. Like Paul, they were tentmakers, so the trio went into business together. When Paul left Corinth, they accompanied him as far as Ephesus, where they remained to lead and teach until they were allowed to return to their home in Rome. Urbanus, on the other hand, is less familiar. In fact, this is the only time he appears in Scripture, and about the only thing we know is that the name Urbanus was a common name among first-century slaves.
There are two things striking about this. First, there is the diversity that these three represent: two men and a woman, two Jews and a Gentile, two entrepreneurs and a slave. In fact, there is a remarkable degree of diversity throughout this list. roughly a third of the names belong to women at a time when women were almost never acknowledged. The list includes Jewish, Greek, and Latin names, hinting at the profound ethnic diversity present in the church at Rome. And it included members of the royal household as well as slaves, suggesting a tremendous degree of socioeconomic diversity as well.
Second, despite their diversity, Paul repeatedly describes Prisca, Aquila, and Urbanus all as “coworkers.” In Scripture, such repetition typically indicates importance, and indeed, the notion that these three diverse individuals were able to collaborate with the apostle Paul to get thing done is crucial to a long-haul faith. We must collaborate.
The Bible suggests a number of reasons why this is true. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul described the Church as the Body of Christ, asserting that each of us brings unique gifts and abilities to the table and that we all have an essential part in the mission of God. St. James insisted that “everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger” (1:19); we must stop and listen to different people because they bring to the table different perspectives that may be better than our own. And in Ecclesiastes 4, Solomon observed that, when two people work together, “if either falls, his companion can lift him up,” and “if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him.” In fact, Paul himself observed in Romans 16:4 that Prisca and Aquila “risked their own necks for [his] life.” The bottom line, then, is that, as different as we are, we must collaborate to accomplish our God-given mission of making more and better followers of Christ!
We must serve.
A second reason Paul thought it important for believers to have communion with believers is found in the way he spoke of his friend Mary in verse 6, as well as the sisters Tryphaena and Tryphosa, and Persis in 12. As with most of the people Paul greeted in Romans 16, we know virtually nothing of these women. Although the Bible records no less than 6 different women named Mary, this is the only time this Mary appears. So also, this is the only biblical appearance of Tryphaena and Tryphosa, and we only assume that they are sisters because of their similar names. Moreover, while the name Persis was sometimes given to free women, it was generally a name given to slaves from Persia (source: NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible).
Just about the only thing that we know for certain about these four women, then, is that they all worked hard. More, they did not work for their own benefit. Paul observed that Mary worked for the benefit of all the believers at Rome, and the other three, he says, worked hard “in the Lord.” In short, whether they were slave or free, these four women were servants, and if we are going to have a long-haul faith, we must be the same. We must serve.
But what does that look like? It would seem from Paul’s description here that these four women were always looking for ways that they could help their fellow believers, their neighbors, and/or their community, and when there was work to be done, they were never found slacking. I would submit that we must do the same. Let us be constantly looking for ways that we can help others, and let us never be found slacking when there is work to be done!
We must follow.
The third reason Paul thought we needed other Christians in our lives is found in verse 7, where we meet a man named Andronicus and a woman named Junia. We also learn a few key bits about them: they are Jews, were imprisoned for their faith, and were “noteworthy in the eyes of the apostles.” The phrase is difficult to translate into English, but it is quite likely that Paul considered Adronicus and Junia apostles like himself. Perhaps they even started the church at Rome. At the very least, they were leaders that Paul respected.
And then there is this: “they were also in Christ before me.” This is an interesting note because Paul was relatively late in coming to faith. In fact, he did not decide to follow Jesus until some time after Stephen was martyred in Acts 6-7. So there were plenty of people who were in Christ before Paul, but never did Paul describe any of them except for the apostles in Jerusalem in this way.
I want to suggest to you that Paul meant to say more than that Adronicus and Junia were saved before him. In fact, I believe he looked at these two as his own spiritual mentors, Christians who taught and trained him at some point along the way. That is, they were the saints that he followed, and if we are going to have a long-haul faith like his, then we must find saints that we will follow, too. We must follow.
Such a relationship is consistent with the apostle’s teaching in Philippians 3:17, where he encouraged the Philippians to “join in imitating me… and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.” That is, he called the Philippians and us to be on the lookout for Christians that we can look up to, believers who are a little closer to Jesus than we are, saints that we can jump in behind in order to follow our way a little closer to Jesus, too. We must follow.
We need friends.
The final reason why Paul was so deliberate about surrounding himself with believers actually appears throughout the passage. Consider how Paul described Epaenetus in verse 5, Ampliatus in verse 8, Stachys in verse 9, and Persis in verse 12. Each of these is described by the apostle as a “dear friend.” Add to this his description of Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, and company in verse 14. These, he called “brothers and sisters.” There is Rusus’ mother, who Paul claimed as his own in verse 13, and would that now make Rufus himself Paul’s brother, too? Moreover, while some of the people the apostle greeted are noted for doing something, there is actually a substantial number of people on this list that are just names. That is, they had done nothing specific, yet the apostle still took the opportunity to go out of his way to greet them.
There is a word for someone who would go out of their way to greet you: friend. No matter who we are, no matter how “put together” we may be at this Christian living thing, we all need friends if we are going to succeed in faith for the long haul. We need friends we can call on to shoot the breeze, with whom we can share our praises and prayer requests, our victories and struggles. We need friends we can lean on when the whole world goes pear-shaped, who we can trust will have our backs when everyone else seems out to get us. We need friends who will go out of their way just to say hi and for whom we will do the same.
Conclusion
The other day, I spoke with a dear friend who claims to be a Christian but wants nothing to do with the Church. This friend is not interested in collaborating with other believers, serving God and people, looking for others that they might follow, or even just being a friend. Our conversation drove me nearly to tears because if there is one thing that I know about faith, it is that we all need a personal connection with other believers. Collaborate, serve, follow, and make friends. Because in faith and life, that is the only way to go far.