Series: Romans
Title: Commending our Sister
Text: Rom 16:1-2
Date: August 16, 2020
Place: SGBC, NJ
Romans 16: 1: I
commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at
Cenchrea: 2: That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye
assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a
succourer of many, and of myself also.
When we read a passage like this we might tend to think it is not as
important as the rest. But this passage was
inspired of God like the rest of Romans—like all scripture. It is full of things edifying for us to
consider.
Right away it shows the
love of the apostle Paul. The Holy
Spirit produces love for brethren in the hearts of his people. The Spirit of God creates unity between
brethren. Christ our High Priest wears
our names on his heart and the Spirit makes us bear one another’s name on our
hearts. He makes us peacemakers,
helpers, comforters of one another. We sometimes
fall into a wrong spirit, saying and doing things we ought not, but God
chastens us. He makes us hate strife and
love unity.
A COMMENDATION
Paul says, “I commend unto you Phebe our sister…”
Now, Paul wrote this letter from Corinth. By commending Phebe first, and by her coming
from the church at Corinth from the seaport Cenchrea, the commentaries agree Phebe
was the one entrusted to deliver this letter to Rome. If that be so think of this: this was under
the sovereign hand of our God. The Holy
Spirit inspired Paul to write this letter that God would include in the canon
of Holy Scripture. This is an epistle God
would use to call out thousands of his elect throughout the generations. And God moved Paul to entrust this letter to
this sister, Phebe, to deliver it to Rome.
Travelling alone was dangerous
for a woman in those days. I picture the seaport Cenchrea, in that ungodly city
of Corinth, full of sailors, scallywags, scoundrels and thieves. There is Phebe carrying one of the most
important epistles of the Bible. Do you
think there was a remote possibility that God would allow anything to happen to
this woman? No way!
Brethren as the bride
of Christ, Christ has entrusted us to carry his word into all the world. Do you suppose he will allow anything to
hinder us from delivering his word to those he has purposed to save? No way!
Phebe was immortal and invincible by God’s protection so are we in God’s
purpose. God will not allow anyone or
anything to stop us from delivering his word to sinners that God has chosen,
redeemed and predestinated to be conformed to Christ.
Paul commends her. What a good thing to be commended by your
brethren! Some have turned this into a
law. If you move from one church to
another they require a letter of commendation.
Paul said to the Corinthians,
2 Corinthians 3: 1: Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we,
as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of
commendation from you? 2: Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and
read of all men: 3: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the
epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
It is good to commend
brethren moving to another church: I have done it by phone, text or email. But it is not a necessity, not a law. It is a courtesy. We live in a connected society so that we know
many brethren in other congregations and they know you. So it is not a necessity. But it is certainly a blessing to have the
commendation of your pastor and brethren unto others.
He calls her “our
sister.” In the early church they
spoke of elderly men as “fathers”, elderly women as “mothers”, younger men as
“brethren” and younger women as “sisters.”
Here is what is important: this is
a title meaning that person was saved by the same grace of God. It means they have one and the same God the
Father who chose to save them freely in Christ before the foundation of the
world even as he did us. They have one
Christ Jesus who justified them freely at Calvary when he saved all God’s elect
from our sins the same he did us. They
are one who the Holy Spirit found dead in trespasses and sins but regenerated irresistibly
by his grace the same as us. It is a
person who is one in the same family of God in heaven and in earth, with the
same heavenly Father, the same Redeemer and the same Holy Spirit as you and me.
Ephesians 2:19…of the household of God;
Eph 3:15: Of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named,
Ephesians 4:4: There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope
of your calling; 5: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6: One God and Father of
all, who is above all, and through
all, and in you all.
Brethren
be careful. Such a title is not to be
used toward everyone. They are rare and
honored titles. We do not call everyone “brethren or brother or sister”, only
those to whom Christ is All!
THE GREATEST OFFICE
Paul tells us that Phebe held the greatest office in the church. She was “a servant of the church at
Cenchrea…a succorer of many, and of myself also.”
Commentaries focus on what the title “servant” means. Phoebe was not one
interested titles. She did what it
involved. She served the church. Phebe served them in acts of charity and
hospitality. She was a succorer, a
comforter, of many and of Paul also. She
had a business and travelled for business.
Perhaps she was well-off. But
that is not what she was commended for.
She was commended for being a servant and comforter of God’s saints. She probably housed Paul and other apostles
and brethren in her home. Phebe served
her brethren when they were sick, provided for them when they needed financial
help. Whatever God put in her hand to do,
she did it for her brethren.
Phebe was like her Redeemer. On
one occasion the apostles became angry as they disputed over why each should be
the greatest in heaven,
Matthew 20: 25: But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know
that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are
great exercise authority upon them. 26: But it shall not be so among you: but
whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 27: And whosoever
will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 28: Even as the Son of man
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom
for many.
The Son of man came not be ministered unto. He did not have this sinful spirit of fallen
men who consider themselves great and worthy to be served. Christ came to minister—to serve—by giving
his life a ransom for many. He served by
giving his life to pay the ransom price to redeem all his elect which was the
cruel, shameful, cursed cross. Here is
Christ’s mind and the mind we are to have,
Philippians 2: 3…in lowliness
of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. 4: Look not every man on
his own things, but every man also on the things of others. 5: Let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: [lowliness of mind, esteeming others
better than himself, not looking to provide for himself but providing for his
brethren] 6: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal
with God: 7: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant…
Christ became God the Father’s willing bondservant to give him the
service his people could not give. Doing
so he served us, provided for us, esteemed us better than himself. And Phoebe, though a successful business
woman, made herself of no reputation but took the form of a willing bond servant. That is the greatest commendation you could
be given—"a servant of the church, a succorer of many”—that is
having the mind of Christ.
A REQUEST
Paul requested that “ye receive her in the Lord, and assist her in
whatsoever business she hath need of you as becometh saints.”
Paul says, “Receive her in the Lord…”
It means receive her as you would the Lord. To be in the Lord is to be one with the Lord. Christ said what you do to the least of my
brethren you do to me.
It becomes saints to receive one another and assist one another—it is
what we ought to do—and it is what saints do. We do not behave to “become” holy—God’s saints
are already made holy, already sanctified: by God the Father in divine election,
by Christ fulfilling the Father’s will by his one offering by which he perfected
forever them God the Father sanctified in election and by God the Holy Spirit
regenerating us and giving us a new holy spirit.
But being already made
holy saints by God we behave as becometh holiness. Every child born of the Spirit of God has this
earnest desire in his heart to behave as becometh saints. We do not dare think we have lived up to that
goal. We see ourselves falling far short
of it. But it is the heart and endeavor
of every saint to behave as becometh saints, as becometh holiness.
Our motive is not
law—it is better—the love of Christ for us.
Our strength is not flesh—it is better—the power of the Holy Spirit. But all who are sanctified put endeavor to
live as becometh saints, not to live like an unbeliever.
Ephesians 4: 17: This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye
henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18: Having
the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: 19: Who
being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all
uncleanness with greediness. 20: But ye have not so learned Christ; 21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have
been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22: That ye put off concerning
the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the
deceitful lusts; 23: And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24: And that ye
put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness. 25: Wherefore putting away
lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of
another. 26: Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27: Neither give place to the devil. 28: Let him that stole steal no more: but
rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good,
that he may have to give to him that needeth. 29: Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that
it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30: And grieve not the holy Spirit of
God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31: Let all bitterness,
and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you,
with all malice: 32: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Ephesians 5: 1: Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2: And
walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. 3: But fornication,
and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as
becometh saints;
Concerning ourselves,
we should put forth effort to put off our old man and put on the new as if it
all depended upon us alone to do it while knowing and confessing to God we
cannot do it except the Spirit of God enable us. We ought never excuse our own sins by saying we
can only do what the Spirit enables us to do.
It is true that if we do so, the Spirit of God gets all the glory. But sin is no one’s fault but our own. And that should be our attitude concerning
ourselves.
But concerning our brethren, we should be “kind
one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s
sake hath forgiven you.” With a
brother remember Christ has put away their sin and they are righteous. In Christ they are unable to sin before God. When a brother sins we should remember that it
is their sinful flesh and they can do nothing but what the Spirit of God
enables them to do. But trust them to
Christ their Master who is able to chasten them and make them stand.
That is what “becometh holiness”—it is to
receive our brethren be they commended or be they overtaken in a fault—receive them
being kind, tenderhearted and forgiving our brethren when they sin, even as God
for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. “Walk
in love” by laying down our life to serve and comfort erring brethren like
Pheobe did. Even “as Christ also hath
loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for
a sweetsmelling savor." This is
putting on the new man and putting off the old; the opposite toward sinning
brethren is putting off the new and putting on the old. Here are other scriptures where this phrase “as
becometh saints” is translated other ways.
Ephesians 4:1: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2: With all lowliness
and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3: Endeavouring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Philippians 1:27: Only let your conversation be as it becometh the
gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may
hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving
together for the faith of the gospel; 28: And in nothing terrified by your adversaries:
which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and
that of God. 29: For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to
believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; 30: Having the same conflict
which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
Colossians 1:10: That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all
pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of
God; 11: Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all
patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
1 Thessalonians 2:12: That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath
called you unto his kingdom and glory.
3 John
1:6: Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou
bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well:
Amen!