Throughout Romans, we’ve been saying that every person who has placed their faith in Jesus has been caught up in a significant, eternal story. That each of us has an important role in a cosmic battle between good and evil. Here in these verses we are given a greater picture of what that battle looks like.

That might seem like a really strange thing to say: my guess is when you heard MacKenzie read this passage, you might have thought to yourself—really? We’re going to be studying a list of names? We’re going to spend an entire sermon with Geoff basically preaching from the phone book—(if you’re Gen Z, ask your parents what that is)? A list of names and a bunch of hellos?

But no, there’s more to this, isn’t there? I wonder if you noticed how right in the middle of these names and these pleasant greetings, Paul takes a moment to talk about battling Satan? Verse 20: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” This is not Paul changing the subject—this is what this whole passage is about.

Way back at the very beginning of time, it is the serpent, it is Satan that leads Adam and Eve into the sin that brings all of humanity down. He appears to have accomplished a devastating victory against humanity, bringing about our destruction. But in Genesis 3 God promises that there will come a day when a descendant of Adam and Eve will crush the head of the serpent. God was talking first and foremost about Jesus dealing a death blow to Satan on the cross. But here we see that he was also speaking of his church: that there is a way that we also participate in the crushing of Satan: that God can work in and through us to overcome evil and accomplish good.

The previous verse tells us how we do that: “Be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.” Be skillful in goodness and resist the attacks of evil—as you do this, you will experience God crushing Satan under your feet.

This is because, as Paul says at the beginning of 19: “Your obedience is known to all,” with “obedience here being Paul’s way of speaking of conversion, of turning to Christ. Wherever I go, people are hearing about that and taking notice.” And that’s important. Because as you are changed, that helps others people to see the power of the gospel and to recognize that it’s the real deal. And you better believe that Satan understands this, that he is going to do his very best to turn something beautiful into something shameful. So you need to fight. Learn the way of a good and beautiful community to which God is calling you and seek it more and more. And fight off Satan’s attacks seeking to corrupt you. And as you do this, as you work in the strength of God, you will see Satan’s head being crushed underneath your feet.

So also today. Satan understands something that we often forget: that one of the most effective ways to cast doubt on the gospel and turn people away from Jesus is to corrupt Christ’s church with hypocrisy and division and scandal. Think of how many people today have turned from Christianity because they feel disillusioned by what they have seen in the church. On the other hand, we underestimate just how compelling a truly loving community can be for those searching for something good. What all of that means it that one of the most significant things we can do in this cosmic battle is to fight for the goodness of our community, to fight against Satan’s efforts to corrupt it. To be a community skillful in goodness and resisting the attacks of evil.

How do we do that? Well, believe it or not, that’ exactly what Paul is seeking to teach us in this chapter full of names. Since chapter 12, Paul has been describing what it means to be the new community of Jesus. And here, in these verses, he shows us. Because there is actually something extraordinary happening in these greetings. 

Think just for a moment about how difficult community is in our day of “identity politics.” “Identity politics” has to do with the idea that each of us identify with certain aspects of who we are: men or women, race, upper or lower class, and so on. And, as the theory goes, each of these groups are in a contest with others for having control. There’s the battle of the sexes, where women have one vision for how things should be and men have another, and we battle for control. There are class struggles, where the wealthy elites want things one way and those who feel left behind want it another. There’s tribalism, racism. Throughout all this discussion is the idea that in the end, there’s no shared vision for what is good—there’s just power struggle. Each group wants power so that it can have its way at the expense of the other. And if that’s how it is: if society is ultimately just a multi-direction exercise in tug-of-war, where each side wants its own way, how in the world does one experience community, connection, peace with each anyone who isn’t exactly like you? Do you see the problem? 

Now the Roman society of 2000 years ago didn’t have the same issues with “identity politics,” but that’s only because one side had clear power and control. The idea that all humans are equal would have been seen as absurd. No, there’s a clear hierarchy of worth and importance! If you are a free Roman citizen male, then you are at the top. You have all the power and status. If, on the other hand, you are a woman, well, you are subject to your patriarch, whether that be your father or husband, and you have very little status: you can’t vote and you rarely receive any education. If rather than being a Roman citizen, you were, say a Jew, you do not have nearly the same rights: as we mentioned a few weeks ago, the Roman emperor for a time just kicked out all of the Jews from Rome and they could do nothing about it. And, of course, if you were a slave, you had no power at all. In Roman society, all of society was ordered by power in a hierarchy of status and significance. Which really isn’t any better of a recipe for community.

So here’s where it gets interesting. If you pay close attention to the names in our passage, you’ll see something, well, weird. 

Let’s start with Phoebe, who most likely is the person who brought the letter on Paul’s behalf to Rome. Paul introduces her as a servant of the church, but really that likely should be translated a “deacon” of the church at Cenchrae, near Corinth. He also describes her as a “patron,” someone whose help has significance, and he tells the Roman church to receive her in a way that honors her and to provide whatever help she needs. In Roman society women were seen as of lower status; but in this community, Phoebe is honored. 

And it’s not just Phoebe. Prisca, along with Aquila, are a couple identified as have extraordinary importance in helping Paul with his missionary work as those who have risked their lives for Paul. Andronicus and Junia in verse 7 appear to be an important Jewish missionary couple. Mary in verse 6 is named by Paul as someone who has worked hard for the church of Rome, as are the women of verse 12. Rufus’ mom in 13 is like a mother to Paul. Again and again we see in this community, women are valued and honored as equal in status with men.

We see similar surprises across other traditional divisions. There are Jews, such as Andronicus and Junia and Herodion, and there are many Gentiles, and they treated here as equally. Some of the people mentioned like Phoebe the patron and Priscilla and Aquila who are able to host a church in their home, are wealthy. But scholars will tell you that some of these names, such as Ampliatus and Urbanus, and then later in verse 22, Tertius, are names that would only be given to slaves—people who were considered not worthy of a mention in Roman society but here  they are treated or honored alongside the nobility, with no difference in status. 

It’s very difficult to overstate how strange this was. To my knowledge there was nowhere else in the world at that time where you could find slaves and wealthy sitting next to each other as they sing hymns as equals, where the gifts and contributions of women would be seen as equally significant and important as those of men; where Jews and Gentiles would embrace each other as brothers and sisters. Only in this strange new community. Only in the church. It was nothing short of a miracle.

What made this miracle possible is explained in these verses by two simple and roughly equivalent phrases. “In the Lord” and “In Christ.” Verse 2: “welcome her in the Lord.” Verse 3 my fellow workers “in Christ Jesus.” Verse 7: “they were in Christ before me.” Verse 8 “beloved in the Lord.” Verse 9 “worker in Christ” Verse 10 “approved in Christ.” And so on—it continues on all through this list as the glue that binds it all together. This strange, miraculous community in Rome that overcomes every normal division and societal barrier—it exists because all of these people are “in Christ.” 

To be “in Christ” is, as we have said before, an identity statement: in fact, it is the identity statement above all others. When a person has entrusted themselves to Jesus, they become his and he is theirs. Jesus has now become their king, their north star, their greatest source of confidence. And when that happens, when Jesus becomes your king, there is a new force, a new power that binds you to others. 

Consider how Jesus treated power. Jesus, I think it’s safe to say, was the most powerful human being who ever lived: with a word he caused demons to tremble, he silenced the hurricane, he undid death! And does he take control with a mighty army of angels? No, with all of the might and power God gave him, he lays down his life, he goes to the cross to free us from our sin. He uses his power to love.

And so in the new community that exists under Jesus’ kingship, that is now the new way of being with each other. No longer is it about gaining status and taking control. Because we have a king who gave it all to rescue the helpless, we join him in becoming a community that is held together by love.

That was utterly extraordinary in Rome, and it’s just as extraordinary today. When the church is functioning as it is meant to, identity wars recede. Men and women, educated elites and blue collar shift workers, white and black, even Democrats and Republicans join together across those differences in genuine community, a community that is not about power, but about love. And that is one of the most powerful demonstrations on earth of the truthfulness of the gospel.

This is what we are fighting for: our spiritual battle against Satan involves preserving and protecting this miraculous community that Jesus has established, this community of love. Be skillful in the goodness of this, preserve it! Resist Satan’s attacks against it! 

To do this, Paul says, you need to greet, and you need to avoid.

Greet

There’s this one instruction that keeps being repeated throughout that if we’re not careful we’ll overlook. “Greet.” Did you notice that? 

Greet Prisca and Aquila. Greet the church. Greet my beloved, and so on. And then verse 16, Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. And then in 21, Timothy, Tertius, and a few others greet you.

This is more than polite pleasantries. “Greet” is about more than saying hello. It has the idea of welcoming, of embracing, of expressing commitment. When Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount talks about loving your enemies, he says “If you greet only your family, how is that different from the Gentiles?” He’s not just talking about saying hi. He’s talking about expressing a certain type of relationship: of welcome, of love. That’s what greeting was about in that culture.

Even as Paul sends his greetings to everyone, he very specifically commands the church, “Greet one another,” specifically, “with a holy kiss.” In that day a kiss was an expression of affection between family members and an expression of respect and friendship for those outside of family. It’s what you did to reinforce and show the importance of the relationship you had with another.

That’s the point. Here’s how we fight, Paul says. Regularly, repeatedly, act out in the simplest and most basic way the bonds you already have with each other. Notice he calls this is “holy” kiss—because you’re expressing something sacred that is true because of Jesus. You’re expressing the bonds you have because of Christ. 

See in Jesus all of us who are Christians are family. Phoebe, he says, is “our sister”; Rufus’ mother is also his mother. Verse 14 speaks of the “brothers” living at a certain home. In Jesus, you now share the bonds of family with every other believer in Christ. To us, we might think, “Oh, that’s nice.” But we need to understand that to be family is a sacred obligation. In that day, there was no public welfare system—your family was your safety net. If someone in your family is in need—a cousin or nephew, and especially a brother or sister, then if you had any ability to help, you would do so. And that’s what we now are to each other. When Paul is saying, “Greet each other,” he’s saying express the reality that you now have obligations to each other.

What’s more, in Jesus all of us who are Christians have become coworkers. Did you notice how this came out in Paul’s greetings? He speaks multiple times of “fellow workers” and honors those who work hard in the Lord. Because this too is part of the bond that we all share. In Christ we are now part of a challenging work. We are laboring together to have our lives, our church, and our communities be changed by Jesus, and that is often hard, even costly work. People in these greetings were imprisoned and even faced death because of that work. We are bound to each other in this sharing of Christ’s labor, co-laborers with the mission of Jesus. When Paul is saying “Greet each other,” he’s saying “affirm the reality that you are partners.”

And in Jesus, all of us share a bond of affection. Did you notice the number of times that Paul speaks of members as “beloved,” a term of affection, a term of friendship. And he’s not just singling out well, those guys are friends, unlike the other people I’m mentioning. He’s saying that this is his posture toward the whole community—because this is what it is to be the church—it is, as he said in chapter 12, to love each other with brotherly affection. When Paul is saying “Greet each other,” he’s saying affirm the reality that you are friends.

You are family, co-workers, friends: that is actually the relationship you have across all churches, all Christians, throughout all the world—across traditional barriers of class or gender or ethnicity or language: all these people you have never even met, you already have a bond with them. And all the more so here, in this community. Whether someone here is a person you know well or do not know at all, if you and they are both in Christ, then they are your family, your coworkers, your friends. Because that’s how it works in Jesus.  

I realize this seems like a strange thing to say, because for us our relationships generally come after a certain time of proving, where both sides get to know each other and decide yes, we’re friends. But that is not how that works here: the moment you become a Christian, these bonds suddenly become your reality. You, immediately, belong. No need for jockeying for position or status. No insider or outsider within the church. No cool kids club. If you are in Christ, you are my brother or sister; you are my teammate; you are my friend. The job given to each of us is to learn how to live it out. That’s how we battle: we greet; we express the bonds of connection Jesus has given us.

What does that look like? It means being committed to people before we’ve even gotten to know them. It means inviting people in our homes. Paying attention to each other and asking how we’re doing. It’s expressed in hugs, thoughtful texts, meals when people are sick. It means being willing to risk: We’re in a very reserved society where we feel like we need to get permission before being friendly. But in the church, well, Jesus has already given you permission.

Learning how to do this is what it means to be skillful in what is good.

Avoid

Verse 17 describes the flip side of this: how we resist the attacks of evil. “Watch out,” Paul says, “be on your guard for teachers who can damage your fellowship.” 

We don’t know who these teachers are—if Paul has someone specific in mind or if he’s just making a general warning. What we do know is that they’re captivating. He says “by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve.” They’re confident. When they speak, they keep people’s attention and move them with powerful stories. And they make hearers feel better about themselves in the process through flattery—it’s a powerful one-two combo.

But with their skills they are doing the very thing Paul has been instructing the church to resist. In order to gain their own popularity, rather than to serve Jesus, they are causing divisions, breaking apart the bonds of fellowship. And they are causing people to stumble, turning people away from the gospel.

In the church, really, in any large group, one of the easiest ways to gain a following is by creating anger and even fear against a bad guy. During the time after the American Revolution, there were massive movements around preachers and teachers who spoke of the dangers of elitism and overeducation among the preachers—they’re the enemy to be resisted! There have been teachers who in previous decades have spoken about the Christians who are truly spiritual and those who clearly aren’t. In our day I have seen different writers of books drawing stark lines within evangelicalism between the bad guys and the good guys, with the good guys often all sharing the same political commitments. Effective speech and writing gains them a hearing; the message that you are different, you are better than these bad people brings them popularity. It always gets a following. 

And it’s always corrosive. Because it always does two things: it majors on the minors, turning people’s attention from what matters most, from Jesus, and instead saying this practice or belief or distinctive is what matters even more. It disconnects people from their first love. And with this misplaced emphasis, it tears apart the bonds of fellowship we are meant to have with each other, dividing us from each other. 

Judging from where he goes in the following verses, it’s clear that Paul sees teachers such as these as Satan’s accomplices. And so he’s clear in his warning: “You need to watch out for this. Watch out,” he says, “for teachers who will feel important until you step back and think about what they’re saying. Speakers or writers who will make you feel the desire to be part of their tribe but who don’t seem as interested in Jesus’ community. People who seem more interested in tearing apart the Christian fellowship than in fighting to maintain the bonds of peace.” Watch out for them. And when it becomes clear to you that a person fits this description, avoid them. Do not let their poisonous word casting doubt and division infect your heart. Because that is exactly what Satan is seeking to do. 

Be skillful in what is good, loving and caring for each other well. And protect yourself from Satan’s evil attacks, avoiding teachers who will corrode the unity you have through Jesus. This is as you fight. And as you do you will find that the “God of peace” will soon crush Satan under your feet.

I was listening to a podcast interviewing Lig Duncan, a PCA pastor and theologian who is currently the president of Reformed Theological Seminary. He was saying that for all of his life—he’s 65 now, every presidential election people have told him that this is the most important election in the history of the world. He said, “We have a tendency to overestimate the importance of short term political decisions. Meanwhile, we underestimate the “long steady drip drip drip influence of healthy Christian churches.” There is a power in what Jesus is doing in his church that we barely understand. And so this is how we fight. This is how we join with Jesus. Keep going: because the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with us.