In my Sunday School class at Vista Ridge Bible Fellowship (Philippe Sterling, pastor), I’ve been covering one chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans each week. This past Sunday, I covered Romans 16.
In Rom 16:3-15, Paul extends greetings to fifteen different churches. Three of the fifteen refer to “the church that is in their house” (v 5), “those who are of the household of Aristobulus” (v 10), and “those who are of the household of Narcissus” (v 11). The remaining twelve churches probably met in small one-room apartments.
Paul’s passing comments about various believers he knows in Rome are of particular interest to me. Consider the following cases:
- Greet Priscilla and Aquila…who risked their own necks for my life…(vv 3-4).
- Greet Mary, who labored much for us (v 6).
- Greet Apelles, approved in Christ (v 10).
- Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord (v 13).
Priscilla and Aquila shared Paul’s secular occupation: tentmaking. They had served with him in Corinth and elsewhere. They risked their necks, meaning they risked their lives, for Paul’s sake.
Mary “labored much” for Paul and his team.
Apelles was “approved in Christ.” He is the only person in the NT referred to as approved. A few other passages show that people can be in a current state of approval. In 1 Cor 11:19, Paul wrote that “those who are approved” might be recognized by the other believers in Corinth. See also 2 Cor 10:18; 13:6-7.
In 1 Cor 9:27, Paul feared he might not persevere and would therefore be disapproved by Christ. But we should not infer from that that Paul thought he was currently disapproved. He knew that he, like Apelles, was currently approved in Christ. But he also knew that to stay approved, he had to persevere and finish the race (2 Tim 4:6-8).
Rufus was “chosen in the Lord.” Most Calvinists do not use this to support their doctrine of election to everlasting life because Paul is giving a special commendation about this man, not a truth about all believers. However, there are actually no verses that support the Calvinist doctrine of election, since election in Scripture is to service, not eternal destiny.
The point is that Rufus, like Apelles, was currently pleasing the Lord and in a position to be chosen to rule and reign with Him. Whether he would remain chosen in the Lord would depend on his perseverance.
Lopez comments, “The phrase chosen in the Lord refers to Rufus being a choice servant of Jesus Christ” (“Romans” in GNTC, p. 704). While Moo thinks that “probably Paul simply means that he was a Christian” (Romans, p. 926), he acknowledges that “In calling Rufus ‘the elect one,’ Paul may intend to single him out as a specially ‘outstanding’ or ‘choice’ believer” (Romans, pp. 925-26). Fitzmyer comments, “Not, however, merely in the sense of ‘called to be a Christian’ (that would not single him out), but someone whose career as a Christian was ‘select’ or distinguished” (Romans, p. 741).
Many people have the wrong idea about what constitutes a church. They think a church needs, at a minimum, a church building, a congregation of at least seventy-five, and a full-time pastor.
Paul knew people in fifteen different small churches in Rome. There were surely many more churches where he did not know anyone. Niëmela speculates that there were fifty or more small congregations in Rome. Most of these churches had ten or fewer members, as best we can tell. The ones that met in homes might have had twenty to forty. Likely none had seventy-five.
A first-century megachurch had fifty members!i
Keep grace in focus, and you will be approved in Christ.
i Some might wonder where the thousands of new believers in Jerusalem met at the time after Pentecost recorded in Acts 2. For large gatherings, they met in the temple courts (Acts 2:46a). And they met privately in many houses: “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:46-47). There were a dozen apostles, and each night each one would meet with a different church. That is a minimum of eighty-four churches if they met with them all each week. But there might have been hundreds of house churches in Jerusalem at the time. It might have taken the apostles weeks to break bread with all the new believers.
