November 17 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Romans 16:1-6

¹I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:
²That 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.
³Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:
⁴Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
⁵Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.
⁶Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us.

Devotional:

At first glance this section may have seemed an unlikely source for devotional meditation. But it calls to mind two subjects that are appropriate for us to consider: that all members of the family of God have a vital function; and that the family of God has reached a new significance since Calvary.

In our zeal to preserve God's order for society we sometimes underestimate the place He has given to women in His family, the church. They do not, as the conservative Christian holds, have official teaching positions. They are not elders, either teaching or ruling elders. But we see here in Scripture that God did use them to assist the apostles, not only in the kitchen and sewing-room but in the handling of God's Word and in dealing with people. They were an integral part of the body of Christ, using their many gifts where they are appropriate. And so it is today.

Here the readers in Rome (and this surely included men!) were instructed to assist Phoebe in any business in which she might have a need of their help! Priscilla and Aquila are said to have been helpers who 'laid down their own necks' for Paul's life (16:4). Women figure largely among those who are greeted. There is no discrimination on the basis of sex in the family of God.

In Old Testament times, except for a few strangers who were welcomed, the 'faithful' were of one blood. They were a family as children of their Covenant God and a family as children of Abraham as well. There was a bond of fellowship that bound them doubly.

Today, and we see this in our reading in Romans, even though the bond is not biological, even though the 'faithful' are drawn from Jew and Gentile, black and white, rich and poor, there is a bond which is even stronger still than that in the Old Testament. The biological family is just as important in God's eyes as it was in any time of history, but with the emergence of the cross-family fellowship of the body of Christ we see a new phenomenon such as the Old Testament writers do not give us. And Christians can never be content until all their natural families are embraced in the spiritual or supernatural family.

This chapter becomes more precious as we see in it the functions of each member of the family and as we see also the place of the family of God in society. O God, we thank You that all of Your Word is profitable to us.