A Final Warning
16: 17-27
A final warning DIG: How do false teachers create divisions within the church? What are some of the teachings that are dividing the Church today? How do you work for balance between the desire for unity and the desire to maintain truth? How does the book end?
REFLECT: What kind of a heart do you have? How can a thankful heart make your life more peaceful? What have you learned through the book of Romans that has been particularly helpful to you? How will you begin, or continue, to practice these truths in your life?
Be wise concerning good, but innocent concerning evil, and as harmless as doves.
Paul could not resist giving a final warning about wolves in sheep’s clothing (see the commentary on Jude, to see link click Ah – Godless People Have Secretly Slipped In Among You). Godly love does not rejoice in unrighteousness (First Corinthians 13:6 NASB). It is the nature of love to warn against harm to those whom it loves. And the greatest harm against believers is that which undermines God’s truth in which they live. Love is ready to forgive all wrongs, but it does not condone or ignore evil, especially in the Church. Paul, therefore, found it necessary to give us a caution into his greetings of love.
I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions by either looking down upon or judging (14:3), or by opposing the sound doctrine set forth by Paul in this book. And put snares alongside the teaching in which you have been trained – keep away from them (16:17).
The mature believer is to watch out for those who cause divisions. Paul is not talking about what today is often referred to as a “witch hunt,” an effort to find fault without any substance. Nor is he talking about legalistic and often mean-spirited and unloving “litmus tests” for an orthodoxy that is even more rigid than Scripture. The right response of believers to false teachers is not debate or dialogue. We are to keep away from them, to reject what they teach and to protect fellow believers, especially new converts and the immature, from being deceived, confused and misled. Yeshua Himself repeatedly warned the apostles against false teachers and prophets. In the Sermon on the Mount, He said: Beware of the false prophets! They come to you wearing sheep’s clothing, but underneath they are hungry wolves! You will recognize them by their fruit. Can people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles (Matthew 7:15-16)?
Paul gives us two reasons for turning away from false teachers: For men like these are not serving our Lord the Messiah but their own belly; by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the innocent (16:18). No matter how seemingly sincere and caring false teachers may appear to be, they are never genuinely concerned for the cause of Messiah or for His Church. They are driven by self-interest and self-gratification – sometimes for fame, sometimes for power, but always for financial gain, and frequently for all those reasons. These men are filthy spots at your festive gatherings meant to foster love; they share your meals without a qualm, while caring only for themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; trees without fruit even in autumn, and doubly dead because they have been uprooted; savage sea-waves heaving forth their shameful deeds like foam; wandering stars for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever (Jude 12-13).408
But, in spite of his warnings, the apostle affirmed his confidence in them: For everyone has heard about your obedience; therefore, I rejoice over you. The best protection against falsehood is obeying to God’s Word, just as the best protection against sin is holding on to His righteousness. Yet, knowing that even the most faithful believers can fall prey to Satan’s traps, Paul added: However, I want you to be wise concerning good, but innocent concerning evil, and as harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16). Paul assures faithful believers that they can look forward to the day when their spiritual warfare will be over. And God, the source of shalom, will soon crush the Adversary under your feet (see the commentary on Genesis Be – He Will Crush Your Head, and You Will Strike His Heel).
Now Paul gives a second short benediction (see 15:33 for the first one). The grace of our Lord Yeshua be with you (16:19-20). It’s as if Paul is saying, “I know, that even with your faithful obedience, you will need ADONAI’s continuing grace to direct and strengthen you. You need His grace to recognize false teachers. You need His grace to give you comfort and patience when you are attacked by the devil, while he is still in power over the world.
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise and Thanks for Your grace which always goes with Your children! How wonderful that no matter where in this world your child goes- You go with him and so does your grace. For God Himself has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you,” (Hebrews 13:5b-c). Praise You for how greatly You love all Your children. Praise that that all who love You are in Messiah. It is like being in an airplane – can’t get to a far-away destination without knowing about the plane, nor can we get to heaven without knowing about Yeshua. We have to enter the plane and be “In the plane” to go to a far-away destination. Praise you dear Father for putting all who love You “In Messiah!”
What riches you give to all who are “In Messiah.” He chose us in the Messiah before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before Him in love . . . In Him we have redemption through His blood – the removal of trespasses – in keeping with the richness of His grace . . . He is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of His possession – to His glorious praise! . . . After you heard the message of truth – the Good News of your salvation – and when you put your trust in Him, you were sealed with the promised Ruach Ha’Kodesh . . . And He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua . . . In Him the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple for the Lord. In Him, you also are being built together into God’s dwelling place in the Ruach (Ephesians 1:4, 7, 14, 13 and 2:6, 21-22). In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen
Then Paul sends greetings to the church in Rome on behalf of his companions in ministry, presumably men known by some of the believers in that city. Timothy, my fellow-worker and protege, sends greetings to you, and so does Lucius, most likely the apostle used another form of Luke, who wrote the Gospel that bears his name, and was a frequent traveling companion of Paul (Acts 16:11 and 21:1-8). Paul refers to Jason and Sosipater as my relatives, or fellow Jews (16:21). One of the first converts in Thessalonica was named Jason and apparently hosted Paul in his home for a short while before the believers there sent Paul and Silas to Berea for their safety (Acts 17:5-10). We learn from Acts 20:4-6 that a man from Berea named Sopater (a shortened form of Sosipater) was among the companions of Paul who met him at Troas after he left Ephesus. Sopater doubtless was among the Jews in Berea who were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the Word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things [that Paul was teaching] were so, and was among the many of them [who] believed (Acts 17:10-12 NASB).
I, Tertius, Paul’s secretary, the one writing down this letter, greet you in the Lord (16:22). Just as Phoebe had the great privilege of delivering the book of Romans, Tertius had the great privilege of writing it for Paul.
My host Gaius, in whose home the whole congregation meets, greets you. Because the book of Romans was written in Corinth, this Gaius almost certainly was among the many believers who came to faith as a result of Paul’s ministry there, and was one of the two men in that church whom Paul had immersed personally (First Corinthians 1:14). He is generally thought to be Titius Justus, a God-fearer whose house was next door to the synagogue (Acts 18:7), and whose full name would have been Gaius Titius Justus. Erastus was the city treasurer of Corinth and therefore a man of prominence and high political office. Quartus was the last of Paul’s companions on whose behalf he sent greetings. He is identified only as the brother, which means that he was a brother in Messiah (16:23).409
Verse 24 is not found in the earliest Greek manuscripts of the book of Romans. That is understandable, because the final three verses below form a longer, more explicit benediction, to which verse 24 adds nothing and seems a bit out of place. But the sentiment is fully consistent with the rest of Paul’s gracious epilogue: The grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you all.
The book of Romans ends with a beautiful doxology, praising God for what He has done through His Son Yeshua Messiah. Doxologies are found throughout Scripture. Sometimes a writer is overwhelmed with gratitude that he breaks into inspired praise to ADONAI for His goodness and grace. That is especially evident in the Psalms, the hymnbook of ancient Isra’el. The 150 psalms are divided into five sections, generally referred to as books. Although praises to YHVH are found throughout the Psalms, each of the five books ends with a special doxology. The B’rit Chadashah is full of doxologies. At the birth of Yeshua, the angel and a vast army from heaven were praising God, singing: In the highest heaven, glory to God (Luke 2:13-14)! When Messiah made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; peace in heaven and glory in the highest (Luke 19:37-38)!
There is a remarkable relationship between these last several verses of Romans and the first eleven. In 16:25 Paul speaks of God, who can strengthen you, and in 1:11 he tells his readers that he longs to see them, so that he might share with them some spiritual gift that would make them stronger. In 16:25 he speaks of my Good News, and in 1:1 of the Good News of God. In 16:2 Paul speaks of the secret truth which is the proclamation of Yeshua the Messiah, kept hidden in silence for ages and ages, and in 1:2 of the Good News which He promised in advance. In 16:25 he speaks of the proclamation of Yeshua Messiah, and in 1:3 concerning His Son. In 16:26 Paul speaks of the Good News being manifested through prophetic writings, and in 1:2 he speaks of the Good News being seen in advance through His prophets. In 16:26 Paul speaks of the Good News communicated to all the Gentiles to promote in them trust-grounded obedience, and in 1:5 of promoting trust-grounded obedience among all the Gentiles.
Now to God, who can strengthen you, according to my Good News (see As – Paul’s Gospel). The unbeliever has no certainty about YHVH or His Word or the way of salvation. The majority of mankind does not even have an interest in finding the true God. They are perfectly satisfied with the religion they have inherited or been exposed to, or else have no concern about life after death at all. Even those who attempt to find the LORD on their own, searching and discernment are always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (Second Timothy 3:7 NASB). But through the Good News, ADONAI can strengthen the minds and hearts of believers in the truth, to settle us, to ground us, and make us firm in Him (16:25a). No one but a believer can be certain about YHVH, certain about His truth, certain about His standards of righteousness, certain of His love and care, or certain about being with Him throughout all eternity (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer).
The Gospel that strengthens us and proclaims Yeshua Messiah is also in harmony with the revelation of the mystery (Greek: musterion, meaning some spiritual truth that was once hidden but now is revealed) which has been kept hidden in silence for ages and ages (16:25b). In First Corinthians, Paul uses the term in a general sense, speaking of the apostles and prophets in the B’rit Chadashah, such as himself, Apollos, and Peter as trustees of God’s secret truths (First Corinthians 4:1). That is, they were bringing new revelation hidden from past ages (Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:25-26).
But the mystery that is manifested now had been predicted through veiled prophetic writings, in keeping with the command of God the Eternal, and communicated to all the Gentiles to promote in them trust-grounded obedience (16:26). Through Isaiah, ADONAI promised that My Righteous Servant will make many righteous; it is for their sins that He suffers (Isaiah 53:11). Jeremiah foretold: Here, the days are coming,” says ADONAI, “when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Isra’el and with the house of Y’hudah . . . I will put my Torah within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people (Jeremiah 31:31 and 33). Through Ezeki’el, Ha’Shem said: And I will give them unity of heart. “I will put a new spirit among you.” I will remove from their bodies the hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh (Ezeki’el 11:19).
The Jews had always believed that such prophecies only applied to them, as the chosen people of God. As Peter explains: The prophets, who prophesied about this gift of deliverance that was meant for you, pondered and inquired diligently about it. They were trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of the Messiah in them was referring in predicting the Messiah’s sufferings and the glorious things to follow (First Peter 1:10-11). Even to God’s inspired prophets in Dispensation of the Torah (see the commentary on Exodus Da – The Dispensation of the Torah), the full meaning of their prophecies was a mystery. This is called “progressive revelation,” slowly revealing God’s plan.
As a result, when Ha’Shem first made His covenant with Abraham, the father of His chosen people Isra’el, He alluded to His offering of grace to the whole world. He told Abraham, “And by you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3b). When YHVH made the covenant with His people through Moshe at Mount Sinai, He said: And you will be a kingdom of cohanim for me, a nation set apart.’ These are the words you are to speak to the people of Isra’el” (Exodus 19:6). In other words, it was God’s plan all along that Isra’el, as a nation, was to be a priest, a mediator of God, for the rest of the Gentile world.
Through Isaiah, ADONAI told Isra’el that He not only had called her in righteousness, but that He had also made her as a covenant for the people, to be a light for the Gentile nations (Isaiah 42:6, 49:22, 54:3, 60:5, 62:2, 66:19). Speaking of the future Messiah, God predicted: I will also make You a light to the Gentile nations, so My salvation can spread to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6), a passage that Paul and Barnabas quoted before a crowd of both Jews and Gentiles in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:46-47).
That is the truth Paul emphasizes in the book of Romans. YHVH made known the riches of his glory to those who are the objects of his mercy . . . not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hoshea, “Those who were not My people I will call My people; her who was not loved I will call loved” (9:23-25). For the passage quoted says that everyone who rests his trust on him will not be humiliated. That means that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – ADONAI is the same for everyone (10:11-12). Therefore, Paul crowns this marvelous letter with praise to the only wise God, the God of the Jews and the Gentiles, the God of all creation. It was through Yeshua the Messiah that YHVH revealed not only His grace but also His great wisdom. And so, to Him be the glory forever and ever! Amen (16:27).410
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