16:1 I {1} commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:
(1) Having made an end of the whole discussion, he comes now to familiar commendations and salutations, and that to good consideration and purpose, that is, that the Romans might know who are most to be honoured and to be considered among them: and also whom they ought to set before them to follow: and therefore he attributes to every of them individual and singular testimonies.
16:1 Personal Salutations
SUMMARY OF ROMANS 16:
The Bearer of the Letter Commended. The Church Asked to Give Her Aid in the Work That Calls Her to. Rome. Greetings for Old Friends and Fellow-Laborers. A Household Church. Warned Against Divisions. Farewell Benediction.
I commend unto you Phebe, our sister. Evidently the bearer of the letter, a sister in Christ. In this list of persons greeted, a number are women, and the greetings show how highly Paul esteemed woman's work in the church.
A servant. The word is diakonia ( deacon ) in the Greek. The word also means servant, as rendered, but we know that there were deaconesses in the church of the first century, and Paul, in giving her a recommendation, no doubt mentions her office. To say that she was a servant of the church, would convey no special distinction. In the East, where women were so much secluded, deaconesses would be a necessity. Paul evidently refers to them (1Ti 5:9,10). Ignatius, a companion of the apostles, mentions them in one of his epistles, and Pliny does also, in his famous letter to Trajan, early in the second century.
Which is at Cenchrea. Paul wrote this letter at Corinth; Cenchrea was its seaport, on the Aegean Sea, about nine miles from the city. A small town with the old name still marks its site.
16:1 I commend unto you Phebe - The bearer of this letter. A servant - The Greek word is a deaconness. Of the church in Cenchrea - In the apostolic age, some grave and pious women were appointed deaconnesses in every church. It was their office, not to teach publicly, but to visit the sick, the women in particular, and to minister to them both in their temporal and spiritual necessities.
16:1-16 Paul recommends Phebe to the Christians at Rome. It becomes Christians to help one another in their affairs, especially strangers; we know not what help we may need ourselves. Paul asks help for one that had been helpful to many; he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Though the care of all the churches came upon him daily, yet he could remember many persons, and send salutations to each, with particular characters of them, and express concern for them. Lest any should feel themselves hurt, as if Paul had forgotten them, he sends his remembrances to the rest, as brethren and saints, though not named. He adds, in the close, a general salutation to them all, in the name of the churches of Christ.
