Romans 16.16-18-Paul Requests That Romans Greet One Another And Avoid Judaizers
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday August 22, 2010
Romans: Romans 16:16-18-Paul Requests That Romans Greet One Another And Avoid Judaizers
Lesson # 549
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 16:16.
In Romans 16:16, Paul commands the Roman believers to greet on one another with a holy kiss and also tells them that all the churches sends their greetings.
Romans 16:16, “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.”
In western civilization in the twenty first century, this kiss would be equivalent to a hug or handshake.
The adjective hagios, “holy” indicates that this kiss is reserved exclusively for fellow Christians.
This request was standard at the end of Paul’s letters and appears in Peter’s letters as well.
1 Corinthians 16:20, “All the brothers and sisters send greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.” (NET Bible)
2 Corinthians 13:12, “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.” (NET Bible)
1 Thessalonians 5:26, “Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.” (NET Bible)
1 Peter 5:14, “Greet one another with a loving kiss. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.” (NET Bible)
This “holy kiss” was an expression of affection between believers.
In Romans 12:10, Paul commands the Romans believers to continue to make it their habit to be affectionate with one another.
Romans 12:10, “Concerning affection among spiritual brothers and sisters, all of you must continue to make it your habit to be affectionate with one another. Concerning honor, all of you continue to make it your habit to regard one another more highly than yourselves.”
This affection is produced by the Holy Spirit in the believer who obeys the command to love his fellow believer as Christ loved Him (John 13:34).
Paul passes along this greeting to the Romans from the churches he planted because he wants the Roman believers to understand that they are not alone and that the churches that he planted were identifying with them and regarded them as worthy of great respect.
It emphasizes with his readers in Rome that the churches that he planted from Jerusalem to Illyricum regarded them as extremely important.
Also, Paul wants to build unity between the Roman church and the ones he planted.
In Romans 16:17, Paul warns the Roman believers to watch out for those who cause divisions and temptations contrary to the doctrine they’ve been taught and that they were to avoid them.
Romans 16:17, “Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.”
Though Paul does not explicitly identify these individuals, his teaching in Romans chapters 2-4 does strongly suggest that he is referring to the Judaizers since these chapters are designed specifically to refute their legalistic teaching.
Further suggesting that Paul is referring to that which is caused by the Judaizers’ teaching is that Paul’s epistles and the book of Acts reveal that the Judaizers’ caused divisions in the churches that Paul established from Jerusalem to Illyricum.
In particular, their teaching caused divisions in Galatia, which Paul addressed in the Galatian epistle.
The fact that Paul would use three chapters in this epistle to refute their teaching, which his other epistles and the book of Acts reveal caused divisions in the churches, strongly suggests that the “dissensions” in Romans 16:17 is a reference to the divisions caused by the Judaizers’ legalistic teaching.
The Judaizers originated with the Pharisees and adhered to their teaching and were composed of both believing and unbelieving Jews who taught strict adherence to the 613 mandates found in the Mosaic Law as well as the oral traditions of the Rabbis, which are now, documented in the Mishna and the Talmud.
The Judaizers taught that one had to observe and practice the Mosaic Law in order to get saved whereas Paul taught salvation by grace through faith in Christ and not through the works of the Mosaic Law (Eph. 2:8-9; Gal. 2:16).
They followed Paul throughout his missionary journey’s seeking to discredit and destroy his ministry (Acts 13:45; 17:5) and he denounces their teaching in the book of Galatians since they taught a “different gospel” according to Gal. 1:6 and “distorted the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:7).
There is another factor that strongly suggests that Paul is speaking of the Judaizers, namely that Paul uses the noun koilia, “appetites” in Romans 16:17 to describe these individuals who cause divisions, which is the same word he uses in Philippians 3:19 to describe the Judaizers.
“Hindrances” refers to temptations to sin and enter into apostasy in the sense of leading one to act contrary to a set of beliefs.
The Judaizers’ teaching would cause the Romans to sin and go into apostasy since they would no longer be living their lives according to the Lord’s teaching and that of the apostles and would no longer be living according to God’s grace and no longer living by faith.
The Scriptures also emphasize the importance of avoiding false doctrine (Matthew 16:12, 17; 1 Timothy 6:3-5; Hebrews 13:9; 2 John 9-10).
“Turn away” means that the Romans were to purposely avoid association with the Judaizers and those who adhere to their teaching.
This avoidance and having no contact with false teachers was taught and practiced by the apostles and their disciples (Matthew 7:15-29; Mark 8:15; Luke 20:46; Acts 20:29-30; Philippians 3:2; 2 Peter 2; 2 John 9-10).
In Romans 16:18, Paul presents two reasons why the Romans were to watch out for the Judaizers and their legalistic teaching and avoid them.
Romans 16:18, “For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.”
“Of their own appetites” contains the figure of “synecdoche” of the part where the stomach of the Judaizers is put for their strict adherence to the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law.
“By their smooth and flattering speech” indicates that smooth speech and flattery were the means by which the Judaizers deceive immature believers.
“The hearts of the unsuspecting” refers to believers who are deficient in wisdom because they are either ignorant of the Word of God or they are not fully educated in it and therefore trained to discern false teaching from accurate teaching.
To summarize, in Romans 16:18, Paul presents two reasons why the Romans were to watch out for the Judaizers and their legalistic teaching and avoid them.
The first is that they do not serve Christ but their teaching of strict adherence to the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law.
The second reason why the Romans were to watch out for the legalistic teaching of the Judaizers and avoid them is that they deceived the spiritually naïve or immature by their smooth talk and flattery.