The Will of God for Changed Relationships
In Review
Phebe was the bearer of the epistle to the church at Rome. Cenchrea was a seaport about eight miles from Corinth. She was probably involved in a business trip to Rome which would account for the fact that she took the epistle to Rome.
Concerning the word for “succourer” (Greek prostatis), Picirilli observes,
The Greek word ‘succorer’ means, literally, ‘one stationed in front’ and refers originally to a guardian or protector. But then one who protects can do so in the milder sense of a patron, provider, or sponsor, and that is probably the sense the word has here. The guess is that she had filled this office in a monetary way, underwriting the needs of many Christians on various occasions and on at least one occasion for Paul. Or she may have ‘ministered’ in a more personal way, as in nursing sick ones back to health. It is even possible she—if she were a businesswoman of position—used her influence to rescue Christians who (as Paul often was) would be falsely accused and in trouble with authorities (315, 316).
We first see Priscilla and Aquila in Acts 18:2. Paul found them in Corinth on his second missionary journey. They had come to Corinth because Claudius had commanded all Jews to leave Rome. They spent some time travelling with Paul (Acts 18:18). They had helped Apollos, who when they first met him in Ephesus, knew only John’s baptism, to understand what it meant to believe in Christ (Acts 18:24–26). They had had a church meet in their house while in Corinth (1 Cor. 16:19). Paul placed great value on them as fellow workers.
“My kinsman” either meant a fellow Jew, or a relative
Persis for some reason—she may have been disabled in some way—had ceased, for note the tenses. Persis ‘labored much,’ which may indicate length of service. Observe that while Paul in speaking of men says ‘my beloved,’ he now delicately omits the pronoun before this woman’s name” (197).
Salute one another with an holy kiss. Concerning saluting one another with a holy kiss, Moody explains, “The custom among Rabbis was practiced by the disciples of Jesus (Luke 7:45; 22:48), and it became a part of early Christian worship (1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Peter 5:14). It was a part of the eucharistic liturgy in Rome in the second century (Justin Martyr, First Apology, 65), but the form has been greatly modified or completely eliminated in most of Western Christianity” (282).
It seems to concern some people that we practice the church ordinances, but do not practice the holy kiss in our churches. I find the distinctions between “form” and “substance” helpful in this case. The substance is the basic principle or bottom line truth involved. The form is the means of conveying or expressing the bottom line truth. For example, in Communion the bottom line truth is that we remember the broken body of Christ on the cross and His blood which was shed. The form is the eating of the bread and the drinking of the cup. Beyond doubt, in communion we are to obey both in substance and in form.
In the “holy kiss” the bottom line principle is that we convey our love one to another. In those days one of the forms for doing this was the holy kiss. We do not have the same clear message from Scripture that both substance and form are Divinely instituted in the case of the “holy kiss” that we do with the church ordinances.
With changing customs, we do not change the form of the church ordinances because the form has been Divinely instituted. With changing customs, we do change the form in matters like the holy kiss while maintaining the substance. We are to love one another and convey the same, but we are not obliged to do so with a holy kiss.