The BOOK of ROMANS CHAPTER 9 Rom 9:1) At the same time, you need to know that I carry with me at all times a huge sorrow. (2) It's an enormous pain deep within me, and I'm never free of it. I'm not exaggerating--Christ and the Holy Spirit are my witnesses. It's the Israelites . . . (3) If there were any way I could be cursed by the Messiah so they could be blessed by him, I'd do it in a minute. They're my family. (4) I grew up with them. They had everything going for them--family, glory, covenants, revelation, worship, promises, (5) to say nothing of being the race that produced the Messiah, the Christ, who is God over everything, always. Oh, yes! (6) Don't suppose for a moment, though, that God's Word has malfunctioned in some way or other. The problem goes back a long way. From the outset, not all Israelites of the flesh were Israelites of the spirit. (7) It wasn't Abraham's sperm that gave identity here, but God's promise. Remember how it was put: "Your family will be defined by Isaac"? (8) That means that Israelite identity was never racially determined by sexual transmission, but it was God-determined by promise. (9) Remember that promise, "When I come back next year at this time, Sarah will have a son"? (10) And that's not the only time. To Rebecca, also, a promise was made that took priority over genetics. When she became pregnant by our one-of-a-kind ancestor, Isaac, (11) and her babies were still innocent in the womb--incapable of good or bad--she received a special assurance from God. What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don't do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative. (12) God told Rebecca, "The firstborn of your twins will take second place." (13) Later that was turned into a stark epigram: "I loved Jacob; I hated Esau." (14) Is that grounds for complaining that God is unfair? Not so fast, please. (15) God told Moses, "I'm in charge of mercy. I'm in charge of compassion." (16) Compassion doesn't originate in our bleeding hearts or moral sweat, but in God's mercy. (17) The same point was made when God said to Pharaoh, "I picked you as a bit player in this drama of my salvation power." (18) All we're saying is that God has the first word, initiating the action in which we play our part for good or ill. (19) Are you going to object, "So how can God blame us for anything since he's in charge of everything? If the big decisions are already made, what say do we have in it?" (20) Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn't talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, "Why did you shape me like this?" (21) Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? (22) If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure (23) and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn't that all right? (24) Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people. (25) Hosea put it well: I'll call nobodies and make them somebodies; I'll call the unloved and make them beloved. (26) In the place where they yelled out, "You're nobody!" they're calling you "God's living children." (27) Isaiah maintained this same emphasis: If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered and the sum labeled "chosen of God," They'd be numbers still, not names; salvation comes by personal selection. (28) God doesn't count us; he calls us by name. Arithmetic is not his focus. (29) Isaiah had looked ahead and spoken the truth: If our powerful God had not provided us a legacy of living children, We would have ended up like ghost towns, like Sodom and Gomorrah. (30) How can we sum this up? All those people who didn't seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. (31) And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. (32) How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their "God projects" that they didn't notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. (33) Isaiah (again!) gives us the metaphor for pulling this together: Careful! I've put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion, a stone you can't get around. But the stone is me! If you're looking for me, you'll find me on the way, not in the way. CHAPTER 10 Rom 10:1) Believe me, friends, all I want for Israel is what's best for Israel: salvation, nothing less. I want it with all my heart and pray to God for it all the time. (2) I readily admit that the Jews are impressively energetic regarding God--but they are doing everything exactly backwards. (3) They don't seem to realize that this comprehensive setting-things-right that is salvation is God's business, and a most flourishing business it is. Right across the street they set up their own salvation shops and noisily hawk their wares. After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on his terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have nothing to show for it. (4) The earlier revelation was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it. (5) Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it's not so easy--every detail of life regulated by fine print! (6) But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story--no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, (7) no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. (8) So what exactly was Moses saying? The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest. It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. (9) Say the welcoming word to God--"Jesus is my Master"--embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. (10) With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!" (11) Scripture reassures us, "No one who trusts God like this--heart and soul--will ever regret it." (12) It's exactly the same no matter what a person's religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. (13) "Everyone who calls, 'Help, God!' gets help." (14) But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? (15) And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That's why Scripture exclaims, A sight to take your breath away! Grand processions of people telling all the good things of God! (16) But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: "Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?" (17) The point is, Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ's Word is preached, there's nothing to listen to. (18) But haven't there been plenty of opportunities for Israel to listen and understand what's going on? Plenty, I'd say. Preachers' voices have gone 'round the world, Their message to earth's seven seas. (19) So the big question is, Why didn't Israel understand that she had no corner on this message? Moses had it right when he predicted, When you see God reach out to those you consider your inferiors--outsiders!-- you'll become insanely jealous. When you see God reach out to people you think are religiously stupid, you'll throw temper tantrums. (20) Isaiah dared to speak out these words of God: People found and welcomed me who never so much as looked for me. And I found and welcomed people who had never even asked about me. (21) Then he capped it with a damning indictment: Day after day after day, I beckoned Israel with open arms, And got nothing for my trouble but cold shoulders and icy stares. CHAPTER 11 Rom 11:1) Does this mean, then, that God is so fed up with Israel that he'll have nothing more to do with them? Hardly. Remember that I, the one writing these things, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham out of the tribe of Benjamin. You can't get much more Semitic than that! (2) So we're not talking about repudiation. God has been too long involved with Israel, has too much invested, to simply wash his hands of them. Do you remember that time Elijah was agonizing over this same Israel and cried out in prayer? (3) God, they murdered your prophets, They trashed your altars; I'm the only one left and now they're after me! (4) And do you remember God's answer? I still have seven thousand who haven't quit, Seven thousand who are loyal to the finish. (5) It's the same today. There's a fiercely loyal minority still--not many, perhaps, but probably more than you think. (6) They're holding on, not because of what they think they're going to get out of it, but because they're convinced of God's grace and purpose in choosing them. If they were only thinking of their own immediate self-interest, they would have left long ago. (7) And then what happened? Well, when Israel tried to be right with God on her own, pursuing her own self-interest, she didn't succeed. The chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue his interest in them, and as a result received his stamp of legitimacy. The "self-interest Israel" became thick-skinned toward God. (8) Moses and Isaiah both commented on this: Fed up with their quarrelsome, self-centered ways, God blurred their eyes and dulled their ears, Shut them in on themselves in a hall of mirrors, and they're there to this day. (9) David was upset about the same thing: I hope they get sick eating self-serving meals, break a leg walking their self-serving ways. (10) I hope they go blind staring in their mirrors, get ulcers from playing at god. (11) The next question is, "Are they down for the count? Are they out of this for good?" And the answer is a clear-cut no. Ironically when they walked out, they left the door open and the outsiders walked in. But the next thing you know, the Jews were starting to wonder if perhaps they had walked out on a good thing. (12) Now, if their leaving triggered this worldwide coming of non-Jewish outsiders to God's kingdom, just imagine the effect of their coming back! What a homecoming! (13) But I don't want to go on about them. It's you, the outsiders, that I'm concerned with now. Because my personal assignment is focused on the so-called outsiders, I make as much of this as I can (14) when I'm among my Israelite kin, the so-called insiders, hoping they'll realize what they're missing and want to get in on what God is doing. (15) If their falling out initiated this worldwide coming together, their recovery is going to set off something even better: mass homecoming! If the first thing the Jews did, even though it was wrong for them, turned out for your good, just think what's going to happen when they get it right! (16) Behind and underneath all this there is a holy, God-planted, God-tended root. If the primary root of the tree is holy, there's bound to be some holy fruit. (17) Some of the tree's branches were pruned and you wild olive shoots were grafted in. Yet the fact that you are now fed by that rich and holy root (18) gives you no cause to crow over the pruned branches. Remember, you aren't feeding the root; the root is feeding you. (19) It's certainly possible to say, "Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in!" (20) Well and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root. The only reason you're on the tree is because your graft "took" when you believed, and because you're connected to that belief-nurturing root. So don't get cocky and strut your branch. Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you lithe and green. (21) If God didn't think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would he hesitate over you? He wouldn't give it a second thought. (22) Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God--ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don't presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, you're out of there. (23) And don't get to feeling superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don't persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts. (24) Why, if he could graft you--branches cut from a tree out in the wild--into an orchard tree, he certainly isn't going to have any trouble grafting branches back into the tree they grew from in the first place. Just be glad you're in the tree, and hope for the best for the others. (25) I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what's going on and arrogantly assume that you're royalty and they're just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that's not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house. (26) Before it's all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written, A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion; he'll clean house in Jacob. (27) And this is my commitment to my people: removal of their sins. (28) From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God's enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God's overall purpose, they remain God's oldest friends. (29) God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty--never canceled, never rescinded. (30) There was a time not so long ago when you were on the outs with God. But then the Jews slammed the door on him and things opened up for you. (31) Now they are on the outs. But with the door held wide open for you, they have a way back in. (32) In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in. (33) Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It's way over our heads. We'll never figure it out. (34) Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do? (35) Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice? (36) Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes. CHAPTER 12 Rom 12:1) So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. (2) Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (3) I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. (4) In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. (5) The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, (6) let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't. If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; (7) if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; (8) if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. (9) Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. (10) Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. (11) Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, (12) cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (13) Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. (14) Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. (15) Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. (16) Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody. (17) Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. (18) If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. (19) Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it." (20) Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. (21) Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good. CHAPTER 13 Rom 13:1) Be a good citizen. All governments are under God. Insofar as there is peace and order, it's God's order. So live responsibly as a citizen. (2) If you're irresponsible to the state, then you're irresponsible with God, and God will hold you responsible. (3) Duly constituted authorities are only a threat if you're trying to get by with something. Decent citizens should have nothing to fear. Do you want to be on good terms with the government? Be a responsible citizen and you'll get on just fine, (4) the government working to your advantage. But if you're breaking the rules right and left, watch out. The police aren't there just to be admired in their uniforms. God also has an interest in keeping order, and he uses them to do it. (5) That's why you must live responsibly--not just to avoid punishment but also because it's the right way to live. (6) That's also why you pay taxes--so that an orderly way of life can be maintained. (7) Fulfill your obligations as a citizen. Pay your taxes, pay your bills, respect your leaders. (8) Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. (9) The law code--don't sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, and any other "don't" you can think of--finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. (10) You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love. (11) But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. (12) The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. (13) We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. (14) Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about! CHAPTER 14 Rom 14:1) Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with--even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently. (2) For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume all Christians should be vegetarians and eat accordingly. (3) But since both are guests at Christ's table, wouldn't it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn't eat? God, after all, invited them both to the table. (4) Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God's welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help. (5) Or, say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience. (6) What's important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God's sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you're a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. (7) None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. (8) It's God we are answerable to--all the way from life to death and everything in between--not each other. (9) That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other. (10) So where does that leave you when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I'd say it leaves you looking pretty silly--or worse. Eventually, we're all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment, facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren't going to improve your position there one bit. (11) Read it for yourself in Scripture: "As I live and breathe," God says, "every knee will bow before me; Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I and only I am God." (12) So tend to your knitting. You've got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God. (13) Forget about deciding what's right for each other. Here's what you need to be concerned about: that you don't get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. (14) I'm convinced--Jesus convinced me!--that everything as it is in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it. (15) If you confuse others by making a big issue over what they eat or don't eat, you're no longer a companion with them in love, are you? These, remember, are persons for whom Christ died. Would you risk sending them to hell over an item in their diet? (16) Don't you dare let a piece of God-blessed food become an occasion of soul-poisoning! (17) God's kingdom isn't a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness' sake. It's what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. (18) Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Do that and you'll kill two birds with one stone: pleasing the God above you and proving your worth to the people around you. (19) So let's agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; (20) don't drag them down by finding fault. You're certainly not going to permit an argument over what is served or not served at supper to wreck God's work among you, are you? I said it before and I'll say it again: All food is good, but it can turn bad if you use it badly, if you use it to trip others up and send them sprawling. (21) When you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face but to share the life of Jesus. So be sensitive and courteous to the others who are eating. Don't eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love. (22) Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don't impose it on others. You're fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. (23) But if you're not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe--some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them--then you know that you're out of line. If the way you live isn't consistent with what you believe, then it's wrong. CHAPTER 15 Rom 15:1) Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. (2) Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, "How can I help?" (3) That's exactly what Jesus did. He didn't make it easy for himself by avoiding people's troubles, but waded right in and helped out. "I took on the troubles of the troubled," is the way Scripture puts it. (4) Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it's written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. (5) May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. (6) Then we'll be a choir--not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus! (7) So reach out and welcome one another to God's glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! (8) Jesus, staying true to God's purposes, reached out in a special way to the Jewish insiders so that the old ancestral promises would come true for them. (9) As a result, the non-Jewish outsiders have been able to experience mercy and to show appreciation to God. Just think of all the Scriptures that will come true in what we do! For instance: Then I'll join outsiders in a hymn-sing; I'll sing to your name! (10) And this one: Outsiders and insiders, rejoice together! (11) And again: People of all nations, celebrate God! All colors and races, give hearty praise! (12) And Isaiah's word: There's the root of our ancestor Jesse, breaking through the earth and growing tree tall, Tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope! (13) Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope! (14) Personally, I've been completely satisfied with who you are and what you are doing. You seem to me to be well-motivated and well-instructed, quite capable of guiding and advising one another. (15) So, my dear friends, don't take my rather bold and blunt language as criticism. It's not criticism. I'm simply underlining how very much I need your help in carrying out this highly focused assignment God gave me, (16) this priestly and gospel work of serving the spiritual needs of the non-Jewish outsiders so they can be presented as an acceptable offering to God, made whole and holy by God's Holy Spirit. (17) Looking back over what has been accomplished and what I have observed, I must say I am most pleased--in the context of Jesus, I'd even say proud, but only in that context. (18) I have no interest in giving you a chatty account of my adventures, only the wondrously powerful and transformingly present words and deeds of Christ in me that triggered a believing response among the outsiders. (19) In such ways I have trailblazed a preaching of the Message of Jesus all the way from Jerusalem far into northwestern Greece. (20) This has all been pioneer work, bringing the Message only into those places where Jesus was not yet known and worshiped. (21) My text has been, Those who were never told of him-- they'll see him! Those who've never heard of him-- they'll get the message! (22) And that's why it has taken me so long to finally get around to coming to you. (23) But now that there is no more pioneering work to be done in these parts, and since I have looked forward to seeing you for many years, (24) I'm planning my visit. I'm headed for Spain, and expect to stop off on the way to enjoy a good visit with you, and eventually have you send me off with God's blessing. (25) First, though, I'm going to Jerusalem to deliver a relief offering to the Christians there. (26) The Greeks--all the way from the Macedonians in the north to the Achaians in the south--decided they wanted to take up a collection for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. (27) They were happy to do this, but it was also their duty. Seeing that they got in on all the spiritual gifts that flowed out of the Jerusalem community so generously, it is only right that they do what they can to relieve their poverty. (28) As soon as I have done this--personally handed over this "fruit basket"--I'm off to Spain, with a stopover with you in Rome. (29) My hope is that my visit with you is going to be one of Christ's more extravagant blessings. (30) I have one request, dear friends: Pray for me. Pray strenuously with and for me--to God the Father, through the power of our Master Jesus, through the love of the Spirit-- (31) that I will be delivered from the lions' den of unbelievers in Judea. Pray also that my relief offering to the Jerusalem Christians will be accepted in the spirit in which it is given. (32) Then, God willing, I'll be on my way to you with a light and eager heart, looking forward to being refreshed by your company. (33) God's peace be with all of you. Oh, yes! CHAPTER 16 Rom 16:1) Be sure to welcome our friend Phoebe in the way of the Master, with all the generous hospitality we Christians are famous for. I heartily endorse both her and her work. She's a key representative of the church at Cenchrea. (2) Help her out in whatever she asks. She deserves anything you can do for her. She's helped many a person, including me. (3) Say hello to Priscilla and Aquila, who have worked hand in hand with me in serving Jesus. (4) They once put their lives on the line for me. And I'm not the only one grateful to them. All the non-Jewish gatherings of believers also owe them plenty, (5) to say nothing of the church that meets in their house. Hello to my dear friend Epenetus. He was the very first Christian in the province of Asia. (6) Hello to Mary. What a worker she has turned out to be! (7) Hello to my cousins Andronicus and Junias. We once shared a jail cell. They were believers in Christ before I was. Both of them are outstanding leaders. (8) Hello to Ampliatus, my good friend in the family of God. (9) Hello to Urbanus, our companion in Christ's work, and my good friend Stachys. (10) Hello to Apelles, a tried-and-true veteran in following Christ. Hello to the family of Aristobulus. (11) Hello to my cousin Herodion. Hello to those Christians from the family of Narcissus. (12) Hello to Tryphena and Tryphosa--such diligent women in serving the Master. Hello to Persis, a dear friend and hard worker in Christ. (13) Hello to Rufus--a good choice by the Master!--and his mother. She has also been a dear mother to me. (14) Hello to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and also to all of their families. (15) Hello to Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas--and all the Christians who live with them. (16) Holy embraces all around! All the churches of Christ send their warmest greetings! (17) One final word of counsel, friends. Keep a sharp eye out for those who take bits and pieces of the teaching that you learned and then use them to make trouble. Give these people a wide berth. (18) They have no intention of living for our Master Christ. They're only in this for what they can get out of it, and aren't above using pious sweet talk to dupe unsuspecting innocents. (19) And so while there has never been any question about your honesty in these matters--I couldn't be more proud of you!--I want you also to be smart, making sure every "good" thing is the real thing. Don't be gullible in regard to smooth-talking evil. Stay alert like this, (20) and before you know it the God of peace will come down on Satan with both feet, stomping him into the dirt. Enjoy the best of Jesus! (21) And here are some more greetings from our end. Timothy, my partner in this work, Lucius, and my cousins Jason and Sosipater all said to tell you hello. (22) I, Tertius, who wrote this letter at Paul's dictation, send you my personal greetings. (23) Gaius, who is host here to both me and the whole church, wants to be remembered to you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our good friend Quartus send their greetings. (24) (OMITTED TEXT) (25) All of our praise rises to the One who is strong enough to make you strong, exactly as preached in Jesus Christ, precisely as revealed in the mystery kept secret for so long (26) but now an open book through the prophetic Scriptures. All the nations of the world can now know the truth and be brought into obedient belief, carrying out the orders of God, who got all this started, down to the very last letter. (27) All our praise is focused through Jesus on this incomparably wise God! Yes!