Personal Greetings
16:1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, 2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. 5 Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. 6 Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. 7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. 8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. 9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. 10 Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. 11 Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. 12 Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. 13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. 14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. 15 Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. 16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.
Final Instructions and Greetings
17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. 18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. 19 For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
21 Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.
22 I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.
23 Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.
Doxology
25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (ESV)
What does it mean in verse 10 to be “…tested and approved in Christ.”
I challenge all True Northers to not just skip over that description of Apelles but to 10 more minutes this morning and look up what the Bible says about how to be approved and tested in Christ. Let’s see in this blog what you all find out about His approval and how to get tested! Here’s hint from King David to start: Psalm 26.
God is so good! He is the only wise God!
20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
This verse is so awsome! We can have faith and confidence that Satan will be crushed because of God’s grace towards us. One day we will be raptured and taken to heaven with Jesus, and in His presence Satan will have no power over us! Let’s realize how good God’s grace is and inresponse have faith that His grace will endure, Maranatha!!!!!
17I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
Paul is very specific with the recipients of his letter to stay away from anyone who causes division in the church, especially through the teaching of false doctrine. In 2008 we still must be vigilent to do what 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 says and “test everything, hold on to the good, and avoid every kind of evil.” We need to be careful with what Christian books we read and what Christian teaching we listen to on the radio. Not all teachers and authors who claim to be Christians are teaching a Biblical gospel or interpreting the Bible as God intended. We must be strongly rooted in the truth by reading God’s Word daily so that we know when we hear false teaching. When we hear it we must refute it with Scripture and get as far away from it as possible. God wants us to stay away from it so that our beliefs are not corrupted and led away from the Bible’s truth.
19Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
How awesome is it when other people hear about your obedience. In order for them to hear about it someone had to see it and tell it. A life of obedience involves tangible actions that are visible to observers (1 John 3:18). People were seeing, telling, and then hearing about the great things these Christians were doing and this brought joy to Paul and others. Let the same be true here at True North! Let’s bring joy to our leaders and other Christians as they see and hear about our obedience.
There is so much about greeting in this chapter that I posted a short blog about it. When we come to church we need greet others like Christ has commanded us to. Click here to check out my blog:
http://www.compasschurch.org/blogs
I hope to see you at True North this weekend! Let’s be sure to greet each other and everyone else, even people we may not know!
I like this chapter because it talks about so many people that were a part of the early church. The church would not be able to survive without all of them.
17I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
This is very important now days. We need to watch out for false teachings and divisions. We should all be working together to better advance the kingdom of God.
verse 17 caught my eye…
It is important that we are not always hanging around the “wrong crowd”….it can be so easy to get pulled down with them. But reading Gods word and growing our relationship with Him will help us to not only be lead astray but it can help us lead people in the right direction!!!
Romans 12:11 never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord
but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
I like this verse. Christians should be set apart.
17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them
Just because we go to church doesnt mean the people there are trying to help us! we need to watch out for false teachers and people that will make us fall away from christ!
17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them
This is a warning, I agree with Josh even though we are church we still need to be on the lookout for false teachers and those who could cause divisions or drag us down. We should surround ourselves with people that build us up and encourage us spiritually, not with people that cause us to stumble and make it our walk hard.
17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them
I agree with bre and josh. Even though we are at church and assume that everyone is a Christian and is there to build you up it might be the opposite. There are people out there that will tear you down and not build you up at all in your walk.
18For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
And verese 18 shows us what these people are like. They might even be nice and friendly but they arnt there for the Lord they are there for there own selfish desires and they will decieve you. So we as christians need to watch out fot these people in the church we need to make sure that they do not smooth talk us and pull us into their trap and then bring us down.
19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you…
What kind of reputation do we have as Christians? Are we the kind of people who disguise our faith so well that our friends would be surprised that we claim to follow Christ? Or are we the ones who are known for our obedience to the Lord, the kids who everyone has heard about and labelled as ‘Jesus freaks’ who are always spreading the Gospel as Christ commanded us in Matthew 28? And likewise, when we are with others who are being bold for Christ, are we ashamed to the point where we remain silent, or do we overflow with joy because of them and continue to speak for Christ? We need to be the kind of Christians who everyone hears about because of our devotion to the Lord.
In response to the first post… Psalm 26 is an excellent place to start! David asks the Lord to test his heart and mind, and he prays that throughout the trials in his life he will “Trust in the Lord without wavering” (v1) and “walk continually in His Truth” (v3). Every day, we are faced with situations that require us to choose between God’s path and sin – even if the sin is well disguised. We need to have the strength that it takes to stand for the Lord and what He has shown us is the right path, choosing to live for Him in spite of whatever trials the world brings or whatever temptations it holds.
25 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,
26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him—
27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Its so critical, that in whatever we do, we always give the glory to God in all things! Without Him, we are completely powerless, we can do absolutely nothing for His kingdom with out Him guiding and moving us. Even though, at times, it make seem as though its through our own power the we have accomplished something, we need to realize that God is the one in control, He is the one behind every action that takes place. Its comforting and encouraging to know that we have the Creator of everything watching out for us and leading us in the way He wants us to go. Lets never forget to give Him ALL the GLORY!!
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
That is awesome.
This whole chapter was like an encouragment chapter to the Church. Anyway, The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. WHen most people think of Jesus, they think of Jesus meak and mild. Well, have you heard of when he comes back. He’s gonna have a sword(double edged I might add) coming out of his mouth to judge the nations. AS chrstians, we are saved by this becasue of HIs grace.
18For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
Satan will use ways to tempt us to go against God. That is what these people are doing. They make bad things look appealing to others and sometimes it works. That’s how sin ends up spreading. It looks more appealing to do the wrong thing instead of what’s right.
18For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
I agree with you Taylin, Satan’s temptations for us are made to try to appeal us. Why would any of his tempations look bad…he is going to try to deceive us into thinking they are good. But we know what is right and wrong because we have read the commands and rules set for us in the Bible and when we don’t obey them we have the Holy Spirit who convicts us when we have done wrong. Praise God for conviction and guilt!!!!
When we greet each other at church we must not only have small talk, many times only commenting on how cute someone looks etc, but instead we should encourage others spiritually. Building each other up and comforting those who need it. We as the body of Christ should make the church a place where everyone feels like family and where we all can be genuine. Because like this verse says if we only smooth talk and flatter people, we will deceive those who are naive. This is the last thing a church should do so we need to make sure that we are fellowshiping not only with our friends but also with those who are new so that they can feel welcomed into our family.
17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
There are these kind of people everywhere! They can be very sneaky so we need to keep a close eye out! They can even be in the church! There are some people who can seem like an angel and a great person on the outside but inside they are decitful and will cause you to stumble in your Christian walk.
20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
Wow this verse is so strong. It is by far my favorite in this chapter.
(v17) I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
We are so blessed to go to a biblically sound church that won’t attempt to lead us astray from the truth. We need to stand guard and make sure we are not moved by any false teachings. Constantly watch for anyone trying to lead you astray. We need to know our Bible and know the truth so we can’t be moved. This is why studying your bible is so important.
I like this chapter! Greet or greeting was mentioned 18 times that’s a lot, that is something that we should be doing all the time at church and encourage them and keep them accountable!
19Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
This verse caught me eye. I want this verse to be like True North, that True North will have a reputation of obedience, that we are living for the glory of God and not ourselves. We are Christ ambassadors and we got to represnt Christ and just evangelize like crazy. I see Tertius view, I have the same when I see someone at our church wasn’t saved before and then got saved I am so full of joy for them. Let’s live to be innocent about what is evil and wise about what is good True North!
17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them
I agree with everyone who has written about verse 17. coming from a private Christian school i realized just because we went there doesn’t mean we were automatically Christian but we need repent and turn from sin. Same with church. We need to be aware of those people who can pull us away from Christ. We need to suround ourselves with Christians that are for Christ.
God bless,
Beka +
17I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
whoa! a lot of people commented on verse 17. WOW. i went to catholic school for 3 years, and it was kinda hard for me then to realize which people were followers of Christ, and which ones were the obstacles for me. anyway, what i mean is that times it CAN be hard to watch out, so we need to surround ourselves with people truly like ourselves.
18For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
I agree with sunshine, we really need to take the right paths when we know we can do the other. The devil makes temptation look good. If you’re hanging around the wrong crowd, that can make it look even better. It can also do far worse to you than you’d expect. When it comes to temptation,it really IS one of the biggest things that we ALL struggle with in high school. So stay strong in the name of the Lord,and persevere through him as well.
18For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
We need to watch out for those who try to sell their versions of Christianity on us and get us to believe what they say. We need to be in the Word so that we are not easily deceived and led into believing what somewhat might say about the Lord. If we don’t know the Bible, we can easily be led by others like lost sheep down a wrong path.
20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
I love this verse! I just can’t wait until the end of our world when God officially ends the life of Satan! That’s gonna be amazing! But this verse even has to do with right now…when we’re struggling with a sin and confess it to God, He will give us the strength to overcome the sin. We can’t crush Satan on our own, but God sure can!
A lot of “Greetings” in this chapter…
17I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
This is a good reminder that even though we may be hearing the truth, there are many false teachers out there. Paul urges us to keep a watchfull eye out for them. He says they “cause divisions” or “put obstacles in your way” from what we know is the truth. We need to be aware of these people and make sure we aren’t listening to any of them. Even though we live in a world with people like these, verse 20 is a good reminder of the final outcome!
26but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him—
This verse says, “so that all nations might believe and obey Him”. That’s not happening in our world today. Most people don’t think that Christ will ever come back. We have to remember to be prepared and live 100% for God. I just hope that they’re are more and more people coming to know God and what He has done for us.
17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
Sometimes we don’t realize the bad examples people set for us, or what we can get into. Nice people aren’t always so nice once they start doing things that are displeasing to God. God wants us to be witnessing to those who don’t know Him, so we should get to know them so we can set examples for them. He doesn’t say not to hang out with people who don’t know the Lord…but when those people start being OUR examples and when they put things in our way (like temptations of all sorts – drugs, alcohol, illegality, etc) and we start to be apart of that, letting ourselves do the things we’re taught not to do and slipping over the obstacles, then that is when we need to separate ourselves from them.
19Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
We need to be examples of christ to the world so that our obediance to him is well known and we can grab the attention of nonbelievers and help them convert to Christ. If we serve God the way that Mary and Joseph did, we are bound to get recognition amoung nonbelievers.
20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
As I read pastor bobby’s blog, the heading of his second most recent post caught my eye, and I was reminded of this verse in today’s scripture. we should not fear those who are persecuting us and realize that eventually God will come out the victor. He will judge evil forever and we will never have to deal with that persecution again. Whatever they do, God is still in control
17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them
Bre had a good comment on this. We need to be careful in choosing the friends that we hang out with. We need to surround ourselves with people that will spurr us on and benefit our relationship wiht Christ.
Wow, Paul greeted a lot of people.
The way Paul kept in touch with his brothers and sisters in Christ shows us that we need to get to know all who are in Christ. At church we should make it a priority to meet a new person each time. Also we should get to know our brothers and sisters in Christ, encouraging and spurring them on to good works and deeds.
10Greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ.
Tonight at True North Pastor Bobby reminded us that the bible tells to strive to be Perfect and Merciful like God. Now imagine living this way and and then being known as “tested and approved in Christ” Or earning the reputation of “a Righteoud Man” as Joseph was refered. Joseph and Mary were definitely tested and approved.
20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
What an awesome statement andpowerful visual of God’s dominion over Satan.
What stood out to me from this chapter is that six different times Paul commends people for being hard workers for the Lord. Obviously this characteristic made them very helpful to Paul personally and for his ministry. I definitely want to be characterized this same way and be helpful in the church.
20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
I love this picture! ha that sounds kind of bad but i cannot wait for God to destroy satan and to live in eternity with him!!
17I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
We need to watch out for these kind of people and be prepared for when they do present obstacles so that we can overcome them! The only way is to study God’s word!
17I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
18For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
The main way i can think of to know if there is false teaching is by READING YOUR BIBLE PEOPLE!!!!! We need to be prepared to recognize false teaching and to denounce it at once, and knowing scripture helps.
18For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
Just like Bobby said for today’s sermon we have to be servants to out Lord. Not by obtaining our own wants and desires. Let’s all be like Mary and whatever the Lord wants we will do it whole-heartedly.