“If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,

and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

(1 John 1:7)

In this almost post-script to St. Paul’s Roman letter — right at the close, as if it were an after-thought — we find the names of some 26 people who would never again be mentioned in scripture, and who would, in all likelihood, be completely lost to history if their names were not listed here. Who were these people: Rufus, Urbanus, Julia, dear old Stachys, and the others? Why, they were friends of Paul, there in the Christian fellowship in Rome, to whom he sends personal greetings. Yes, of course, that much is clear from the text. But that doesn’t tell us who they really were. What had they accomplished that their names should be singled out and made immortal in Holy Writ?

Out of this whole list, only Priscilla and Aquilla, Paul’s fellow tradesmen in tent-making, who had helped establish the church at Corinth, are mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament. Not one word about any of the other two dozen is found anywhere else in the Bible. John Calvin, in his commentary on this chapter, remarks that, since the greater part of it is taken up with salutations to unknown people, it would be useless to dwell long upon it.

But that is just the point that demands our attention this morning. Here are listed a group of people whom Calvin rightly characterized as: “none with splendid and magnificent titles”, by which we might conclude that people high in rank were Christians; for all these whom Paul mentions were “the obscure and ignoble of Rome.” Yes, from the wording of the list itself it is apparent that the majority were slaves belonging to this household or that — “the household of Narcissus and the household of Aristobulus”. Dr. A. T. Robertson tells us that his studies of ancient inscriptions and manuscripts reveal that most of the names listed here are the very names most commonly given to slaves in Roman households during the first century: “Rufus”, which just means “red”; “Urbanus”, or “city-bred”; and “Julia”, the most common name for female slaves in the imperial household. These people were without citizenship; they were not talented or known; they were the “nobodies” in that heyday of Roman power and glory.

And yet the tremendous fact of history is that they were the very people who held the secret of a power that shook the ancient pagan world to its very foundations. For it was by little groups of nobodies like these at Rome, and scattered here and there in small clusters over the Empire: at Ephesus, Corinth, Athens, Alexandria — people who were without any outward signs or prerogatives of social or political power — they couldn’t vote, they had no freedom of speech, they were denied the right of assembly, they didn’t know anything about the power of gun powder, or electricity, or atomic power — and yet they had the secret of a power that turned the world upside down. What was the secret of the power of the Christian fellowship?

First of all there was this: a concern for persons. They may have been nobodies, slaves, scum of the gutters and sewers of Rome, but within the circle of their fellowship there was a concern for one another as persons that was both intense and beautiful. Look at this list of the Christians to whom Paul sends greetings at Rome. See the varied evidence of genuine affection within that fellowship.

Paul says: “This letter will introduce you to Phoebe, a deaconess of the Church at Cenchrea. Please give her a Christian welcome and any assistance with her work that she may need. She has herself been of great assistance to many, not excluding myself.”

“Greet Mary who has worked so hard for you.

“Shake the hand of Rufus for me — that splendid Christian — and greet his mother who has been a mother to me, too.

“Andronicus and Junius, my fellow-prisoners.

“Priscilla and Aquilla who have laid down their own necks on the chopping block for me.”

Paul, at the time he wrote this letter to the Christian community at Rome, had never himself been to Rome, but he had experienced the loving kindness, the courageous, strong, heroic support of all these fellow Christians in various localities scattered all over the Mediterranean world. Now they have found each other in Rome, the capital city of the Empire.

Concern for persons — this was the distinctive quality of the early Christian fellowship by which they changed and saved the ancient world. “So shall they know that you are my disciples,” said Jesus, “by your love for one another.” The secret source of the church’s power is the spirit of the Living Christ which dwells in the body of believers — making it a loving fellowship like that band of twelve with Jesus — and gives the church a burning concern for people.

Albert Schweitzer operated his life on the principle that when God richly blesses a child of His, the Eternal Father is filling up a reservoir of goodness, and that favored one has, under God, an obligation to drain off that reservoir of blessings to reach and nourish the dry, barren, desert places of life, so that there, too, the beauty of God may bloom.

The more blessed our life, the more concerned we should be for those people whose lives have been stripped of the very blessings we enjoy. So Schweitzer took the abounding health, the mighty strength, the surplus of talent and genius stored up in that prodigious personality that was Albert Schweitzer, and he poured it out with lavish prodigality upon the sick, superstitious, ignorant people of Africa.

A second distinctive feature of the early Christian fellowship which explains the secret of its power to conquer the ancient world was its concern for handing on an undiluted and complete body of Christian truth. It was a concern for persons that reached out in a definite direction, not just to make everybody happy, not just to give everybody an eight hour work day and a full dinner pail, but a concern to bring to every person the saving, transforming gospel of Jesus Christ.

Was it not through the word of the gospel, preached and taught, that God’s transforming power had come mightily upon them and among them in the New Testament Church? Therefore, they had great respect for the element of Christian truth revealed to them. This prized possession they treasured above all else. The gospel was the power of God unto salvation to all them that believed. Therefore it followed unerringly, as the night the day, that this body of truth concerning God’s redeeming love and power and purpose for people must be taught, learned, handed on from person to person, from generation to generation. This was the church’s burning concern. Not only must the message be propagated, but it must be handed on complete and unadulterated.

“Guard,” says St. Paul, “against those who come in opposition to the teaching you have been given.” And to Timothy he charged: “Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith, and love, which is in Christ Jesus … And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful people, who shall be able to teach others also.”

This concern of the Christian fellowship for handing on an undiluted and complete body of Christian truth found one expression in sending out missionaries — teachers and preachers — into unevangelized areas: men like Barnabas, Paul, John, Mark, Silas. But remember, it was upon “the fellowship” assembled at Antioch that the Holy Spirit came saying: “Separate unto me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have called them.” The fellowship, not the individual, conceived of and initiated the missionary enterprise.

The secret of the tremendous transforming power of the New Testament fellowship which toppled and conquered a vast pagan world lay not in numbers or outward forms of power, for they were small groups of unknown people; but rather the secret of their power lay in their unlimited concern for persons and for imparting to those persons the saving knowledge of the gospel of Christ. How concerned are we?

 

PASTORAL PRAYER

We wait now in Thy presence, O Lord of Love and Goodness. Draw near to us as we draw near to Thee. Dispel the clouds of sin and doubt and selfishness which hide Thy glory from our inconstant hearts. With steadfast thoughts and chastened affections may we fix our minds and hearts on Thee. In the quiet and peace of this sacred hour be Thou the hope and peace of our souls.

We know that Thou hast loved us with an everlasting love. We confess that Thy goodness is upon us and with us in all our ways. But our love to Thee wavers and grows cold. Our fickle affections have wandered and grasped strange and unrewarding attachments so that anger and bitterness, envy and selfishness, strife and discord and an unforgiving spirit have marred our dealings with others.

Kindle, O Lord, upon the altars of our hearts a new, pure flame of undying devotion to Thee, that we may love Thee, our Heavenly Father, as Thou deservest, and our brothers and sisters as we ought. Put within us a passionate concern to learn and know Thy word and will for us so that the saving grace of Thy gospel may be committed to the lips of faithful men and women, stirred with a holy love for the souls of all people, so that soon the knowledge of Thee may cover the earth as the waters cover the channels of the deep. And so let Thy kingdom come through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

• Scripture Reference: 1 John 1:7-0 • Secondary Scripture References: Romans 16:1-16 • Subject : Responsibility for passing on undiluted body of Christian Truth; 591 • Special Topic: n/a • Series: n/a • Occasion: Religious Education Week • First Preached: 9/25/1949 • Last Preached: 2/23/1997 • Rating: 3 • Book/Author References: , Dr. A. T. Robertson; , Albert Schweitzer; , John Calvin