Romans chapter 16

vs 19

Assuming the stories of their obedience are correct, it is indeed worthy of praise. I'm assuming it is obedience to the teachings of Christ.

The next step for them, in Paul's mind, is now wisdom. Not worldly wisdom - he wants them to focus on wisdom regarding good things. There's certainly no point polishing up on your knowledge of evil things - he wants them to remain innocent of those. Unknowing. Let them know what is evil because they know good so well.

vs 20

See, if God is going to crush Satan under your feet, then you don't really need to be that au fait with his movements or tactics. You don't need to study his evil.

The irony that the God "of peace" will go around crushing is not lost on me.

vs 21

Sosipater, you are the man. Interesting that Paul sends the greetings of the Jews first, and specifically too.

vs 22

Tertius was an amenuensis - it's not that Paul couldn't write, but for some reason he didn't. Either he dictated, or he gave Tertius the general idea and told him to write it out (which seems less likely with a book the size of Romans), or perhaps Paul was going blind and was having difficulty writing himself.

vs 23(24)

Ahh, the TNIV is sneaking verse numbers around again!

Where would Christian theology be without Romans 16:24? We would surely all become heathens without it!

Anyway, vs 23 tells us about some very important people. Gaius is the guy who owns the house that Paul stays in while he is, well, wherever he is. I haven't quite worked that out yet. I'm sure some smart scholar as put it all together. Unfortunately, some equally smart scholars have no doubt put their own things together and So Paul was in a dozen places.

Erastus gets his job description thrown in. Why? Don't know. But it sounds like a pretty important person to have in the church. It's like saying "We have the CEO of IBM in our church" I guess. And then there's Quartus. He's just there.

vs 25

Paul does call it "my gospel" here, but I don't think he's laying claim to it as such. I think it's more that he has laid it out so fully in this letter, that he wants to assure them that his gospel, laid out in this letter, is in accordance to God.

vs 26

Interesting that even though God has planned it so that the gentiles can hear the message of salvation and come to faith, he didn't write them a separate book. He made it clear to gentiles through the religious writings of the Jews. This seems to me to cancel out those ideas that some Indian Christians have that the Vedas are their OT - because this verse makes it pretty clear that God uses the OT to reach gentiles.

vs 27

Amen.