Romans 16 is the last chapter in Paul’s Magnum Opus; his greatest gift to us, his masterpiece. The book of Romans is the book of books in the Bible. More details are given in the book of Romans regarding the transformed Christian life and what living for Christ looks like in the real world, than any other New Testament book.
The 16th chapter is easy to overlook because it is a list of greetings to people with hard to pronounce names. After reading through the weightiness of the first 15 chapters, Chapter 16 feels like an insignificant - easy to skip - list of personal salutations. But if you skip it, you miss looking through a window into the soul of the early church.
It gives you a glimpse of what life was like when Christianity was in its purest form - before it was stained by institutions, politicians, egos, heresies and religious corruption. Studying Romans 16 - not just skimming it - is like getting in a time machine and traveling back in time. And if we can go back, we can learn what a gospel-centered church is really supposed to be.
