I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae… for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
—Romans 16:1-2
Romans 16 is a chapter most people skim or skip right over, it’s just a long list of names, some of them hard even to pronounce. And yet it’s one of the most beautiful passages in all of God’s Word, because every name on that list was a real person who played a vital role on what I like to call “Team Jesus.”
Here’s a truth this chapter drives home: as great as the Apostle Paul was, he didn’t go it alone. After his conversion he went from city to city, often prison to prison, proclaiming Christ, but always with a team around him. The Christian faith is not a solo act. It’s a team sport. And church life, especially, is about relationships.
At the very top of Paul’s list of names is a woman: Phoebe. And what’s notable about her is that she is most likely the one who carried this letter, the book of Romans itself, to the believers in Rome. Paul longed to come to Rome but couldn’t, so he wrote, and he entrusted this dedicated, devout sister with the weighty, world-changing task of delivering it. Think of that: the greatest doctrinal letter ever written was carried by Phoebe.
Paul calls her “our sister”, his sister in the Lord. There’s that family language again. He also calls her “a servant of the church”, the word we get “deacon” from, and asks the Romans to “help her in whatever she may need,” because she had been “a patron of many,” a generous supporter of the work, including of Paul himself. Imagine having the Apostle Paul write your recommendation!
I believe God has given women a unique generosity of spirit and a deep compassion for the gospel. How many times have men been strengthened and held up by the prayers and support of godly women, our wives, our mothers, our sisters in the faith. The church needs strong, godly men, and it needs strong, godly women just as much. In the church of Jesus Christ, women are not the junior varsity. The church is not a male movement or a female movement, it is a Jesus movement, and men and women advance His cause together.
Remember the world Jesus entered. Baby girls were sometimes literally thrown away. Women were treated as property. Yet Jesus elevated and honored women, welcomed them onto His team, and let them serve alongside Him with their presence and their possessions. And just as Jesus did, we are always to commend, celebrate, and elevate the women who serve the Lord.
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS A TEAM SPORT, NOT A SOLO ACT. GIVE YOUR TIME, TALENTS, AND TREASURE TO TEAM JESUS LIKE PHOEBE DID.
