Timothy, my fellow worker greets you, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my countrymen.
Truth to Learn
Every ministry needs faithful helpers.
Behind the Words
“Fellow worker” is from sunergon, which we have seen a couple of times in this chapter. It refers to someone who works together with someone else.
The word “countrymen,” which we also have seen a couple of times in this chapter, is translated from sungenēs. This word can be used to imply a family member (a relative) or someone with the same ethnic roots. In this case it probably means that Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater were fellow Jews with Paul.
Meaning Explained
A few verses back we went through a series of greetings that Paul extended to various people at the church in Rome. Now, before he closes this letter with an extended benediction, Paul allows several of the people currently working with him to send their greetings to the Christians at Rome as well. As with the earlier greetings, we know very little for sure about any of these people; however, we can make some educated guesses based on other scriptures.
The first one to offer greetings is Timothy. It is very reasonable to assume that this is the same Timothy to whom Paul later wrote two letters (1 Timothy and 2 Timothy). In his second letter to the Christians at Corinth, Paul includes Timothy as a fellow writer (2 Corinthians 1:1). And he told the Christians at Philippi that he was going to send Timothy to help them out until Paul could get there himself. Paul spoke so highly of Timothy to the Philippians that he appears to have been one of Paul’s strongest helpers (Philippians 2:19-24). Paul refers to Timothy as his “son in the Lord” in his first letter to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 4:17) and in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy refers to him as “a true son in the faith,” “son Timothy,” and “a beloved son.” Clearly, there was a close bond between the apostle and Timothy.
About the other three mentioned here we have fewer facts to go on. We do know that all three of them were fellow Jews. Some scholars believe that they were also of the tribe of Benjamin and perhaps even close relatives to Paul. All three of these names are listed among the seventy disciples sent out by Christ and later became church Bishops (senior pastors).
The first of the three is Lucius. There are some who believe that he is one and the same with Luke, the writer of the Gospel of Luke. That is unlikely, however, since the full Greek form of his name is Lucanus, not Lucius. It is more likely that this is the prophet mentioned in Acts 13:1 as Lucius of Cyrene.
Jason is most likely the one mentioned in Acts 17:1-9 who protected Paul and Silas from the hostile Jews. Rather than reveal where they were, Jason suffered a beating from the mob and was even willing to pay a security deposit for their protection. Sosipater is likely the same as Sopater of Berea, mentioned in Acts 20:4 as one of Paul’s traveling companions.
Application
We are finding out just how many people assisted the Apostle Paul in his ministry. Though he is the one we most often hear about and talk about, he couldn’t have done his work for God without many faithful helpers. This is true of every church ministry. God uses a few leaders and a lot of faithful helpers.
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2019 Will Krause. All rights reserved
