Romans 16:17-27

Receive Helpers: Shun Hinderers

Romans 16:17

Those who cause divisions on obscure points of doctrine are to be avoided, lest they lead us away from the fundamentals. We need to be wise in heavenly wisdom and guileless in regard to evil. The pure, childlike heart is quick to discern the right and wrong, because of the breath that evil leaves on its clear mirror.

In the ease of each believer, however weak and helpless, God is pledged to fulfill to us Genesis 3:15. Not merely will He help us to do it, but He will do it for us. It is a remarkable conjunction; God against the devil and peace bruising.

These postscripts, from Romans 16:17, were probably written by Paul's own hand. See 1 Corinthians 16:21. We are not all, as were Gaius and Erastus, men of note and wealth, but we can all resemble Quartus, “a brother.” The mystery or secret with which the Epistle closes refers to the redemption wrought out by Jesus during His earthly ministry, 1 Timothy 3:16. But this was no new thing, as it had been in the mind of God from times eternal, Revelation 13:8.