No doubt there is a day assigned to
Phoebe in the calendar of saints, although we should observe that there is
little saintly about having such a calendar because it distorts the meaning of
sainthood. A saint is not a special person with unusual gifts, nor is it a
description of a believer who has matured greatly in the faith. That person is
no more or no less a saint than a Christian converted two minutes ago.
A sinner becomes a saint at
conversion when God separates that individual to himself. The Lord does not
separate the individual in the sense of isolating him – instead he separates
the individual from the world and into the community of believers, which may be
one reason why the idea of saint occurs usually in the plural.
There is a connection between the
terms ‘saint’ and ‘sanctify’. In separating the individual, God begins the
process of sanctification because he gives to that person the Holy Spirit.
This, of course, means that a saint is a person becoming Christlike.
It looks as if Paul was concerned
that the saints in Rome would not behave in a saintly manner towards Phoebe. He
expected them to welcome her in a manner ‘worthy of the saints’. The saintly
way to welcome her was to provide her with practical support, defined by Paul
as ‘whatever she may need from you’. From one perspective, such behaviour is an
expression of Christian love; from another perspective, it is the expression of
a holy character. So the saints in Rome were to take the initiative and find
out what she needed.
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