Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 NRSV
What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness…
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
https://bible.com/bible/2016/rom.4.1-17.NRSV
I was challenged recently to read Romans through the eyes of a Gentile woman in Rome, newly become a Christian and trying to serve her family under the scrutiny of women brought up under the law. Her heart would be to uphold the integrity of her faith, but in the preparation of foods and maintaining of the law, she would we be faced with a huge task.
… Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.
Acts 18:2 NRSV
https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.18.2.NRSV
And so could non Jewish Christian households have functioned without the influence of the law and maybe grown separate from the law? Was the return of the Jewish households a locus of division with easy answers and power forcing the argument?
Read Romans 16, and note the prominence of Phoebe and also that Prisca and Aquila were back in Rome. Also, note how many of the people Paul greets personally are women. What if this whole letter was written with women in mind? My friend Amy Farrer thinks so. What would this piece of the letter then mean, and for who’s benefit might it be if that were so?
For his detractors, Paul writes,
For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded.
Romans 16:18 NRSV
https://bible.com/bible/2016/rom.16.18.NRSV
Note the use of the word, appetites, or in some translations, belly. Yes, there is some profound theology in Romans, but maybe the integrity of the gentile households is what it’s about, and Paul has chosen this word carefully. I am sure Amy will let us know what she finds.
Takeley Chapel 