17 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. 19 For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. 20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. ~ Romans 16:17-20
Today, we return to our study of Romans 16 where the Apostle Paul is showing us in practicals terms what it looks like to be the servant of the Lord. This is the goal of the believer in Christ who is growing in intimacy with the Lord, to be the servant of the Lord. This idea of selflessness will in the end be a part of the destruction of the self life that was introduced to man while in the Garden of Eden so long ago. The Apostle Paul begins this book with seven characteristics of the servant of the Lord and he ends this book with a portrait of what it looks like to be the servant of the Lord.
In v.17 of today's passage we read, "Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them."
There in Rome in that day was a group of people who professed to be believers in Christ, but, they created disunity and they erected obstacles which could have prevented the Romans believers from pursuing the life of the servant of the Lord. This group of people the Apostle Paul identified as false teachers. They taught something different than the truth that is found in the word of God. This false teaching, as a result, created division, discord, and conflict among the believers there in Rome. It was into this context that the Apostle urged his readers to recognize, and turn away from those who did not pass the litmus test of the truth that is found in God's word.
The way we are to handle such false teachers is to make a note of them or to identify them as such. "To note" simply means to identify them or to scrutinize them through the lens of God's word. And, after we have identified their teaching as heresy, we are to avoid them and their teaching. We are not to argue with them, we are to just ignore them. The Apostle instructs us in this way because divisive people love the fact that their divisiveness has garnered for them a voice and a platform. And, if we do not give them a voice and a platform, and we just ignore them, they will eventually move on.
In v.18 of today's passage we read, "For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple."
These particular false teachers did not serve the Lord Jesus Christ; they served themselves. They were probably Epicureans who believed in a very common Greek philosophy at that time. For the Epicurean, his individual pleasure was his life’s highest goal. As is always the case with all false teaching, the hallmark of its teaching is that it always accentuates the self life that is a disease that will eventually destroy those given to it. This is why the Apostle Paul predicated the final five chapters of this book Romans upon those three commands in Romans 12:1-2 which result in a selfless living sacrifice.
False teachers always use "smooth words" because the devil wouldn't put error in the mouth of an obvious idiot, otherwise the people would not listen to him. The words "flattery speech" is the Greek word from which we get our English word "eulogy." This false eloquence always includes well-chosen lies that sound good and are always appealing to the self and they deceive the hearts of those who are too given to the flesh and are not being defined by God enough. This is why we must be in the word and the word must be in us every day.
In v.19 of today's passage we read, "For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil."
When we are being defined by God's word and His culture, we will be obedient to God. And, our obedience will be obvious to others. It is the word of God that gives us the ability to recognize what is of God. When the culture of God has gripped us we will not be experts on the lie that says this life is about I, me, and mine. The self life always leads us to deceit, heresy and destruction.
In v.20 of today's passage we read, "And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen."
The believer in Christ must continue to hold on to the truth, because the demise of Satan is coming and is guaranteed. There is soon coming the day when our spiritual warfare will be over. And all false teachers spawned by Satan will be done away with because the God of peace will make war against Satan and He will win this final battle. And, as a result eternal peace will reign. The Apostle referred to the Lord Jesus as the God of peace at the end of chapter 15 also. But, in this final chapter his emphasis is a little different. Here, the Apostle refers more about the peace that we will enjoy because of God's provisions. Here in this final chapter of Romans, the Apostle writes about the peace that He enjoys because of the Lord's victory and we will enter into that peace. Our God of peace will end the war by crushing Satan as promised in the first prophecy in the Bible found in Genesis 3:15.
Note the phrase "under your feet." This is a reference to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We, the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will reign with Him for eternity. In fact, when the Lord Jesus comes out of heaven, after the Tribulation, according to Revelation 19, He will be riding on a white horse with all the armies of heaven riding on white horses with Him. We will be in the innumerable number, and we will witness the final defeat of Satan, sin and death.
But, until then, the battle rages on. And, until we draw our final breath on this earth, we are to be strategically engaged in this very acute spiritual battle which demands that we are daily being defined by God and His word. Interestingly, the word "shortly" in v.20 does not mean in a little bit of time, it means suddenly. When it happens it will happen fast. The final and complete destruction of Satan and his work will come to a screeching halt and we will look on with amazement. It will be then that we will know the eternal nature of the reign of God throughout the world. And, it will be peaceful.
