Summary of passage: Timothy, Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, Tertius, Gaius, Erastus, and Quartus send their greetings to the Roman church.
Questions:
11) Timothy is Paul’s fellow worker. Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater are relatives. Tertius wrote this letter down to the Romans. Gaius is hosting Paul. Erastus is the city’s director of public works in Corinth.
12) Personal Question. My answer: Husband, kids, mom, sister, relatives, friends, other family members, church members, strangers even. I encourage all of them to win the race for the Lord. The little daily encouragements and the overarching goals.
13) Personal Question. My answer: Life is all about relationships. We were created so we wouldn’t be alone. None of us could survive without each other. We need to build each other up and treat each other as family.
Conclusions: Wouldn’t it be cool to be mentioned in the Bible for all of eternity? Help one another. Enjoy one another. Be with others. Love others. People is what makes life meaningful (along with God).
End Notes: Timothy rightly rates a first mention, being one of Paul’s closest and most trusted associates.
Tertius was Paul’s writer as the apostle dictated the letter. This was Paul’s normal practice in writing letters to churches, but this is the only letter where Paul’s secretary is mentioned by name.
Gaius had such a reputation for hospitality that Paul can say he was regarded as the host of the whole church.
Jason is possibly the Jason mentioned in Acts 17:5-9.
Sosipater is probably Sopater, son of Pyrrhus from Berea (Acts 20:4).