Romans 16:13

_ _ Salute Rufus, chosen — “the chosen”

_ _ in the Lord — meaning, not “who is one of the elect,” as every believer is, but “the choice” or “precious one” in the Lord. (See 1 Peter 2:4; 2 John 1:13). We read in Mark 15:21 that Simon of Cyrene, who was compelled to bear our Lord’s cross, was “the father of Alexander and Rufus.” From this we naturally conclude that when Mark wrote his Gospel, Alexander and Rufus must have been well known as Christians among those by whom he expected his Gospel to be first read; and, in all likelihood, this was that very “Rufus”; in which case our interest is deepened by what immediately follows about his mother.

_ _ and — salute.

_ _ his mother and mine — The apostle calls her “his own mother,” not so much as our Lord calls every elderly woman believer His mother (Matthew 12:49, Matthew 12:50), but in grateful acknowledgment of her motherly attentions to himself, bestowed no doubt for his Master’s sake, and the love she bore to his honored servants. To us it seems altogether likely that the conversion of Simon the Cyrenian dated from that memorable day when “passing [casually] by, as he came from the country” (Mark 15:21), “they compelled him to bear the” Savior's cross. Sweet compulsion, if what he thus beheld issued in his voluntarily taking up his own cross! Through him it is natural to suppose that his wife would be brought in, and that this believing couple, now “heirs together of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7), as they told their two sons, Alexander and Rufus, what honor had unwittingly been put upon their father at that hour of deepest and dearest moment to all Christians, might be blessed to the inbringing of both of them to Christ. In this case, supposing the elder of the two to have departed to be with Christ ere this letter was written, or to have been residing in some other place, and Rufus left alone with his mother, how instructive and beautiful is the testimony here borne to her!