Romans 16:5
“Greet the assembly that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ.”
What does Romans 16:5 mean?
Paul is sending greetings to a group of Christians who met together in someone's home, along with a special mention of Epaenetus, apparently one of the very first people to come to faith in the Achaia region. The phrase "first fruits" was an Old Testament term for the first portion of a harvest offered to God, so Paul is honoring Epaenetus as precious and significant, both as an early believer and as someone beloved to him personally. This brief greeting reveals how early churches gathered in ordinary homes and how much Paul valued individual believers who had taken that initial step of faith, even when separated by great distance.