This verse shows a marked contrast to the majority of verses in these greetings, where filial love and kindness are demonstrated. One can find a similar admonition in Romans 1 where Paul warns the reader that those who don’t acknowledge (or worship) God will be given over to “craven” desires. Is the good news (gospel) all that good?

These people who serve their own appetites rather than the Lord are the same who in the previous verse cause dissensions and offenses and promote false doctrines obviously contrary to Paul’s teachings.

False prophets, people using religion as a guise for their own personal ambitions, are a familiar theme in religious study. cf. “Simon, the sorcerer,” who had a large following that marveled at his works; yet, it wasn’t until he asked about acquiring the abilities of the apostles, that Simon, a.k.a. Peter, rebuked him sharply and prayed for his soul. The implication is that he wanted to use the gospel for selfish gain in this world, and not in the world to come.

“Appetites” is an interesting translation choice here, as it calls up the modern image of base nature, sexual appetite, gluttony, etc. The original “their own belly” may fit better because it implies the focus on selfish benefit of one over others. Either way, Paul’s tone here is explicitly judgemental, laying out what is and isn’t the will of God.

See Romans 1:21-27, in which Paul points out that human beings who do not acknowledge (more pointedly, worship) God will be given over to do vile, shameful and degrading things (NLV). He is addressing both the Gentiles and in chapter 2, the Jews. The tone of these verses is very different from the prescript in Romans 16–except for the words in this verse. Paul is admonishing, rather than encouraging them in warm, filial tones.

This list of names illustrates clearly Paul’s statement, that he is the “apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:3). The ethnicity of the names shows the majority are Roman–to be expected–but there are also several Greek names. The one clearly Jewish name is “Mary”; Rome was home to many different ethnic groups at that time, including no small number of Jews. (Pogroms initiated by the various Caesars made the numbers fluctuate.) Clearly, the gospel was spreading far and wide, in the less than 20 years of Paul’s ministry. These people are to be respected as believers even though they do not hail from the Jewish community.

According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “Olympas is an abbreviated form of Olympiadorus. The joining in one salutation of the Christians mentioned in 16:15 suggests that they formed by themselves a small community in the earliest Roman church.”

Olympas (Greek: Ὀλυμπᾶς, meaning “heavenly”) was a Roman Christian whom Paul of Tarsus saluted (Romans 16:15) in around 65 AD. Olympas is regarded in the Orthodox Church as being one of the Seventy disciples. His feast day is November 10. (Wikipedia)

Paul takes 15 lines to address 23 people by name and then others by inference, “sister or brother of so and so” and families in the community. A lot of Greek names are found here, likely coming from the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, and among them a great number of women–some of them, like Phoebe, occupying a high rank in the emerging hierarchy–which could suggest that the first Christians were less misogynistic than is sometimes believed. Nevertheless Paul himself has been regarded by many as a clear misogynist, not least due to his imperative that in a couple, women submit to their husbands.