Acts 18:1-6 (NIV)
After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
After Paul finished his work in Athens and got the Church there off to a solid start, he headed west to the metropolitan city of Corinth, where he would stay for a year and a half (18:11). Corinth was known as a wicked city. In fact, the Greek word “to Corinthianize” carried the meaning of “to make morally corrupt.”
Very soon after he arrived in the city, he met the tentmakers/leather workers Aquila and Priscilla. Paul was also a tentmaker, so they joined forces and worked together.
Aquila and Priscilla were Jews, exiled from Rome by the emperor Claudius in AD 49. Even though Luke does not chronicle Paul’s sharing the gospel with them or their conversion, by 18:18 they have both become travelers with Paul, and by 18:26 they have become teachers of “the way of God” to Apollos. This is not surprising. Anyone who spent any time at all with Paul heard the gospel in all its glory from his lips very quickly. And both Aquila and Priscilla were intelligent people who were versed in the Scriptures, saw the truth, and surrendered themselves to Jesus right away.
Paul followed his normal approach in Corinth, sharing the gospel in the synagogues for several weeks in a row among both Jews and Greek God-fearers, and gaining a harvest among them. But when the leaders became jealous of his success and started to abuse him, he shook out his clothes and walked away, vowing to continue to take the gospel to the gentiles instead.
Father, this makes me look at myself and realize that many people hang out in my vicinity all the time, but I rarely share the gospel with any of them. How many opportunities have I missed? How many people are living in the kingdom of darkness instead of in the kingdom of light simply because I haven’t focused on sharing the gospel with the people around me? Help me to do better, Lord. Open my eyes so that I can clearly see the harvest that is waiting all around me today. Amen.
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