The idolatrous, corrupt city of Corinth is now to hear the story of the grace of God that brings salvation to all men, so Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth. The house of a Jew, named Aquilla, with his wife, Priscilla, lately come from Italy (Claudius had commanded all Jews to leave Rome), became his lodging place. He was of the same trade, so he worked with them, making tents. On the Sabbath days, he reasoned in the synagogues, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. He begins with the Jews, but others were there also to hear. The message of reconciliation to God is for all. The presence of Silas and Timotheus, who now come from Macedonia, adds to his burdened heart fresh spiritual energy, and he still more earnestly pressed upon them the truth that affected them all so much, that Jesus was and is the Christ, not now in His Kingdom On earth, but glorified at God’s right hand in heaven. When the Jews opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said. “Your blood be on your own heads; I am clean: from hence forth I will go unto the Gentiles.” He departed from them into a certain man’s house, named Justus, a worshiper of God, though not a Jew, who lived close to the synagogue, and probably he heard the gospel there. We see that Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians hearing the truth, believed and were baptized. Notice that as all are believers in this case, they are not baptized as a household, but as individuals (See 1 Cor. 1:14, 16).
It is here recorded that the. Lord now spoke to Paul in a vision of the night, “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.” What an encouragement this was to the Lord’s servant, and that he was there by the Lord’s will, and that he had His approval and protection. Afterward he could write to the same people, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).
The servant of the Lord can own that it is the Lord that both opens and shuts the door for his service. He may not get a vision to direct and encourage him, but the Lord can make His will known just as clearly, and will do so where the servant waits earnestly on Him in true devotedness and humility of heart.
Paul therefore continues there for eighteen months. It must have been that the Lord saw the need of much teaching there, and the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians shows us their unspiritual state as an assembly, but there were exceptions to this among them (1 Cor. 11:19). It was not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom, that he came to them, declaring unto them the testimony of God. He says, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” He sought to free them from the wisdom of the world, and from its corruption that he found them in, and how he grieved over them when they did not grow spiritual, but remained carnal Christians.
To teach them these lessons, he would not take money from them as an assembly, though many of them were rich. A few spiritual ones supplied some of his needs, and refreshed his spirit (1 Cor. 16:17, 18; 2 Cor. 11:8, 9). He taught them that Christ was the power of God and the wisdom of God. What the Greeks called foolishness of God was wiser than men, and His weakness was stronger than men. The flesh is exposed as worse than useless; no flesh can glory in His presence. What a portion the believers have in Him! We can glory in Him alone (1 Cor. 1:29-31).
While he was in Corinth the mad jealousy of the Jews rose up against the gospel. They dragged Paul to the judgment seat before the deputy of the country. Gallio would not interest himself, and he rightly drove them away, saying: “If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you; but if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters.” He did not care; such questions were to him contemptible superstitions separating those who held them from society in general, and they were just getting, in his eyes, what they deserved. Then the Greeks took another Jew, Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio did not care, so the Jews’ attack upon the apostle only made their own case worse.
After this, Paul remained there a good while, then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquilla. Here we find the old Jewish customs. have their influence still over the apostle He had a vow and shaved his head. And then, though a door seems open at Ephesus for service, he goes on to Jerusalem to keep the feast there. Such is fallen man at his very best, even though redeemed.
How different is what he writes in the prison afterward (Col. 2:20). But he still reasons with the Jews in the synagogue (Ver. 19) as he goes along, and promises to come back (if God well) to Ephesus. He left Priscilla and Aquilla there, and goes to Cesearea and Jerusalem and back to Antioch for a time, then over the country of Galatia and Phrygea in order, strengthening the disciples. What wonderful energy of the Spirit we see in this ambassador of Christ.
Verse 24. Here and in Acts 19:1-7 we see believers, but only taught up to John’s baptism brought now into Christianity. A Jew named Apollos, born in Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. When Aquilla and Priscilla heard him they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. This made him a Christian worker of repute, and with the commendation of the brethren, he went on his way, and he was able to greatly help those who had believed through grace. We see in him a laborer in fellowship, yet acting solely on his own responsibility to the Lord (1 Cor. 16:12).