Scripture Daily

Context No. 1214 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 18:1-6: in context

1After these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth. 2He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them, 3and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers. 4He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded Jews and Greeks. 5When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 6When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!”

Paul comes to Corinth and meets a Jewish couple, Aquila and Priscilla, recently expelled from Rome. Because they share the same trade, tentmaking, Paul stays and works with them, supporting himself with his hands while reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath. When Silas and Timothy arrive, Paul devotes himself fully to preaching that Jesus is the Christ, and when the synagogue opposes and reviles him, he shakes out his garments and declares he will now go to the Gentiles.

The detail worth noticing is that the great apostle worked with his hands. Paul did not consider it beneath him to make tents, sitting alongside Aquila and Priscilla at a common trade, supporting himself rather than being a burden, so that his preaching would be free of charge and above suspicion of greed. There is a dignity here in ordinary labor joined to the work of God. Paul the theologian, the missionary, the writer of letters, was also Paul the craftsman with calloused hands, and he saw no contradiction; the tentmaking funded and grounded the gospel work. It is a rebuke to any idea that spiritual work is somehow purer than manual labor, or that ministry requires being freed from ordinary jobs. And the friendship formed at the workbench mattered too; Aquila and Priscilla, met over shared work, became lifelong partners in the gospel who would risk their lives for Paul and teach others themselves. God knit a strategic ministry partnership together through an ordinary trade. The kingdom advanced partly through a tent-shop, and the man who wrote much of the New Testament was not too important to earn his bread with his hands.

Do I imagine spiritual work is higher than honest manual labor, or can I hold them together as Paul did, working with my hands and serving God, letting ordinary work fund and ground the kingdom?

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