Acts 18:1-6: a reflection

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!”

When Paul comes to Corinth, he does not arrive as a full-time preacher supported by others; he comes to work. He meets Aquila and Priscilla, who share his trade of tentmaking, and he stays and works with them, making tents with his own hands, while reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath. The great apostle supported himself by ordinary manual labor, working at a trade even as he proclaimed Christ.

Notice that Paul did not regard his ordinary work as beneath him or separate from his service to God. He labored with his hands at a trade, and he preached the gospel, and the two went together. His tentmaking was honest work, done without shame, and it supported his ministry rather than competing with it. Paul saw no conflict between working with his hands and serving God; his daily labor was part of a life given to Christ.

That dignifies the ordinary work most of us do. We can imagine that serving God belongs to some separate, spiritual sphere, while our daily work is merely secular, a lesser thing. But Paul worked with his hands and served God, and the two were not at odds. Your honest, ordinary work, whatever it is, is not separate from serving God; it can be done for him, with integrity, as part of a life given to him. Do not despise your daily labor as unspiritual, nor imagine you must leave it to truly serve God. Work with your hands, as Paul did, honestly and well, and let your ordinary labor be part of your service to God, done for his glory. God is honored in the faithful work of our hands.

Lord, when Paul came to Corinth, he worked with his hands as a tentmaker even as he proclaimed Christ, seeing no conflict between his ordinary labor and his service to you. Dignify my own ordinary work by his example. I can imagine that serving you belongs to some separate, spiritual sphere, while my daily work is merely secular, a lesser thing. But Paul worked with his hands and served you, and the two were not at odds. Help me see that my honest, ordinary work, whatever it is, is not separate from serving you, but can be done for you, with integrity, as part of a life given to you. Keep me from despising my daily labor as unspiritual, or imagining I must leave it to truly serve you. Help me work with my hands, as Paul did, honestly and well, and let my ordinary labor be part of my service to you, done for your glory. Be honored in the work of my hands.