Luke picks up where we left off yesterday. "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 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." (Acts 18:1-4) Corinth was a great city in Paul's time and, because it had two large harbors, was known as an important center of trade in the ancient world. It was even better known for being a center of sexual immorality because a large cult following of the fertility goddess Aphrodite existed there. Paul has just left a city whose residents felt the gospel message was too simple for their cultured and educated minds. The Athenians lived for knowledge. He now enters a city whose citizens have long been held in bondage by worldly desires. The Corinthians lived for luxury and pleasure.
Paul hasn't received any financial aid from his home church in a while, being temporarily separated from the other members of his mission team, but he doesn't sit idly or become a burden to his friends. He works during the week to support himself and he preaches the gospel on the Sabbath. He enjoys the friendship of Aquila and Priscilla, a couple who loves him so dearly that he will say of them in his letter to the Romans, "They risked their lives for me." (Romans 16:4a) God is so faithful! Paul is separated from his friends from the mission team but God provides Aquila and Priscilla to give him encouragement, companionship, and a place to stay.
"When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah." (Acts 18:5) His friends arrive with financial help, so Paul is able to preach the gospel every day.
As usual there is opposition wherever the message of Jesus Christ is preached. "But when they 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 innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.'" (Acts 18:6) The wording of the NIV indicates some of the Jews became abusive toward Paul, while other translations seem to indicate they were abusive toward Christ; in other words, they blasphemed the name of Jesus. I feel this explanation is the more likely one. Paul never shrinks back from attacks against his own person, but he isn't going to tolerate attacks against the name of Jesus. He is unwilling to listen to such language so, in a gesture his fellow Jews understand, he shakes his garments just like one of them might shake the dust from their feet after traveling through pagan territory. In performing this symbolic gesture he is declaring them unclean. Paul refuses to stand in a synagogue where the name of his Redeemer is reviled, and from now on in Corinth he will preach the good news to the Gentiles. I can well understand Paul's reaction, for there is nothing I hate to hear more than the name of Jesus used as a curse word. That is the name of my Savior, the One who shed His blood for me, the One who even in my sin loved me so much He thought I was worth dying for! I can't bear to hear His name misused and Paul couldn't either.
"Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God." (Acts 18:7) I can't help picturing Paul with so much righteous indignation that he stomps into the house of Titius with steam practically coming out of his ears as he relates to his friend what has just happened in the synagogue. I think Paul is too upset to make it home to Aquila's house before sharing his story; he has to enter the first house where a believer resides so that a sympathetic ear can hear about his present troubles. This is something we can all relate to. It makes us feel better to share a bad experience with someone who is like-minded and who will sympathize with us and help us to calm down. There are always certain people who are able to make us feel better, and Titius must have been one of the first people Paul thought of. It's quite possible he is the same person known as Titus to whom Paul will later pen a letter calling him "my true son in our common faith". (Titus 1:4a) If so then this means he converted to Christianity under Paul's preaching, since this is the same way Paul addresses Timothy, a convert he made in Lystra.
Titius isn't the only convert Paul makes at Corinth. "Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized." (Acts 18:8) Crispus is one of the few believers Paul actually baptized personally, according to 1 Corinthians 1:14) Much of Paul's preaching in the synagogue was in vain, but the synagogue leader believed on the name of Jesus Christ and so did all his family. We want to always remember that when the New Testament states the Jews persecuted this one or that one, it is not speaking of all the Jews as a whole. A large number of Jews accepted the gospel. In addition, it's likely that most of the Jews who did not accept the gospel were able to "live and let live". They didn't believe in Jesus as their Messiah but they didn't perpetrate any harm on the Christians. It tended to be the elite religious leaders who most violently opposed the preaching of the name of Christ, and not even all of them felt that way. Crispus was one of the elite religious leaders but he gave his heart to Christ and extended the hand of fellowship to the Christian community.
In tomorrow's study Paul's enemies will drag him before the officials to put a stop to his preaching, but God will prevent anything from being done to him. We can easily see why Paul lived by this motto, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31b)
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