The Way Home
PAUL AT CORINTH
Story 12 - Acts 18:1-22
Paul traveled from Athens to Corinth, another city in the land of Greece. He was alone because Silas and Timothy, his fellow workers, had not yet come from Thessalonica. But in Corinth, Paul met two people who soon became his dear friends. Their names were Aquila and his wife Priscilla. They had recently come from Rome to Corinth. Every Jew in those times was taught some trade, and Paul’s trade was the weaving of a rough cloth used for making tents. It happened that Aquila and Priscilla were tent makers also, and so Paul went to live in their house and together they make tents.
On Sabbath days Paul went into the synagogue and there preached the Gospel and talked about Christ with the Jews and also with the Greeks who worshiped God in the synagogue. Some believed Paul’s words, but some refused to believe, opposing Paul and speaking against him. After a time Timothy and Silas came from Thesalonica to meet Paul. They brought to him word about the church at Thessalonica along with some questions
troubling the believers there. To answer these questions, Paul wrote from Corinth two letters which are in the New Testament. They are called “The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians.” These two letters are the earliest of Paul’s writings that have been kept. We don’t know if Paul wrote any earlier letters to any other churches.
Now that Silas and Timothy, as well as Aquila and Priscilla, were with Paul, he was no longer alone and he began to preach even more earnestly than before, telling the Jews that Jesus was the Christ of God.
When he found that the Jews would not listen, but spoke evil words against him and against Christ, Paul shook out his garment, like shaking dust from it, and said to the Jews, “Your blood shall be upon your own heads, not on me; I am free from sin, for I have given you the gospel and you will not hear it. From this time I will cease speaking to you and will go to the Gentiles.”
And Paul went out of the synagogue and with him went those who believed in Jesus. He found a house near the synagogue belonging to a man named Titus, a Gentile who worshiped God, and in that house Paul set up a church, and preached the Gospel to all who came, both Jews and Gentiles. Many who heard believed in Christ and were baptized; and among them was a Jew named Crispus, who had been the chief ruler of the synagogue. But most of those who joined with the followers of Christ in Corinth were not Jews, but Gentiles, men and women who turned to God from idols. One night the Lord came to Paul in a vision and said to him, “Paul, do not be afraid; but speak and do not hold your peace. I am with you, and no one shall do you harm; for I have many people in this city.”
And Paul stayed in Corinth a year and six months, teaching the Word of God. After a time a great crowd of Jews rushed upon Paul and seized him and brought him into the court before the Roman governor of Greece, a ruler whose name was Gallio. They said to the governor, “This man is persuading people to worship God in a way forbidden by the law.”
Paul was just about to answer this charge when Gallio, the governor, spoke to the Jews, “O you Jews, if this were a matter of wrongdoing or of wickedness, I would listen to you. But if these are questions about words and names and your law, look after it yourselves, for I will not be a judge of such things.” And Gallio drove all the Jews out of his court. Then some of the Greeks seized Sosthenes, who was the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judge’s seat in the court room. But Gallio did not care for any of these things, because he thought it was a quarrel over small matters.
After staying many days, Paul left the church at Corinth and sailed away in a ship across the Aegean Sea to Ephesus, which was a great city in Asia Minor. With Paul were his friends, Aquila and Priscilla. At Ephesus, Paul went into the synagogue of the Jews and talked with them about the Gospel and about Christ. He could stay only for a little while, although they asked him to remain longer; but he said, “I must go away now; but if it be the will of God, I will come back to you.”
And he sat sail from Ephesus, but left Aquila and Priscilla there. Paul sailed over the Great Sea to Caesarea, in the land of Judea. At that place he landed and from there went up to Jerusalem.
Then he journeyed back to Antioch, the city from which he had begun.
And this was the end of Paul’s second journey preaching the Gospel among the Gentiles.
