Saturday, January 11, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Acts 18
Key Verse
Acts 18:15 — “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.”
Devotional Thought
Paul arrives in Corinth alone, having left Athens behind, and finds two displaced strangers: Aquila and Priscilla, Jews driven from Rome by the emperor Claudius. What draws them together is not only faith but a shared trade—tentmaking. In a city teeming with idolatry and commerce, God quietly plants Paul in a household where he will not labor alone. It is a small mercy with enormous consequences: this couple will become his companions, his hosts, and later the ones who gently correct the eloquent Apollos.
Paul reasons in the synagogue every Sabbath, and when opposition hardens into blasphemy, he shakes his raiment and turns toward the Gentiles. Yet notice what happens next. Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believes with his whole house. Many Corinthians hear, believe, and are baptized. Then, in the night, the Lord speaks: *Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee.* Paul stays a year and a half—far longer than his usual pattern—because God said, *I have much people in this city.*
How easily we assume that a hostile place holds no fruit for the gospel. Corinth was not a promising field: a port city of vice, a synagogue of opposition, a deputy named Gallio who dismissed the whole dispute as a quarrel over words. And yet God had a people there, hidden like seed under winter soil. Paul could not see them yet; he simply kept teaching. The vision did not reveal who they were—only that they existed.
We live in a season when many of us feel outnumbered, or weary of speaking into a culture that seems indifferent or hostile. This chapter reminds us that God’s hidden remnant is real. There are Crispuses we have not yet met, Apolloses who need a Priscilla and Aquila to explain the way more perfectly, and ordinary households like that of Justus whose door stands open beside the synagogue. Our calling is not to calculate the harvest but to remain faithful in the place God has set us, trusting His promise: *I am with thee.*
Reflection
- Where in your life has God placed you among people who seem unreceptive—and are you tempted to leave before He has finished His hidden work there?
- Like Priscilla and Aquila with Apollos, who is someone you could take aside and quietly “expound the way of God more perfectly”?
Prayer
Lord, we thank You that You know Your people in every city, even when we cannot see them. Give us the courage of Paul in Corinth—to keep speaking, to keep teaching, to keep working with our hands while we wait on You. When opposition rises and we want to shake the dust from our feet too soon, remind us of Your promise: *I am with thee.* Make us faithful like Aquila and Priscilla, ready to open our homes and to gently instruct those who love Your Word but do not yet know it fully. Strengthen us to abide where You have planted us, until the harvest You have hidden is revealed. In Jesus’ name, amen.