SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/26/2018 10:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Companionship of Friends
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 18:2-5a
Message of the verses: “2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, 3 and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were tent-makers. 4 And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. 5 But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia,”
Paul leaves Athens and goes to Corinth. His friends, according to verse five were in
Macedonia. For how long we do not really
know, but what we do know is that Paul is pretty much along deprived of being
with his friends for sometime there in Corinth.
Of course we know that God was with Paul as He is with each and every
believer in the Person of the Holy Spirit, so Paul was not totally alone.
God was gracious in hooking Paul up with a couple from
Rome who had been kicked out of Rome because they were Jews. We meet Aquila, and his wife Priscilla here,
and they are both tent-makers which was what Paul did to help make a
living. When you hear of someone who has
a ministry which includes being a “tent-maker” it is talking about a missionary
who does not really have enough support and so he has to subsidize his earnings
by working, probably working at a part-time job. Paul did this while in Corinth in order to be
able to have food on the table and a place to live so that he could continue to
do what God desired him to do in preaching the gospel.
John MacArthur writes about Priscilla: “Because his wife Priscilla is named first
four out of the six times the couple is mentioned, some have speculated that
she was a Roman woman of higher social rank than Aquila. More likely, she is mentioned first because
she was the more prominent of the two in service to the church. Paul always refers to her by her formal name,
Prisca (Rom. 16:3, 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19), while Luke always uses the
diminutive from Priscilla (cf. vv. 18, 26).”
I think that because the Bible does not speak of their
conversion that they were already believers when they left Rome, and so they
would have that wonderful common bond with Paul as they both know Christ as
their Savior.
I wish to quote the last paragraph from John MacArthur’s
commentary as it speaks of how wonderful God is and was to Paul at this
discouraging time of his life.
“The God of all comfort met
the need of His discouraged servant for companionship not only by providing two
new friends but also by bringing back two familiar ones. The arrival of Silas and Timothy from
Macedonia no doubt greatly encouraged him.
Although Acts does not record it, Silas and Timothy had apparently
rejoined Paul at Athens as he intended (17:15).
From there he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica (1 Thess. 3:1-6). Silas was also sent somewhere in Macedonia,
since he, too, came to Corinth from that province. He may have gone to Philippi (cf. Phil. 4:15;
2 Cor. 11:9), since Paul kept frequent communication at this time with his
first European church.”
I wonder what Paul and his companions would have done if
they had cell phones at that time.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful for
the God of all comfort who gives me comfort whenever I am truly in need of it.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
I trust the Lord to bring comfort to
our neighbor who is dying of cancer, that she will be blessed by the card that
I bought for her yesterday.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “John the Baptist” (John
1:15).
Today’s Bible
question: “To what town did Naomi and
her daughter-in-law Ruth move when they left the land of Moab?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/26/2018 10:57 AM
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