What was Paul feeling when he came to Corinth? He tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5: ‘And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.’ How would God help him?
In Corinth, Paul made two people who were to be his close friends. Priscilla and Aquila are not only mentioned by Luke as helping Paul in Corinth, but they also helped him in Ephesus when he left Corinth, and later Paul mentions them as using their house as a location for some believers in Rome to meet.
Why were they now in Corinth? Luke says that they had been forced to leave Rome by the emperor because they were Jews. Providence seemed to be against them. Maybe they were concerned about the future. Would Corinth also throw them out? After all, Paul would tell them that he recently had basically been thrown out of Thessalonica and Berea.
But they were Christians, and Christians believe that Jesus is the Lord of providence. The primary reason for them leaving Rome was not the whim of the emperor but the will of Jesus. In his timing, he arranged for them to be in Corinth when Paul was looking for a place to stay, and the rest of the story is history. Their home gave him a base to work as a tentmaker and where he could talk to people about the faith. They would also have encouraged him since he was feeling low when he reached Corinth after his experiences in other places in Greece.
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