God's army of ordinary people

Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus ill in Miletus. Do your best to get here before winter. Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers and sisters. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all. 2 Timothy 4:19-23

In the last four blogs we have been looking at the very human side of Paul, as it comes across in 2 Timothy 4, especially his sense of isolation when “everyone deserted me” (verse 16), and his need of friends and various home comforts.

Verses 19-23 continue that theme, reminding us of how greatly we all need friends in Christ. The Bible knows nothing of solitary Christians – Jesus didn’t found the church for fun! - so if by any chance you are a Christian but not in fellowship with a church, may I suggest that you are claiming in effect to know better than him, and that that is not only arrogant and outrageous but, putting it bluntly, sinful and disobedient, and should be put right as soon as possible. The fact that Christians can at times be pretty exasperating is no excuse – perhaps you can be pretty exasperating as well?

Some of Paul’s friends mentioned here are people otherwise unknown – Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia, not to mention “all the brothers and sisters”. Which reminds us that the great majority of Christians are people the world would see as non-entities – an “army of ordinary people”, as we used to sing. I for one am more grateful than I can say for the love and guidance of many people whom the world as a whole probably wouldn’t look at twice. Non-entities perhaps – but not to me!

The other people named here do appear elsewhere in the New Testament. Onesiphorus was clearly a real gem of a Christian (2 Timothy 1:16-18). Erastus is described as a “helper” (Acts 19:22), along with Timothy (and also seems to have moved in high places as “the city’s director of public works” (Romans 16:23)).

But two other names strike me as especially interesting and worth dwelling on a little: Priscilla (or Prisca), along with her husband Aquila; and Trophimus (verses 19-20).

Priscilla and Aquila

We meet this couple also in Acts18 (verses 2, 18, 19, 26), where Paul becomes their lodger and shares with Aquila in his tent-making business. He then travels with them from Corinth to Ephesus, where they part company.

It’s while Priscilla and Aquila are still in Ephesus that they meet a travelling preacher and teacher called Apollos, who, for all his intellectual and spiritual gifts, has various gaps in his doctrinal understanding of the gospel. He preaches in the synagogue and… “when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him into their home (they were obviously a hospitable couple!) and explained to him the way of God more adequately”.

Their names crop up again in Romans 16:3, where Paul describes them as “my fellow workers in Christ Jesus” who “risked their lives for me”. This couple were obviously very special! – and not only to Paul (see also 1 Corinthians 16:19, where they appear as hosts of a house-church).

A special couple indeed, with much about them worth noticing. But what I’m leading up to is this: out of six mentions in the New Testament, in four Priscilla takes precedence over her husband – it’s Priscilla and Aquila, not Aquila and Priscilla.

The commentaries tell us that this was unusual in the ancient world – just as today, certainly in fairly conventional circles, it’s usually Jim and Mary, not Mary and Jim. And the question arises: should we read any significance into this?

Probably not. Suggestions that have been made are: Priscilla became a Christian before Aquila; she was a stronger personality than him; she came from a higher social class; she had a better intellectual grasp of Christian teaching. But these are nothing more than guesses.

But – let’s just put it like this - it sounds as if (for example) when they were busy instructing Apollos, Priscilla certainly wasn’t just in the kitchen making the tea… I invite you to make what you can of that!

Trophimus

Trophimus appears elsewhere just in Acts 20:4 and 21:29 as a travelling companion of Paul. But it’s the little throw-away remark, that Paul “left him ill in Miletus”, that means a lot to me personally.

Why? In my early years as a minister what was then known as “the charismatic movement” burst upon us and changed church life for ever. I don’t doubt that it was a genuine movement of the Holy Spirit, sent by God to stir up his church.

But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t aspects of it which ranged from the slightly odd to the seriously crazy. Tending towards the crazy end of that spectrum was the belief that healing was always available if you had true faith – with the nasty implication that if you were sick and didn’t get heled, well, sorry, but it was your own fault. (I remember a blind lady of strong Christian faith who, in a state of real distress, wanted to know, “Colin, is there something wrong with me, that my sight hasn’t been restored?”)

You can see why the fact that Paul “left Trophimus ill in Miletus” came to mean a lot to me – and, I hope, became a real comfort to many, some chronically ill or disabled, whose faith had been seriously wobbled. We know from elsewhere that Paul was used by God in healing – see, for example, Acts 14:10, 19:11-12, 28:8. Well, why then did he leave Trophimus ill!

The answer can only be: because, for whatever reason, God had withdrawn the power, at least for that particular occasion. That doesn’t mean miraculous healing can never happen today: just that, if it doesn’t, the sufferer needn’t feel guilty or a failure.

I wonder if I will meet Trophimus in heaven. If I do, I will have something to thank him for: “Sorry, Trophimus, that you weren’t healed when I’m sure you would have loved to be. But if it’s any consolation I’d like you to know that your continuing illness meant a lot to me – and also, I hope, to some from the little flock I pastored.

(Not, I think, that any of us will need any kind of consolation when that day comes…!)

Whatever, thanks be to God for the “non-entities” who made up so many of Paul’s special friends, and who were even more special to God.

Lord Jesus, thank you for that “army of ordinary people” who have made up your church through twenty centuries. Please help me to live for you in such a way that even I might be special to many others. Amen.