And when both Silas and Timotheus came down from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in respect of the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
Paul had been reasoning in the synagogue at Corinth week by week while working at his trade, alone. Then Silas and Timothy reach him from Macedonia, and two questions follow: what was Paul "occupied with," and what did his friends change?
One writer draws a plain lesson here about what other believers do for a servant under strain:
From Athens, Paul had sent Timothy, who had joined him there. Now Silas and Timothy return and are found with Paul. Pressed in spirit by their presence, he bears still stronger testimony that Jesus was the Christ. He had worked faithfully while they were away. But the presence of other Christians gives his spirit courage and strength according to God.
Another writer fills in where they came from, and how news of his young converts cheered him.
Notice that the two fellow workers came down from "Macedonia", the Roman province of northern Greece, as distinct from Achaia, whose chief city was Corinth. Both Silas and Timothy now joined the apostle at Corinth, though not necessarily at the same moment, and not necessarily from the same place. The apostle had warned these young converts in advance of the suffering that came on them. But this only increased his longing for them, and now he could rejoice that the tempter had failed and that they stood firm.
Older English Bibles say Paul was "pressed in the spirit." Newer ones, like the ESV, say he was "occupied with the word." Commentators differ. Some keep the older wording and read it as a burden on Paul's own heart:
Silas and Timothy found Paul "pressed in the Spirit" (or, by another reading, "pressed in respect of the word") in his testimony to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. We take this to mean that his message to them lay as a heavy burden on his soul. He felt his responsibility for it deeply.
Others say the manuscript evidence settles it for "word":
The traditional reading "spirit" has no support from the best manuscripts, which give "word." The word "spirit" crept in from Acts 17:16; 18:25; 19:21 and other places. So a translation like "the mind of Paul was violently disturbed" must be rejected on every ground.
Their coming did not end his tent-making either, and the tense of the verb tells against that idea:
There is no ground for the notion that their arrival with supplies let Paul give up tent-making and preach only. The verb does not mean anything of the sort. It means rather that his absorption with the word, which already marked him, went on, for the tense shows a continuing state, not a fresh act beginning at their coming.
Paul pressed one point, not the whole range of his teaching. One writer explains why.
He was testifying fully to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ, or Messiah — the constant stumbling block of that blinded people. Jesus is of course much more than "the Christ," and no one ever preached His higher glory, both personal and given to Him, more than Paul. Yet he still pressed on the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. This was what would break up their unbelief, and the necessary hinge of all further light and blessing.
He argued from Scripture his hearers already had, and it bore fruit in Corinth.
He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. All of this must have been from the Old Testament, showing what God had foretold about Christ. We learn from his letters to the Corinthians that there was blessed fruit.
This meeting also helps date two of Paul's letters.
In each letter, Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy stand with Paul in the opening address. We only know of these two being in Paul's company from Acts 17 down to Acts 18:5. So Paul must have written both letters from Corinth, one soon after the other — and note that Timothy made a journey there in between.
The stronger testimony did not win the synagogue over.
The coming of Silas and Timothy seems to have encouraged and strengthened the apostle. His zeal and energy in the gospel are evidently increased. But the Jews opposed his teaching and blasphemed. This leads Paul to take his course with great boldness and decision. In all this God led him, and he acted according to His mind.
- Company — Paul had worked faithfully alone. When Silas and Timothy came, his testimony grew stronger: other believers give courage to a servant's spirit.
- Constraint — The better-supported reading has him absorbed in the word itself. Others keep the older wording and see the weight of his message on his soul.
- Content — He pressed one claim: Jesus is the Christ. That claim was the hinge on which every further blessing for his hearers turned.
- Correspondence — This is the only window in which Paul, Silas and Timothy are together. So both Thessalonian letters belong to these days in Corinth.
- Cost — Greater zeal met greater opposition. Paul answered with boldness, and in all of it God was leading him.
But as they opposed and spoke injuriously, he shook his clothes, and said to them, Your blood be upon your own head *I* [am] pure; from henceforth I will go to the nations.
Paul had been preaching in the synagogue at Corinth. This verse is the moment his work there ended: a gesture, a verdict, and a new direction that shaped the rest of his ministry.
The break did not come from a slow audience. It came from a hostile one. One commentator separates people who do not know from people who fight what they have heard.
Ignorance can be borne, and it calls for patient work in presenting the truth. Opposition is quite another thing, especially when the testimony has been full and convincing. Speaking abusively is worse, and blasphemy worse still, because what is being so shamefully rejected is grace and truth in Christ.
The action was a known sign. Paul had used it before, and the Lord had given His messengers the same instruction.
The apostle answered by act as well as by word: he shook out his clothes and spoke to them. This was the spirit, if not the form, of Matthew 10:14. He and Barnabas had carried it out even more strictly at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:51). It was as if the dust of the place they lived in defiled him, and had to be shaken off as a testimony against them.
Another writer joins the act to the words that went with it.
Paul then refused all further responsibility for them. He shook out his clothes — an act that showed his determination — and left them with the solemn words, "Your blood be on your own heads!"
Paul's claim of innocence points back to an older picture: the watchman on the wall.
Paul says in another place, "I am innocent of the blood of all." I was thinking of Ezekiel 33 in connection with this. God set Ezekiel there as a watchman. If he failed to blow the trumpet, he carried the guilt for those killed. Was Paul not referring to that? How necessary it is to be faithful with the trust given to you!
Once he had delivered the message, the outcome rested with the hearers.
He was clean — that is, he had done his duty in witnessing to them. He leaves them to their own folly, while announcing his decision to go to the Gentiles.
A crowd at the trial of Jesus once called blood down on itself. One writer links that cry with Paul's words here.
Paul also said, "Your blood be on your own heads." Those who pushed the Lord to the cross, when Pilate would have released Him, had cried out something worse: "His blood be on us and on our children." And so it is to this day. "I am innocent," the apostle added; "from now on I will go to the Gentiles." This agreed perfectly with his own course elsewhere, and, what matters even more, with the ways of God in the gospel. The Jews were to have the testimony first. They did have it, and not quite in vain. Some heard and found salvation for their souls; there is a remnant chosen by God. But when the mass reject the gospel with hatred and blasphemy, the stream of blessing flows on, not lost but bringing blessing among the Gentiles.
Paul's move looks like a door closing. It opened another one.
He does not go far from the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, is converted, and all his household with him. This came either through the testimony Paul gave in the synagogue or after he had left it. The testimony now reaches the Corinthians, and many believe and are baptized. The Jews rejected the work, but it is now established in the city, for despite its wickedness the Lord had many people there.
The bold step did not backfire.
Timid souls might have thought that the apostle's solemn and final break with the Jews in Corinth would only harden their hatred of the gospel. It was not so. Instead it was the means of bringing Crispus and his household to decision.
- Cause. Slowness to understand calls for patience. Open opposition and blasphemy against grace and truth in Christ ended Paul's work in the synagogue.
- Sign. Shaking out his clothes was a known testimony against them, the same sign the Lord gave His messengers. It said Paul carried no more responsibility for them.
- Clean. "I am innocent" is the watchman's plea of Ezekiel 33. Paul had blown the trumpet, so the guilt now rests on their own heads.
- Order. The Jews heard first, and not in vain. When the mass rejected the message, the stream of blessing flowed on to the Gentiles.
- Result. The break did not harden Corinth. The ruler of the synagogue and his household believed, and many Corinthians with them.
And departing thence he came to the house of a certain [man], by name Justus, who worshipped God, whose house adjoined the synagogue.
Paul had just made a final break with the Jews of Corinth and turned to the Gentiles. Verse 7 shows what that decision looked like: a short walk to the house next door. It raises three questions. What did he leave? Who was Justus? And why did the address matter?
Readers often take the phrase "left there" as a change of address. It points instead to the building where he had been giving his testimony:
"He left there" (verse 7); that is, from the synagogue. He carried on his testimony in the house of a man named Justus, which was close by. Yet a very definite and large work of God took place. Even the ruler of the synagogue was converted.
Some have read the move as Paul leaving the home where he was staying. One writer rejects that reading:
There is no need to take that trouble. He was not leaving his lodgings but the synagogue. So he was not looking for new quarters for his home, but for a suitable place to continue the testimony he had given before in the synagogue... If it were only a lodging, why mention that it adjoined the synagogue, on which Paul was from now on turning his back? But if he needed a suitable room for testimony, the house of Justus met two conditions. First, the owner was himself a Gentile. That made it most fitting to draw Gentiles in, and to underline the serious and new step the apostle was taking. Second, it stood close enough to the synagogue to attract both Jews who might have a conscience about the rejected truth of God, and Gentile converts who used to attend the synagogue, like Justus.
The verse calls Justus "a worshiper of God." That phrase points to a whole class of people:
Leaving them, he enters the house of a Gentile, a man who worshipped the one true God. There were many such Gentiles. Tired of the folly and wickedness of idolatry, they worshipped in the synagogue, although they had not become Jews... The house of a Gentile who acknowledged the one true God suited his work, and to him the work was everything.
Some copies read Titus rather than Titius, which has led readers to link this man with Paul's fellow worker Titus. One writer rules that out:
Whether we read Titus or Titius in Acts 18:7, Justus was clearly a different person from the apostle's companion.
Justus does nothing in this verse except open a door. Commentators differ on whether he had formally become a Jewish convert, but not on what his house was for:
Leaving the synagogue, he taught in the house of one Titus (or Titius) Justus, next to it. This man was a convert to the Jewish faith, for he worshipped God. No doubt he was friendly to Christianity. So he had the honour of providing a suitable meeting room where the apostle could teach and preach. In this way the Lord watched over the gospel.
The two houses shared a wall, but a line now ran between them. One writer sees it in the name Justus itself:
So he withdraws to the house of a convert named Justus, next door to the synagogue. "The just" was the usual title of saints under the law. But now anyone who would be with the just must be outside the synagogue.
A cautious observer might expect this public break to harden the Jews and shut down the work. The opposite happened:
Timid souls might have thought that the apostle's solemn and final break with the Jews in Corinth would confirm them in their hatred of the gospel. It was not so. Instead, it was the means of bringing Crispus and his household to decision... This remark must be made: fellowship with the mind of God about the people who are to hear the message is as necessary as fellowship with His mind about the message itself.
- Left — Paul left the synagogue, not his lodgings; the move was about where the testimony would now be given.
- Lent — Justus, a Gentile who worshipped the one true God, lent a room, and with it gained the honour of housing the preaching.
- Located — the house stood next to the synagogue. It was near enough to draw both Jews and Gentiles who still went there.
- Line — from that day, those who would be with "the just" had to stand outside the synagogue.
- Lives — the break brought gain, not loss. Crispus and his whole household believed.
But Crispus the ruler of the synagogue believed in the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptised.
Paul had just left the Jews of Corinth for the Gentiles when the synagogue's own ruler believed, with his whole household. Many in the city followed, and what looked like defeat became the establishing of the work in a wicked place.
Leaving the Jews behind might have been expected to harden them further. The result was the reverse.
God's way is always the right way. The apostle had solemnly and finally left the Jews in Corinth. Timid souls might have thought this would only confirm them in their hatred of the gospel. It was not so. Instead, it was the means of bringing Crispus and his household to decision.
Rejection by the Jews did not end the work. It took root in the city instead.
The work, rejected by the Jews, is now established in the city; for the Lord had many people there, despite its wickedness.
Scripture rarely stops to name one person. Here it names this man and describes his faith with care.
It is no small thing that the Holy Spirit singles out the name of any man for everlasting record in Scripture. So "Crispus" is mentioned as believing the Lord. It counts all the more because he had been "the ruler of the synagogue". And not only this: "the whole of his household" believed also, though nothing is said of their baptism. Their faith, the great matter, was a real encouragement to the workers, and a powerful appeal to the Jews as a whole. The wording is unusual. It does not say here that he believed "on" the Lord as the object of faith, though that was true too. It says that he believed what the Lord says.
Acts elsewhere tells of households that were baptized, with no word about their faith. Here it is the other way round.
Here we have the faith of the whole household recorded. That contrasts with the silence about the households we have already looked at. But it is striking that Scripture says nothing about the baptism of the household of Crispus. Paul tells us that he baptized Crispus, and says nothing of his household. Notice the contrast. The households not spoken of as believing were baptized. The one household that did believe is not mentioned as being baptized. Why is this? Surely Scripture is perfect in what it tells us and in what it withholds. Nobody would question the baptism of the household of Crispus. They all believed, and so of course were all baptized, even though Scripture does not tell us so. But you could question whether a household without faith had a right to be baptized.
The verse puts three things in order: they heard, they believed, they were baptized. That last step marked them off from the world around them.
It was a time of rich ingathering. These were clearly not Jews but Greeks, yet many of them heard and believed the gospel. As was fitting, they submitted to the outward mark that separates the confessor of Christ from the careless or hostile world. They were buried with Christ through baptism into death. In that act, even if they had been silent, they said that they died with Christ to sin. It was not only that He had died for their sins, now forgiven on their faith. They were also to count themselves dead to sin and alive in Him to God.
The people who believed in Corinth were no better than the city they lived in.
In Corinth there were plenty of the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers and swindlers; "and such were some of you," said the apostle to the Corinthians who believed (1 Cor. 6:11). They had in no way escaped those corruptions. Grace does not find, but makes, the saints after a new and heavenly pattern.
Paul later thanked God that he personally baptized very few in Corinth. The many here were therefore baptized by others.
Paul later says that he baptized only Crispus and Gaius of the Corinthian assembly (1 Cor. 1:14): the rest were no doubt baptized by his helpers or by local brothers, after they themselves had been baptized.
That arrangement kept the credit off any one preacher's name, and it also shows what actually produced the new life.
Christ sent him not to baptize but to preach the gospel. He left the baptizing to others for the "many" Corinthians who "heard, believed and were baptized" in that city (Acts 18:8). And he tells them in 1 Cor. 4:15: "In Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel." The gospel, the word of truth, was and is the means of being born of God. It is never baptism, whatever its value in its place.
- Rejection. Leaving the synagogue did not end Paul's work in Corinth. It was the means of bringing Crispus to decision.
- Hearing. They heard, then believed, then were baptized. New life came through the gospel, never through baptism.
- Household. Crispus's whole house believed with him. Scripture is exact in what it records and in what it leaves out.
- Confession. Baptism marked them off from the world. Without a word it said they had died with Christ to sin.
- Fruit. A synagogue ruler and many Corinthians believed in a wicked city. Grace does not find saints; it makes them.
And the Lord said by vision in [the] night to Paul, Fear not, but speak and be not silent;
Paul was working in Corinth, and the opposition there was growing. The Lord spoke to him one night, and behind His words lies a question: what keeps a man speaking when everything around him pushes him to stop?
The Lord's first word to Paul is about fear. That tells us something about the man who received it.
Visions and revelations were fairly frequent with the apostle. This time the purpose was practical. The Lord said to him, "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent" (v. 9). The way it is worded implies that he was anxious. He needed a spring of courage beyond anything his fellow workers could supply, and the Lord gave it. Natural boldness is completely unsuited to spiritual warfare, where the rule is, "When I am weak, then I am strong." For anything to be safe and of God, it must depend on the grace of Christ.
Paul later told the Corinthians how he felt when he was with them. He was not the first servant of God to need this kind of word.
At Corinth the great apostle Paul heard the same voice that had encouraged Jeremiah and Gideon. He had arrived there in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling (1 Cor. 2:3). The voice spoke to him in a night vision.
Opposition in the city was growing. The question was who had to meet it.
As Paul watched the opposition grow, he might well have lost heart, or even left his post, if he had only weighed his own ability to meet it. So the Lord showed him in a special way that the matter did not turn on him at all. It was the Lord against the enemy. The certain presence of the Lord always gives support and courage, when the servant knows he has His mind and His protection. The Lord made clear too that his work could not be stopped until His purposes had been carried out. The many people in this city must be gathered in, in spite of Satan's efforts to stop it.
This vision gave Paul no new directions. It gave him two promises instead, in a city that offered him little reason for hope.
But this vision is only encouragement. The Lord plainly guarantees Paul against harm, and assures him that many people in this Gentile city belong to Him. The Jews there had already opposed him so openly that he had to turn away from them. Corinth was a naturally discouraging place. Paul's heart was bound up with Israel, as he tells us himself, so the special seal the Lord now put on his work here is very significant. He goes on there for a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Does God still guide His workers like this? One writer answers carefully.
It is interesting to see how the Lord watches over the work, and over the hearts of His workers. Perhaps God does not give direct messages and visions now as He did then. But He has not stopped guiding those who work faithfully in His name, or showing Himself to their hearts. He still holds the keys, as He did then. He opens, and no one shuts. When we work for Him, He is with us, to speak to our hearts, to direct us, and to order all our circumstances for His glory, in divine wisdom.
The rest of the account shows what came of that night.
The testimony went out boldly; the vision did what it was sent to do. Paul was not afraid. He spoke and did not keep quiet. Many people came out to the Lord's name, and the Lord let no one else harm His servant. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father. The very hairs of our head are all numbered. The Lord Himself will acknowledge before His Father anyone who acknowledges the Son before men. Truths like these give ground for good courage, not for fear of man.
- Fear. The words "do not be afraid" met real fear. Natural boldness is no help in this fight; only the grace of Christ is.
- Weakness. Paul came to Corinth weak, afraid and trembling. The same voice that once steadied Gideon and Jeremiah steadied him.
- Presence. The vision shifted the contest off Paul's own capability and made it a matter of the Lord against the enemy.
- Stay. This vision gave no new directions. It told Paul to stay in a discouraging city, because many people there belonged to the Lord.
- Speak. The vision did its work. Paul spoke, no one harmed him, and the keys are still in the same hands: He opens, and no one shuts.
because *I* am with thee, and no one shall set upon thee to injure thee; because I have much people in this city.
Opposition was rising against Paul in Corinth, and the Lord spoke to him in a night vision. He gave two reasons to keep speaking, and the second one reached past Paul's safety to people who had not yet believed.
The verse holds a promise about Paul and a promise about Corinth.
Here the Lord graciously stoops to give two reasons. The first: "for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you." The second: "because I have much people in this city." What could be more comforting to the tried servant? The Lord bound Himself, on the one hand, to give His gracious and mighty presence against all adversaries, and on the other, to open a great and effective door for his work. However much Satan's agents raged, the Lord had many to bring to Himself as His own in that depraved and godless city.
The Lord tied His promise of protection to the work Paul still had to do.
As Paul looked at the rising opposition, he might well lose heart, or even leave his post, if he only weighed his own ability to meet it. So the Lord showed him, in a special way, that the question was not about himself, but about the Lord against the enemy… He made two things clear. First, not a hair of the servant's head could fall to the ground without his Lord's permission. Second, nothing could stop his work until the Lord had accomplished His purposes. The Lord must gather in the "much people" of the city, despite Satan's efforts to stop Him. So the Holy Spirit is careful to add that the apostle "stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them."
No one would have expected the Lord to choose this city.
No one could have expected God to set up a monument to His Son, not in intellectual Athens, but in corrupt Corinth. Was there any earlier link, or any natural fit at all, between the Holy One of God and this city known everywhere for its impurity? The grace of God gives no account of its matters, but works to the glory of Christ; and most of all where man is most needy.
Another writer describes what the Lord found there: "Out of the terrible filth at Corinth he picked up pearls which will be the delight of his Lord for ever."
Some read "my people" as meaning God saw decent, well-behaved types in Corinth and marked them out. One writer rejects that reading.
It is sad to hear such remarks as those of Limborch. He wants the Lord to mean virtuous, well-disposed people — called His people here for that reason, and His sheep in John 10:16 — rather than objects of sheer and sovereign grace, meant to magnify His own mercy in redemption. We are all liable to mistakes… but an error like this undermines the gospel. It shows the faintest sense of how completely man is ruined, and of how deeply we need grace.
The Lord called them His own before they had heard the message.
Again, when open opposition broke out against Paul at Corinth, who encouraged him to stay there and work? It was the Great Shepherd Himself, who told him that He had much people in that city. He knew who they were, and where to find them. They might be at the riverside, like Lydia, or in the jail at Philippi, or among the leading men of Athens, like Dionysius, or among the crowds of Corinth, the main city of the Roman province of Achaia.
Serious disorders later broke out in the church at Corinth. This promise still steadied Paul when he wrote to them.
However desperately evil these disorders were, general or special, the apostle did not lose confidence in the words the Lord spoke in the early days of his work at Corinth: "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking… because I have much people in this city."… Their practical state clashed sharply with their standing, both as individuals and as a church. But he remembered the Lord's assurance, and pressed home their responsibility.
(Older translations read "much people in this city"; the ESV renders it "many in this city who are my people".)
- I have — the Lord counts as His own a crowd who had not yet believed. The words claim ownership, not good character.
- I am with you — Paul's safety did not rest on his own strength. It rested on the Lord standing against the enemy.
- In this city — grace passed by intellectual Athens and settled on Corinth. It works most of all where human need is greatest.
- He knows them — the Shepherd knew His own across a whole pagan city, long before the preacher found them.
- It holds — years later, facing their worst disorders, Paul still trusted these words. He held the Corinthians to their responsibility.
And he remained [there] a year and six months, teaching among them the word of God.
The Lord had just told Paul in a night vision not to be afraid, and Paul answered by staying — a year and a half in one hard city. Why there, and what did that teaching involve?
Corinth gave Paul every reason to move on. The ESV says he stayed; an older rendering says he settled down.
At Corinth, in the face of all difficulties, the apostle stayed longer than we have yet heard of anywhere else. "And he settled down a year and six months, teaching among them the word of God" (v. 11).
The eighteen months answer what the Lord had said the night before. He had many people in that city.
The many people in that city had to be gathered in, despite Satan's efforts to hinder. So the Holy Spirit is careful to add that the apostle "continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them."
The Lord promised two things: safety for the worker, and a harvest for the work.
In the next verse the Lord kindly gives two reasons. The first: "I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you." The second: "I have many in this city." What could be more comforting to the tried servant? The Lord bound Himself to two things. He would give His gracious and mighty presence against all adversaries. He would also open to him a great and effective door in his work.
The verse says teaching, not preaching. The state of the city explains why.
Paul therefore continued eighteen months, teaching the Word of God there. There is no doubt the Corinthian assembly needed solid teaching. Their city was notorious for the careless, loose living of its people. Even the assembly later needed Paul's two letters to reprove and correct their condition.
Preaching and teaching do different work.
At Corinth (Acts 18:11), at Rome (Acts 28:31), and elsewhere, Paul kept doing both. Evangelising increases the assembly, but some things belong to teaching and not to preaching. So the work of God needs both if it is to grow in health. Where people want simple evangelising and nothing more, the saints never learn the truth in full. Where they look down on it or neglect it, interest in the spread of God's work starts to fade.
Corinth became more than one stop among many.
Corinth is bound to Paul's history, teaching, and writings almost as closely and as importantly as Jerusalem or Antioch. We may call it his European centre. Here God had many people. Here Paul stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Here too he wrote his first apostolic letters — the two Epistles to the Thessalonians.
The assembly formed in those months had every advantage. What followed is sobering.
The result was not only the salvation of many souls, but the church of God there — holy, universal, apostolic, if ever such an assembly existed anywhere. The man who planted it had no superior. Those who watered it had no better. And God gave the increase beyond dispute. Yet how soon that fair scene was spoiled! Sin appeared among them that even the Gentiles rarely heard of. Worse still was the low, fleshly and worldly-minded state of the saints as a whole.
One writer draws a lesson for service today from Paul's long stays.
I have been struck lately to see how long the Apostle of the Gentiles stayed in many of the places he visited. At Antioch he remained "a whole year" (Acts 11:26). At Corinth "he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them" (Acts 18:11). At Ephesus, his centre, he was there a full two years and three months (Acts 19:8-10). It is a serious question whether servants of the Lord today move about too much like shooting stars. That may be why the results of their labour so often fade quickly. None of us are apostles; but we may well learn from his wise ways how the Lord's work is best carried on.
- Promise first. The Lord promised His presence and many people in that city. The stay grew out of that.
- Patience next. The promise became eighteen settled months. It is his longest stay so far, and in a hard city.
- Teaching, not just preaching. A loose city produced converts who needed teaching. Preaching alone leaves believers short of the truth.
- Fruit widened. Those months produced an assembly and the two letters to Thessalonica. Corinth became his European base.
- Warning attached. The best of workmen planted and watered this church, and it still slid into worldliness. Long teaching alone guarantees nothing.