What is the significance of Achaia in the Bible?

This with Macedonia embraced the whole of Greece in the N.T.; but with the poets Achaia often referred to the whole of Greece. Under the Romans it was divided into two districts, Achaia being a senatorial province. Tiberias united the two districts into an imperial province under procurators; but Claudius again restored it to the senate under a proconsul, so that Luke was correct in calling Gallio a proconsul (ἀνθύπατος) or deputy. Acts 18:12; Acts 19:21; Rom. 15:26; 1 Cor. 16:15, etc.

Capital of the province of Achaia. The city visited by Paul was founded by Julius Caesar about a century after the fall of a former Corinth on the same site. It was a great centre of commercial traffic on the route from Rome to the East. It was also rich and very profligate. Paul on his first visit remained there eighteen months (A.D. 52-3), and from thence wrote the two epistles to the Thessalonians. A church was gathered out, to which Paul wrote two epistles. In A.D. 58 he again visited Corinth, staying three months, Acts 20:2-3, during which time he wrote the Epistle to the Romans. The Jews plotted against his life, and he left the city. Acts 18:1, 11; Acts 19:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1, 23; 2 Tim. 4:20. It is now a mean village, called Gortho, with only relics here and there of its former greatness.

In marked distinction from Athens is the dealing of divine grace with Corinth, the wealthy capital of Achaia, the southern province of Greece under the Roman empire. Thither the apostle repaired after his brief visit to Athens: with what result the record stands, not in the inspired history alone, but in the two great Epistles to the church of God in Corinth.

Leaving Ephesus, however, he went to Achaia, the southern province of Greece, being given a letter of commendation from the brethren at Ephesus. Here he was of very real help to the disciples, while also speaking with such power as to convince the Jews of the truth of the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus, using the Old Testament scriptures to this worthy end. In this same chapter Paul had planted the assembly at Corinth, now Apollos does the watering (1 Cor.3:6).

At a later point in time, Paul informed the believers in Rome that he was about to travel to Jerusalem, taking with him financial help for the needy amongst the saints there. He refers to this project as ‘ministry for the saints’ (Rom. 15:24–25) — an expression we will encounter again in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. This gift came from the saints in (a) Macedonia (a relatively poor area in northern Greece) and (b) Achaia (a relatively wealthy area in southern Greece): ‘Macedonia and Achaia have been well pleased to make a certain contribution for the poor of the saints who are in Jerusalem’.

There is a time for all and a place for each, of which the Lord only is absolute judge; but He does not fail to give the sense of it to His servants: according to the measure of their spirituality they will gather it. The object which the Master had in view through the apostle being now achieved, he had no longer place in the East; and the old longing to visit the saints at Rome, often hindered, came up again when he proposed to go onward to Spain. For, it will be observed, Spain, not Rome, was the point sought, doubtless according to the measure of the rule which God apportioned him. His eye was on the regions beyond, but he hoped by the way to see the Roman saints and by them to be sent forward thither "if first I be in part filled with your company," for he will not allow that any time could exhaust his love for them or enjoyment of converse with them: hence he says, if I be in part "filled with you." Meanwhile he was engaged in an errand of compassion for the poor of the saints at Jerusalem. The saints of Macedonia and Achaia (at that time the two provinces into which the Romans long before separated Greece politically) had raised means to help their brethren; and this the apostle treats rather as a debt of love than its simple outflow. If the Gentiles were partakers in the spiritual privileges of the Jews, ought they not to remember their poor saints in fleshly things? They were pleased, he repeats, but they are their debtors. Grace pleads powerfully, for it sees with single eye and desires the reciprocation of love which exercises and unites the heart in all that are of God. The least things as well as the greatest afford the materials; and he who does not think a deacon's service beneath an apostle was inspired to write of all for our edification, assured of a fulness of Christ's blessing for saints at Rome when he came. Whether he attained his desire to visit Spain may be a question, as many have doubted it, though one may not be prepared to affirm it. Much depends on the point so much contested of a second imprisonment in Rome and that which filled up the interval of the apostle's free labours after the first. Certain it is that he came to Rome, when he did, differently from his expectations, a prisoner of Jesus Christ; but was it with less blessing?

We find an allusion to this collection for the saints in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4, and again at much greater length in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. If those passages be read we can at once see why the Apostle here places Macedonia before Achaia. The Philippians were poor as compared with the Corinthians yet they were far more liberal. They talked less and gave more. The Acts of the Apostles furnishes us with a twofold explanation of what gave rise to the need. There was a famine in those days (Acts 11:27-30), and also the believers in Jerusalem had been in a special way impoverished by the "Christian communism" they practised at the beginning (Acts 2:44-45). Their impoverishment however furnished the occasion for the cementing of practical bonds of Christian fellowship between Gentile and Jew.

There was a strong tendency in those days for Jew and Gentile to fall apart, and this tendency was increased by the scheming of Judaising teachers from Jerusalem. Hence Paul evidently considered this collection a very important matter and insisted on being the bearer of the bounty himself. He was quite aware of the danger he ran, and verse 30 and 31 of our chapter show that he had some premonitions of coming trouble. Whether he was really right in going to Jerusalem has been a much discussed question. We need not attempt to answer it here, but we shall do well to note that the prayer, in which he asked the Roman saints to join with him, was answered, though not in just the way he hoped. He was delivered, but not as a free man. He was delivered from his persecutors by his imprisonment at the hands of the representatives of Caesar.

But first he was going to Jerusalem — and the reason he gives is “to minister unto the saints.” He was to be the bearer of a contribution from the Gentile assemblies in Macedonia and Achaia, for the poor saints of Jerusalem — a famine having occasioned want there. No doubt it was a sweet testimony of affection and unity — so valuable at the time. Yet we may be sure that this was not all that moved Paul's heart. He has already told us (Rom. 10:1) of his deep longing for Israel's salvation, and this desire doubtless had much to do with his determination to “keep this feast that cometh at Jerusalem.” Why does he not then speak of it here?Can it be that he mentions no spiritual reason for going because he had the presentiment that it would bear no spiritual fruit? Indeed, we know from elsewhere that he did not have the direct leading of the Spirit of God to go to Jerusalem — in fact was warned by the Spirit not to go. The temporal ministry for the poor saints could as well have been carried by another brother.

At first sight we are inclined to exclaim, "But how great a lever for producing an apparently small result!" Yet is it not ever thus in Scripture? The weightiest considerations are brought to bear upon the simplest details of the Christian's daily life. On second thoughts, however, we perceive that the result is not so small after all. Nothing is more ingrained in man's fallen nature than selfishness, and it was this that accounted for the sluggish action of the Corinthians. When the subject of this collection for the poor saints first came up they willingly agreed to give; the apostle could speak of "the forwardness of your mind" (2 Cor. 9:2), and consequently he boasted of them to others, "that Achaia was ready a year ago;" yet though there was this willingness in mind and word there was delay in action, and the thing so far had not materialised. There was "a readiness to will," but they did not readily "perform the doing of it" out of that which they had (2 Cor. 8:11). What could stir their sluggish hearts — or ours — so effectually as a fresh sense of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ?

But you insist on another fact in your letter. You say, as to collections, only one is related in the New Testament, and in that single account the participation of an apostle is positively stated! Must I repeat to you, sir, that the apostle refused to take part in this collection, unless there were other persons with him? But this is not all. I must here thank you for the support which you lend to my views. This case also, as well as the other which you quoted, overturns your arguments. If you give yourself the trouble to read Romans 15:26, you will find, "For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily, and their debtors they are." So that, on this point, the principle recognized in the word of God is that of the full liberty of the saints, and under certain aspects their moral obligation. "It pleased them." Hence, when it pleases us, we do it, acknowledging often that it is an obligation. If you wish to see the spirit in which the thing was done, you can read 2 Corinthians 8 where the apostle says, "I speak not by commandment"; and elsewhere (1 Cor. 16) You will find other collections also. You will see that the apostle speaks of the collection at Corinth, as of a thing which was being made, and of his participation in it as a discretionary thing "if it be meet." He had given orders to the Galatians as to how the collection was to be made. Hence, while quite admitting that there is often a moral obligation (and in this case one does not wait for an apostle), we find perfect liberty, we find spontaneous action as an essential thing, and that the participation of the apostle is a question of seasonableness. The examples which you quote, sir, confirm the principles which I maintain, as well as the distinction, which is intelligible to every sensible person, between acts which are, on the one hand, the fruit of grace, or of a particular power granted by God in the form of a gift, and, on the other, acts of authority which depend on a mission from on high.