“Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in the ministry of Christ Jesus. In fact, they once risked their lives for me. I am thankful to them, and so are all the Gentile churches. Also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home. Greet my dear friend Epenetus. He was the first person from the province of Asia to become a follower of Christ.”
Romans 16:3-5 NLT
The next people on Paul’s list of friends to be mentioned were Priscilla and Aquila. This lovely couple first emerge in Acts 18. Aquila was a Jewish Christian and he ended up in Corinth with his wife, Priscilla, after Claudius Caesar deported all Jews from Rome. For a trade they were tentmakers, so it was natural for Paul, also a tentmaker, to meet up with them when he came to Corinth. Some time later we read that Paul set sail for Ephesus taking Aquila and Priscilla with him. The Jewish couple stayed in Ephesus and met up with another Jew called Apollos, who they helped with their knowledge of Jesus, when Paul moved on. The details of this couple in Acts 18 are sparse, but reading between the lines, we can find a Godly husband and wife who were pivotal in the foundations of the early church. In 1 Corinthians 16:19, we read, “The churches here in the province of Asia send greetings in the Lord, as do Aquila and Priscilla and all the others who gather in their home for church meetings“. The church in their home was also mentioned by Paul in his letter to the Roman believers – “Also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home”. Priscilla and Aquila also crop up in 2 Timothy 4:19, “Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila and those living in the household of Onesiphorus.” At this time, Timothy was the pastor of the Ephesus church.
So what conclusion can we draw from the brief Biblical mentions of Aquila and Priscilla? They were Godly, with a solid faith, and a gift of hospitality, three traits that it would be good for us pilgrims to emulate. For them to get a mention about the “church that meets in their home” meant that something significant happened there. The concept of home groups, or how churches, is nothing new today, and . we can read about the early believers in Acts 2:46, “They worshipped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity“. Home churches were a feature of the early church and they are a model which supplements the more formal services held in a church building. The intimacy of meeting with other Christians in someone’s home is an essential part of the life of a fellowship of believers.
If we pilgrims only meet other Christians every Sunday, then perhaps it is an opportunity to copy the model set for us by Aquila and Priscilla. Why don’t we open up our homes for other Christians to meet with us? We will soon find that the Holy Spirit in our midst will lead us into a new dimension of fellowship.
Father God, we thank You that You assured us that when two or three meet together, You are there with us. So in our meeting together, we pray for Your love and grace to multiply and overspill into our families and communities. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 