From Ephesus to Macedonia

Week Six - Day 1

Today's Reading

Acts 19:23--20:1, and 2 Corinthians 1:1--4:15

Paul has spent three years in Ephesus (possibly from the fall of 54 AD to the fall of 57AD) and things have gone fairly well.  There have been a number of converts to Christianity, enough to concern some of the local artisans who make their money fashioning idols.  Before Paul arrived it was the goddess Artemis who held the hearts of the Ephesians, but fewer people are wanting the artisans creations to honor her.  The idol makers stir up the people of the city and a confrontation erupts and moves to the theater, an outdoors amphitheater used not only for performances but for public meetings of the citizens.  The town clerk, however, averts a riot by reminding the citizens that there are proper legal channels through which to pursue their complaints.  Paul seems to have had enough of Ephesus and makes plans to leave for Macedonia (northern Greece), where he ends up staying for three months.

Never one to waste a moment, Paul used some of his time in Macedonia, perhaps in the city of Philippi, to write his second letter the Corinthians.  He writes of the affliction he experienced in Asia, which may refer to the trouble he ran into in Ephesus.  He offers his thanks, however, for the prayers that have sustained him and his companions.  He then tells the Corinthians how he had wanted to visit them again but was afraid it might cause too much distress.  Paul does not want discord to exist among them and urges them to be reconciled with a person who has been corrected by the community.  He then turns to issues of his ministry of the new covenant, “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (3:3).  Although this has had its challenges, Paul tells the Corinthians that “everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase in thanksgiving, to the glory of God” (4:15).