OnFire Encouragement Letter

OnFire #167 Risky Behaviour

Hi Folks:

Things are well with us. The boys have a day off school Friday for professional development, so we let them stay up for a movie. Jan has restarted her painting downstairs and aims to have that finished in time to decorate for Christmas. I took a personal retreat day today (Thursday) to pray, read, reconnect with God. That was a good experience, and I would highly recommend it. I did this from time to time in Shelburne. I miss the little island I used to go to, but it still worked here.

Blessings for your week.

Troy

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I am helpless at times. Yeah, yeah, I know. Some of you have known that for a long time.

But no, not beyond help. Rather, beyond my own ability to help myself.

Last week my office computer crashed again, for the third time in a month. Aargh! These things eat up so much time and suck the life out of me. I walked back into my office after being out for a few moments and saw a funny screen with words I had never encountered before. The  comments suggested I try to restart the machine, but it wouldn’t.  This was beyond my ability, so I took it to the shop where we have our church work done to get some help. I was beyond my ability, but thankfully it was not beyond someone else’s ability.

There are times when we feel both helpless and hopeless, that we are beyond our own ability, and perhaps the ability of anyone else to help. Not a good feeling, indeed, to feel that we are beyond the ability of anyone to help us.

This is the context I want us to see for the next people we encounter in Romans 16. We’ve been looking at some of the lesser-knowns in the New Testament, but in verses 3-4 we encounter Priscilla and Aquilla, and we really cannot say they are lesser-known. We actually know more about them than many other New Testament characters.

Paul first met them in Corinth while he was on his second missionary journey (Acts 18). They were Jewish refugees from Rome, forced out of the city by the emperor Claudius. They made tents for a living, as did Paul, and since he had much in common with them he stayed and worked with them, presumably for the full year-and-a-half he stayed in Corinth.

The couple travelled with Paul from Corinth as far as Ephesus, where they remained. We are not told at what point they became followers of Jesus Christ, but while in Ephesus they instructed a man named Apollos more accurately about the things of Jesus. They were obviously well-versed in the Scriptures.

They were still in Ephesus when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, for he sent greetings from them. Curiously, they were back in Rome a few years later when Paul asked to greet them in our passage today. Less than ten years later, however, they returned to Ephesus, where Paul greeted them in his second letter to Timothy. It seems likely that they returned to Rome when Nero became emperor and left again when he began to persecute the Christians.

These are the bare facts from which we gain some insights into their personalities and character. The neatest line, however, comes from our passage in Romans: “They risked their lives for me.”

We are not told how they risked their lives, but I am sure Paul was not exaggerating. To be his friend was to risk one’s life. He was at the centre of a near-riot in Ephesus (Acts 19), and he mentioned fighting wild beasts there in 1Corinthians 15:32. In 2 Corinthians 11:22ff, Paul reminded his readers of the hardships he endured, including imprisonment, beatings and lashings, and constant danger. Priscilla and Aquila may have risked themselves to help Paul on one or more of these occasions.

So when Paul commented that “they risked their lives for me,” he was remembering those times when he was beyond his ability to help himself, but people like Priscilla and Aquilla stepped in to help even though it was risky for them.

There is both hope and challenge in these words. Hope for the times when we find ourselves caught out beyond our ability, teetering between helplessness and hopelessness. God will send deliverers, even when it means great risk to them. We might think there is little reason to hope, but God has a way of providing.

And there is a challenge for us also, to follow the example of Priscilla and Aquilla, to lay down our lives for someone else so that God may provide a deliverer. Will it always be a matter of life and death? Perhaps not. But might it be risky in other ways? Definitely. The challenge is for us to lay down our own interests and comforts at that point.

I hope this helps. Be on fire.

Troy

OnFire is a weekly letter on faith and character written by Troy Dennis. This letter published Nov 20, 2008. To subscribe or reply, email him at onfireletter@gmail.com. Archives are located at www.onfireletter.com