A pair of lovely souls were the married couple Priscilla and Aquila. They were Jewish converts to the gospel who lived in Rome. Aquila was born in Pontus, a province on the north coast of Asia Minor. There were Jews from Pontus in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Perhaps Aquila had heard Peter preach and was one of the thousands converted that day.

The apostle Paul met Aquila and Priscilla when he first came to the Greek city of Corinth on his second missionary journey. Paul stayed with Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth because they were makers of tents like he was. They were refugees in Corinth from Rome because Emperor Claudius had expelled all the Jews from Rome, and Aquila and Priscilla were forced to flee. The Jews had been disturbing the peace on account of the preaching of Christ in Rome. That was not the only time persecution had come to the church and people of God on account of the false church. Persecution of the church also happened during the Reformation on account of the radical and rebellious Anabaptists, and that persecution of the church would not be the last.

When Paul’s stay in Corinth was finished, he took the couple with him to Ephesus and left them there while he went up to Jerusalem. In Ephesus they heard Apollos the Alexandrian preaching the things of the Lord fervently, diligently, and boldly in the synagogue of the Jews. Having heard him, Aquila and Priscilla instructed Apollos more fully in the truth of Christ, and Apollos mightily convinced the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. Apollos would later be called as the minister of the new congregation at Corinth. Staying in Ephesus, the husband and wife would play host to the church in their house.

When Paul returned to Corinth on his third missionary journey, Aquila and Priscilla were back in Rome, and Paul mentions them specifically as his helpers in Christ. They were, in fact, fellow workers with Paul who shared the burden and trouble of the gospel ministry. This was not a matter of a mere shared Jewish heritage or of shared secular occupations or even of being kindred spirits. Aquila and Priscilla were in Christ. They were saved by Christ. They loved Christ, and they thus loved the gospel and the gospel ministry. It was everything to them, and they supported the gospel ministry with all their might. That is what the power of the gospel does to those on whom God lays hold. He transforms them and causes them to be instruments in his hands. It was not them, but the grace of God in them.

Among the things for which Paul publicly thanks them before all the churches was that they laid down their necks for his life. Paul’s life was frequently in danger on account of his preaching. He was hated of all the Jews, and they hounded and harried him throughout the Roman Empire during all his labors. The Jews beat him five times and stoned him once. And if there were not the perils of his own countrymen, then there were the hazards of travel throughout the ancient world and the troubles that belong to the ministry of the gospel in a wicked and perverse world. As Paul says, “In perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.” Aquila and Priscilla saved his life. They laid down their own necks for his sake and imperiled their own lives to save him. Such was the love that they had for the gospel. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. The Lord laid down his life for his people; in the Lord they lay down their lives for the gospel. Such is the power of his Spirit. Such is the beauty that God’s grace creates.