I want to introduce you to a couple who are mentioned 6 times in the New Testament and so we can begin to build up a picture of them. I am not talking about their physical appearance. We have no idea of what they looked like but we can discover some very interesting details about them and their lives. We can learn lessons from them.
Priscilla is the lady and surprisingly enough she is mentioned first on 4 occasions and on the other two references her husband is mentioned first. In this period of history women tended to be dominated and even silenced by their husbands but not Priscilla. She was probably an Italian lady from the city of Rome and some suggest that she was from a higher social class than her husband. Others suggest that she was better educated. This is speculation and conjecture and we will try to avoid that if at all possible. Aquila was a Jew but they both became followers of Jesus Christ and we would have described them as Christians - this was a new word coined as a nickname to label these people. We are not told how they became Christians. Was this as a result of the witnessing of Paul or had they come to faith in the Messiah before coming to Corinth. It was not an easy time to be a follower of Jesus as this couple soon discovered. They are always mentioned together. There is never a mention of the one without the other. They complement each other - Priscilla was not controlled or dominated by her husband but she did not control or dominate Aquila either. They were a partnership of equals. This is perhaps the most striking lesson we can learn from P and A. Here we have a couple who are united in service for their Lord and Saviour. We often read of women without a man such as Mary Magdalene or Lydia, and they can do wonderful service for Jesus. But it is good to discover a couple who are pulling in the same direction and supporting each other in the Christian pathway.
This blog seems to be for married couples and some of you might feel excluded. So I want to make a couple of points in closing, today.
We all need to pray for marriage as an institution and for Christian couples whom we know because Satan is attacking marriage and family life in 2021. It is not easy for two people with strong personalities to live in harmony and respect and love each other but that is the basis of marriage.
The example of Priscilla and Aquila is fascinating because they were in a strong partnership with a single man. This seems to me to speak volumes. They did not ignore Paul because he was single and Paul loved them dearly as a couple.
God expects married couples to live in harmony with each other and for single people and married couples to serve the Lord together in mutual respect. This is known as a symbiotic relationship - the benefits of working together are shared. I have added a video showing examples of symbiotic relationships in the natural world. There is a lesson for Christians who are married and who are single - we need to work together to provide mutual support for each other.
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