Last updated on November 22, 2024
Paul will receive a letter back from the Corinthian church, and then he’ll write a second letter, which we’ll get to tomorrow. For now, though, let’s go back to the book of Acts. As I wrote a few days ago, Paul’s third missionary journey was to Asia, and it was during this journey that he was able to spend a large block of time (3 years) in one city (Ephesus). How nice to not be run out of town two weeks after arriving!
By this point Paul was an old man. I’m about to turn 50 and don’t consider that old, but back then it was. He had to think about what would happen after he was no longer around. So he spent these three years in Ephesus training men and women who would start and lead new churches. The seven churches that we see in Revelation 2-3 were most likely started during this time.
Ephesus was a very large city. It was a port city, and like Corinth, was very diverse. Ephesus is the home of one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, the temple of Artemis. I plan to write a bit about Artemis when we get to Paul’s letter to Timothy.
It’s also during time time that a teenager named Nero will become emperor of Rome. Nero will play a big role in Paul’s story.
Paul’s time in Ephesus came to an end because he threatened the economic system in Ephesus. There was a silversmith named Demetrius who made silver shrines for the temple of Artemis. He rallied together other business owners in Ephesus to complain about Paul. They felt that Paul was leading people astray. “He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all (Acts 19:26). He acknowledged that this was impacting his business, but he also pointed out that it was discrediting the great goddess Artemis (he probably wasn’t that concerned about that – it was all about the money).
Soon the whole city was in an uproar. Paul and his friends didn’t know what was going to happen to them. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and the uproar ended. Paul figured he should take advantage of the calm and go ahead and leave Ephesus, so he did.
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