Growth in My Purpose

Acts 18:3 says that Paul stayed with Aquila and Priscilla because they were of the same trade, namely, tentmakers. So in a sense you could say Paul's traveling band of men was a traveling band of merchants who worked when they had to, making and repairing and selling tents. And when they had enough money to live on, they preached the gospel and taught the new Christians what it meant to follow Jesus in their homes and vocations.

This is where the term "tentmakers" comes from.

A tentmaker today is a person who supports himself in another culture in order to make known the reality of Jesus Christ and build his church. A tentmaker is a person who believes that Christians ought to be engaged in thousands of secular vocations, but who believes the product or service he is providing is always secondary to the effect he has on people's lives through his work. A tentmaker has set his eyes on things that are eternal. And so God has helped him see that making money, getting promotions, becoming well-known are at best secondary means to what really counts for eternity, namely, God being glorified and people coming to know and trust him. And then tentmakers look at the cities of the unreached peoples where there are no churches, and no Christians, and they hear God's call to go to these cities and live there and work there in order to bring the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the gospel.

Aquila and Priscilla worked alongside Paul to minister to and lead people to Christ. They were taken in by Paul because of their work of tent making, as described above. After being ministered to by Paul and being taught, they themselves began to do the work of the ministry. They reached out and taught others what they had been taught themselves.

I pray each of us would do the same. Let us become kingdom minded and grow in our purpose so that more lives are touched and changed because of the gospel.