Faithful Exiles: Finding Hope in a Hostile WorldExemplo

In Acts 18, the apostle Paul makes his way from Athens to Corinth and meets a married couple there, Aquila and Priscilla. Aquila was a Jew from the Roman province of Pontus (in modern Turkey), but many scholars believe Priscilla was from a wealthy, aristocratic Roman family.

Luke tells us the couple had recently relocated from Italy because Emperor Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome (vv. 1–2). Since she was married to a Jewish man, Priscilla was expelled from her homeland along with her husband. Together they land in Corinth, where they meet Paul. The three of them, brought together by their shared experience as exiles in a land not their own, work together.

Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila were “tentmakers by trade” (v. 3). Because of the itinerant nature of Paul’s work, it’s unlikely he carried the necessary materials to set up shop and launch an operable tentmaking business of his own in the various places his travels took him. It’s far more likely he carried a few smaller tools with which he could execute minor repairs. But in Corinth, he partnered with Priscilla and Aquila, who’d established a viable tentmaking business there.

These three exiled followers of Jesus shared their skills and resources, set up shop in a frenetic foreign city, and presumably went about the work of crafting tents for a wide variety of clientele. And in a competitive marketplace like Corinth, it’s safe to assume they held their work to a high quality standard. They wouldn’t have been in business long otherwise. Finally, as we learn from the broader story of Paul’s missionary journeys and Priscilla and Aquila’s significant influence on a number of churches throughout the region, tentmaking was simply the exterior of a much deeper, much more meaningful vocational engagement in exile.

Vocation in exile is Spirit-filled artistry carried out by sanctified artisans. Whether teaching, engineering, stay-at-home parenting, manual labor, finance, or any other work, Christians are called to do quality work, not just for the sake of profitability but primarily to bear witness to the God who fills us with ability, intelligence, knowledge, and all craftsmanship. Such work has the potential to create faint glimpses of heaven on earth, home in exile. The vocational gift we receive in exile is meant to express beauty and skill. To an unbelieving world languishing in the toil of transactional work, it should spark curiosity toward the possibility of something more, something holy. As such, Christian vocation is truly disruptive to the culture.