Always Stay A Student

This week’s scripture begins Paul's third missionary journey as he leaves Ephesus and sets out to Antioch. Something special about this portion of scripture is not what Paul goes and does but what he leaves behind in Ephesus.

Here we meet a man named Apollos, a “learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.” He “spoke with great fervor”, “talked about Jesus accurately”, and “began to speak boldly in the synagogue.” If you were only going to have a few lines written about you, you could do much worse.

However, despite his knowledge and courage, Apollos was incomplete. He only knew about Jesus from what John the Baptist preached (focused on the repentance of sin). He was missing the story of Jesus’ life, crucifixion, and resurrection. And at this point, two beautiful things happen in our story.

First, we have Aquila and Priscilla take Apollos aside, inviting him into their home and explaining Jesus’ life and the points Apollos was missing. What gentle courage this must have taken.

Second, we have Apollos who could have been satisfied with what he had learned and continued to preach his incomplete story. That’s what pride, or having an ego, can do to us. “Too often, convinced of our own intelligence, we stay in a comfort zone that ensures that we never feel stupid… It (ego) obscures from view various weaknesses in our understanding… Like sirens on the rocks, ego sings a soothing, validating song” writes Ryan Holiday in the book Ego is the Enemy.

But Apollos wasn’t threatened by what he didn’t know, he kept learning and accepted Aquila and Priscilla’s teaching. Staying a student, and not assuming he knew it all, allowed Apollos to get the complete story of Jesus. He then used his natural skills and his newfound knowledge on his own missionary journey, with the endorsement of the Ephesus believers, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

It’s never been easier than today to inform others of our own knowledge and opinions, let Apollos’ story remind and encourage us to stay the student, and don’t let our ego assume we’ve graduated from learning.

-Alex Pfister