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The apostle being now come to Corinth, where he was altogether a stranger, and wanting money for his subsistence, the providence of God directed him to the house of Aquila and Priscilla; who being of the same trade with himself, tent-makers, he works with his own hands to maintain himself, that he might not be burthensome to others.
Here observe, 1. The occasion of Aquila's and Priscilla's coming to Corinth, with whom St. Paul lodged. The Roman emperor Claudius had banished them from Italy and Rome, ver. 2. Claudius commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome.
Thence note, That a wicked world is soon weary of the saints of God, and longs to worm them oft of their cities and societies, never considering that their own preservation from ruin is for the saints' sake; as the alleys in a garden are watered for the sake of the flowers, which otherwise would lie dry.
Observe, 2. That the apostle had learned a trade, tent-making, before he was called to the ministry, and he wrought upon it occasionally after he was a minister. The most learned among the Jews did always learn some handicraft trade, it being a tradition amongst them, "That he that doth not learn his child a trade, teaches him to be a thief." So that although their children were designed for students, yet they did learn some trade.
Accordingly St. Paul having learned to make tents, (much used in those hot countries, by soldiers and others, to keep off the violence of the weather,) he works at Corinth, upon his trade for his own subsistence.
Men separated to the ministry of the gospel, may upon an exigency labour for their living; not but that the apostle had power and sufficient warrant to challenge maintenance for his preaching, as he often intimates in his epistle; but there was not yet any church at Corinth to maintain him; and when there was, they were mostly of the poorer and meaner sort of people, and he would give them a convincing demonstration that he sought not their's, but them.
He demands therefore no maintenance, lest it should hinder the success of his ministry; but being of the same trade with Aquila and Priscilla, he takes up his lodging with them at Corinth, and works at their trade.