Last weekend, I got to share a message that Dianna and I had prepared together for the wedding of two dear friends.  I concluded the message by comparing them to a married couple from the New Testament named Aquila and Priscilla:

aquila and priscilla bannerAs I was thinking about you two over this past week, God brought to mind a married couple in the New Testament who are mentioned seven times: Aquila and Priscilla.  The Apostle Paul met Aquila and his wife Priscilla on his journey to the city of Corinth.  They all became fast friends and co-workers for God’s Kingdom, making tents together during the week to fund their ministry, then teaching together each evening in the synagogue.

They all served together in Corinth for 18 months, then left to journey with Paul to the city of Ephesus, where they served with him for another three years before he left for his final journey to Jerusalem and then onto Rome.

Paul spent the next years of his life basically being sent from one prison to another for preaching the Gospel of Jesus, and in prison, he wrote letters to the Christians in the places where he had ministered and started churches before.  In most of his letters, he concludes by asking that greetings and Christian love be sent to some of his dearest friends that he knows he’ll probably never get to see again.  In several of these letters, he specifically names Aquila & Priscilla.

The thing is, for the seven times in Scripture that Aquila and Priscilla are mentioned, they are never mentioned separately.  You never hear one’s name without the other:

  • they worked together,
  • they served together,
  • they moved together,
  • they ministered together –
  • they were one.

This is a New Testament picture of Christian marriage: a man and a woman, coming together to do more for God’s Kingdom than they could do as two separate individuals.  And look at what their unified, servant-hearted, Christ-focused marriage did for Paul’s ministry and the expansion of the Christian Church!  The evidence is in Paul’s affectionate appreciation for them; Paul asked that someone find them and greet them with his love everywhere he went.

Many at this wedding have known Nick as an individual.  Many have known Suzanne individually.  But from this day forward, people will know you as “Nick & Suzanne”.  Today, you become one; and from this day forward, your names will be said together.

And like Aquila and Priscilla, you can have more impact for God’s Kingdom as a unified Christian married couple than you could do as two separate individuals.  Much of your greatest ministry to the world will be your steadfast, faithful, loyal love and support of your spouse.