Acts 18:24–28 (NKJV)
Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.
How could Apollos be knowledgeable enough that he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, and yet he knew only the baptism of John?
That’s the way life was before the invention of the printing press. News was delivered by word-of-mouth, and if you wanted to know more there were few ways to look things up. The main thing you could do was ask somebody. If the people who taught Apollos about Jesus simply didn’t get to the lesson on Christian baptism, then Apollos would have that hole in his knowledge—and that might not be the only one. What he was teaching wasn’t wrong—he spoke and taught accurately—it was just incomplete.
This is ironic since Apollos was from Alexandria, a city famous for its library. For most subjects, Apollos was able to look things up, which he apparently often did. Thus, he was unusually knowledgeable.
But Christianity was new and there were no books on it (yet), so the usual word-of-mouth limitation was absolute. Apollos was only able to research the Old Testament. As a result, he was mighty in the Scriptures, but was less informed about current events.
To his credit, he seems to react well to the correction from Priscilla and Aquila when they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. Luke doesn’t even record his reaction.
They filled the holes in his understanding, and he just keeps on with his ministry without missing a beat.
Every one of us is surely wrong or ignorant about something (okay, lots of things.) Part of growing in Christ is discovering our errors and learning.
But our fallen human nature resists this. In school, being wrong generally means being downgraded. Even the words, “I don’t know,” are shameful. Thus, it’s unusual for someone to be comfortable with not knowing something—or even being wrong. Yet that is our goal.
One of the beauties of the gospel is that we admit that we’re a mess. We even embrace our messness. When we accept Jesus Christ as Lord, we are relieved of the punishment for that, but the errors persist. Ask the Lord to point out one of your errors. Pray that he will make this clear. Be it major or minor, resolve to not be in denial.
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. — 1 John 1:10 (ESV)
