Apollos: When Fervour Meets Correction
August 25, 2026
Apollos was a brilliant man.
Acts 18 calls him “an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures” (Acts 18:24, NKJV). He was a Jew of Alexandria — that great centre of Hellenistic learning — and when he came preaching in Ephesus, he was “fervent in spirit” and “taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John” (Acts 18:25, NKJV).
There it is. The gap.
Eloquent. Fervent. Accurate as far as he had gone. And yet — he did not yet know the fullness of what Christ had done.
Now listen carefully to what happens next. It is one of the most beautiful moments in the early church.
It was not an apostle who corrected him. It was not a council. It was a husband-and-wife team of tentmakers Paul had discipled — Aquila and Priscilla. They heard him preaching, they recognised the gap, and Acts 18:26 tells us they “took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (NKJV).
Aside. Not in front of the crowd. Not in the synagogue while he was preaching. They honoured him. They protected him. And they told him the truth.
Two beautiful things happened in that room.
First — Aquila and Priscilla did not stay silent because they were intimidated by his gifting. They had received something from Paul, and they had the courage to pass it on. Even to a man already in pulpits. Even to a man already being celebrated. The Holy Spirit gives discernment so that we will use it.
Second — and this is the part that takes my breath away — Apollos let them. A preacher already mighty in the Scriptures, a man already drawing crowds, dismounted from his platform long enough to be taught by a tentmaker and his wife.
That humility is rare. And it is precisely why God could use him next.
After that quiet correction, Apollos was sent on to Achaia, and Scripture records that he “vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 18:28, NKJV). The fervour was the same. The accuracy was now complete.
Friend, the Holy Spirit will send Aquilas and Priscillas into your life. Do not be too gifted to listen. Eloquence without accuracy is fire without a target.
Receive the correction. Let the Spirit complete the work in you.
And then watch what God will do with the fervour He has put in your bones.