The wise method of preaching, one which takes into account the religiosity of the people, then using it as its starting point for preaching Christ, was not of much help to Paul in Athens. The Greek philosophers derided Christ’s resurrection in the same spirit in which the high council of the Jews had derided Christ and His salvation. So Paul left this proud city, according to his Lords’ instructions (Matthew 10: 14). Jewish lawyers and Greek philosophers together were sick at the same hospital: The first wanted to fulfill the law of God in their own strength, the latter purposed to know God by way of their own imaginations. Both are impossible. The lawyers did not want a salvation freely given, and the philosophers did not want to bring their minds under inspired revelation. They were selfish and proud, and had willfully kept themselves from the mercy of God.
Carnal man cannot recognize the true God unless he has been enlightened by His Spirit. He cannot fulfill the law of God except by loving and obeying this Spirit. The lawyer remains hardened in his inmost being, while the philosopher stays foolish and ignorant, in spite of his fanciful thoughts. Paul, who had been derided, left the city of idols and thinkers deeply affected. He had sensed beforehand that these waves of atheistic spirits would cause great damage and corruption throughout the course of church history. These were spirits which would not submit to God.
Paul found good when the living Lord guided him to a certain Jewish couple, one that did not talk much, but prayed, believed, and worked with their own hands. It is most probable that they had become Christians in Rome. When an official persecution began in the capital city against the Jews, during the time of Claudius Caesar (A.D. 41- 54), these tentmakers fled to Corinth, a prosperous commercial port famed for its riches, and infamous for its immorality. Its citizens came from all parts of the world. Paul found work there alongside this faithful couple, for he did not accept donations, but worked with his hands to support himself and his fellow-laborers.
Thus Paul worked in Corinth as a tentmaker during the day, and preached after work. He did not rest in the evenings or during holidays and Sabbaths, but sacrificed his time and strength for the Lord. In the first days he spent there Paul restricted his teaching to the synagogue of the Jews. His bitter experience at Athens might have prompted him to increased prayer and meditation, to perhaps reconsider his system and manner of preaching, as we read in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (1: 18- 2: 16). If you read these verses carefully, you will sense Paul’s condition at that time.