End of Paul's Second Missionary Journey

Paul's extended stay at Corinth winds down as he ends his second missionary journey and returns to Antioch (Acts 18:12-23). Although at Corinth there is a final recorded encounter with the Jews. The Jews approached Gallio the Governor of Achaia and Paul was accused of breaking the law and making people worship God in ways contrary to the Roman law. Gallio wanted to have nothing to do with the finer details of what seemed to him as the teachings of Judaism and threw the case out of court.

He said that if they were making a compliant of some criminal misbehavior then he would listen, but if it only involves the finer details of the tenets of their faith juxtaposed to the new Christian school of thought, then they should settle the matter by themselves. The only person who got physically hurt was Sosthenes who was the leader of the Synagogue. He was publicly beaten by the mob for probably losing the case at court. Did this humiliation or something Paul said later make him become a close companion of Paul (1 Corinthians 1:1-3)? Crispus (Acts 18:8) his predecessor had joined Paul along with his household and many others much earlier. Although the Christians were hammered by the Romans and the radical Jews they did not retaliate physically and try to return tooth for a tooth. They stayed true to teachings of Christ that instructed them to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-42), love their enemies (Matthew 5:43-48), and do good to those that persecute them (Matthew 5:10-12).

Despite the threats to destroy the faith, Christianity blossomed, flourished and gained momentum as Paul went through Ephesus, Caesarea, Jerusalem and then to Antioch. Although Paul's ministry slowly shifted away from the Jews to the Gentiles, he courageously defended the faith and bore the brunt of all the backlash that came against him.