Thank you, my dear friend, for asking about this very interesting fellow. Acts 18:24-28 gives us a good background about this faithful servant of the Lord.  That says, “And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace: For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.”  

In these verses we see that Apollos was a Jew born in Alexandria who was gifted in the Scriptures and able to speak eloquently and convincingly. However, he knew only the baptism of John, so his understanding of the Gospel was incomplete. At Ephesus while preaching in the synagogue, Priscilla and Aquilla took him aside and helped him to gain a more perfect understanding of the person and work of Christ so that he might more effectively preach the Gospel. He was then equipped to go to Achaia with a letter of commendation that he might be received by the saints in that area.  There he faithfully preached and taught the assembly in that region and was very helpful to the saints. Now Apollos proved not only to be a gifted preacher and teacher of the Word of God, but he had a definite zeal to contend for the faith with the Jews showing them from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.

To sum up, it does appear to me that Apollos was a prominent teacher and preacher of the Gospel, and we know that he worked at least for a while at Corinth as we might gather from Acts 19:1. These verses show us that Apollos was well respected at Corinth, but unfortunately some of the Corinthians seemed to have much pride in being followers of Apollos. Thus, Paul found it necessary to rebuke the Corinthians for placing too much emphasis on their being followers of Apollos or anyone else rather than keeping their focus on following Christ alone (1 Corinthians 1:12, 3:4-6). Apollos was seen as a faithful companion and brother by Paul, and he esteemed Apollos as a fellow worker in Christ (1 Corinthians 16:12 and Titus 3:13).

At this point, I’ll offer some of my personal thoughts which I believe can be derived from the Scriptures above. It occurs to me that Apollos, though he was highly gifted and well received by many, did not appear to be afflicted by personal pride. He did not become defensive when Priscilla and Aquilla had to take him aside and help him to better understand how to present the Gospel. Apollos had enough meekness of spirit to allow others to correct and teach him. We can all learn from this. Are we willing to swallow our pride and learn from correction, receiving it as from the Lord? I’m sure it helped that Priscilla and Aquilla did not confront Apollos in front of those in the synagogue, but they took him aside and helped him to better understand the truth. When we correct another, it should always be done with love and grace, desiring only to bless and help the one being corrected. Romans 12:3 reminds us: “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”

Another thought I had is that Apollos was an eloquent speaker and gifted in knowledge of the Scriptures, but this does not at all mean that others of us who may not be so gifted should keep silent and defer to the best and most gifted speakers, or that we should not tell others of the good news. The great commission is for all believers, not just for the Apollos’s of the world (Matthew 28:19, 20). We might be feeble in public speaking, we may not see ourselves as gifted like Apollos, but even in simple words, we can certainly tell our friends about the love of Jesus, that He died for us to redeem us. If we are willing to be used of God, I believe that God will give us the words to say at the proper time, and His Word will accomplish His will (Matthew 10:19; Acts 4:29; Isaiah 55:11).  (SF)  (738.4)