'And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing
the things that shall befall me there: 23. Save that the Holy Ghost
witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
24. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry,
which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the
grace of God. 25. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I
have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. 26.
Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood
of all men. 27. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the
counsel of God. 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the
flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed
the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. 29. For
I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in
among you, not sparing the flock. 30. Also of your own selves shall men
arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. 31.
Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I
ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. 32. And now,
brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is
able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them
which are sanctified. 33. I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or
apparel. 34. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered
unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. 35. I have shewed
you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and
to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more
blessed to give than to receive.'--ACTS xx. 22-35.
This parting address to the Ephesian elders is perfect in simplicity,
pathos, and dignity. Love without weakness and fervent yet restrained
self-devotion throb in every line. It is personal without egotism, and
soars without effort. It is 'Pauline' through and through, and if Luke
or some unknown second-century Christian made it, the world has lost
the name of a great genius. In reading it, we have to remember the
Apostle's long stay in Ephesus, and his firm conviction that he was
parting for ever from those over whom he had so long watched, and so
long loved, as well as guided. Parting words should be tender and
solemn, and these are both in the highest degree.
The prominence given to personal references is very marked and equally
natural. The whole address down to verse 27 inclusive is of that
nature, and the same theme recurs in verse 31, is caught up again in
verse 33, and continues thence to the end. That abundance of allusions
to himself is characteristic of the Apostle, even in his letters; much
more is it to be looked for in such an outpouring of his heart to
trusted friends, seen for the last time. Few religious teachers have
ever talked so much of themselves as Paul did, and yet been as free as
he is from taint of display or self-absorption.
The personal references in verses 22 to 27 turn on two points--his
heroic attitude in prospect of trials and possible martyrdom, and his
solemn washing his hands of all responsibility for 'the blood' of those
to whom he had declared all the counsel of God. He looks back, and his
conscience witnesses that he has discharged his ministry; he looks
forward, and is ready for all that may confront him in still
discharging it, even to the bloody end.
Nothing tries a man's mettle more than impending evil which is equally
certain and undefined. Add that the moment of the sword's falling is
unknown, and you have a combination which might shake the firmest
nerves. Such a combination fronted Paul now. He told the elders, what
we do not otherwise know, that at every halting-place since setting his
face towards Jerusalem he had been met by the same prophetic warnings
of 'bonds and afflictions' waiting for him. The warnings were vague,
and so the more impressive. Fear has a vivid imagination, and
anticipates the worst.
Paul was not afraid, but he would not have been human if he had not
recognised the short distance for him between a prison and a scaffold.
But the prospect did not turn him a hairsbreadth from his course. True,
he was 'bound in the spirit,' which may suggest that he was not so much
going joyfully as impelled by a constraint felt to be irresistible. But
whatever his feelings, his will was iron, and he went calmly forward on
the road, though he knew that behind some turn of it lay in wait, like
beasts of prey, dangers of unknown kinds.
And what nerved him thus to front death itself without a quiver? The
supreme determination to do what Jesus had given him to do. He knew
that his Lord had set him a task, and the one thing needful was to
accomplish that. We have no such obstacles in our course as Paul had in
his, but the same spirit must mark us if we are to do our work.
Consciousness of a mission, fixed determination to carry it out, and
consequent contempt of hindrances, belong to all noble lives, and
especially to true Christian ones. Perils and hardships and possible
evils should have no more power to divert us from the path which Christ
marks for us than storms or tossing of the ship have to deflect the
needle from pointing north.
It is easy to talk heroically when no foes are in sight; but Paul was
looking dangers in the eyes, and felt their breath on his cheeks when
he spoke. His longing was to 'fulfil his course.' 'With joy' is a
weakening addition. It was not 'joy,' but the discharge of duty, which
seemed to him infinitely desirable. What was aspiration at Miletus
became fact when, in his last Epistle, he wrote, 'I have finished my
course.'
In verses 25 to 27 the Apostle looks back as well as forward. His
anticipation that he was parting for ever from the Ephesian elders was
probably mistaken, but it naturally leads him to think of the long
ministry among them which was now, as he believed, closed. And his
retrospect was very different from what most of us, who are teachers,
feel that ours must be. It is a solemn thought that if we let either
cowardice or love of ease and the good opinion of men hold us back from
speaking out all that we know of God's truth, our hands are reddened
with the blood of souls.
We are all apt to get into grooves of favourite thoughts, and to teach
but part of the whole Gospel. If we do not seek to widen our minds to
take in, and our utterances to give forth, all the will of God as seen
by us, our limitations and repetitions will repel some from the truth,
who might have been won by a completer presentation of it, and their
blood will be required at our hands. None of us can reach to the
apprehension, in its full extent and due proportion of its parts, of
that great gospel; but we may at least seek to come nearer the ideal
completeness of a teacher, and try to remember that we are 'pure from
the blood of all men,' only when we have not 'shrunk from declaring all
God's counsel.' We are not required to know it completely, but we are
required not to shrink from declaring it as far as we know it.
Paul's purpose in this retrospect was not only to vindicate himself,
but to suggest to the elders their duty. Therefore he passes
immediately to exhortation to them, and a forecast of the future of the
Ephesian Church. 'Take heed to yourselves.' The care of one's own soul
comes first. He will be of little use to the Church whose own personal
religion is not kept warm and deep. All preachers and teachers and men
who influence their fellows need to lay to heart this exhortation,
especially in these days when calls to outward service are so
multiplied. The neglect of it undermines all real usefulness, and is a
worm gnawing at the roots of the vines.
We note also the condensed weightiness of the following exhortation, in
which solemn reasons are suggested for obeying it. The divine
appointment to office, the inclusion of the 'bishops' in the flock, the
divine ownership of the flock, and the cost of its purchase, are all
focussed on the one point, 'Take heed to all the flock.' Of course a
comparison with verse 17 shows that _elder_ and _bishop_ were two
designations for one officer; but the question of the primitive
organisation of church offices, important as it is, is less important
than the great thoughts as to the relation of the Church to God, and as
to the dear price at which men have been won to be truly His.
We note the reading in the Revised Version of v.28 (margin), 'the flock
of the Lord,' but do not discuss it. The chief thought of the verse is
that the Church is God's flock, and that the death of Jesus has bought
it for His, and that negligent under-shepherds are therefore guilty of
grievous sin.
The Apostle had premonitions of the future for the Church as well as
for himself, and the horizons were dark in both outlooks. He foresaw
evils from two quarters, for 'wolves' would come from without, and
perverse teachers would arise within, drawing the disciples after them
and away from the Lord. The simile of wolves may be an echo of Christ's
warning in Matthew vii 15. How sadly Paul's anticipations were
fulfilled the Epistle to the Church in Ephesus (Revelation ii.) shows
too clearly. Unslumbering alertness, as of a sentry in front of the
enemy, is needed if the slinking onset of the wolf is to be beaten
back. Paul points to his own example, and that in no vainglorious
spirit, but to stimulate and also to show how watchfulness is to be
carried out. It must be unceasing, patient, tenderly solicitous, and
grieving over the falls of others as over personal calamities. If there
were more such 'shepherds,' there would be fewer stray sheep.
Anxious forebodings and earnest exhortations naturally end in turning
to God and invoking His protecting care. The Apostle's heart runs over
in his last words (vs. 32-35). He falls back for himself, in the
prospect of having to cease his care of the Church, on the thought that
a better Guide will not leave it, and he would comfort the elders as
well as himself by the remembrance of God's power to keep them. So
Jacob, dying, said, 'I die, but God shall be with you.' So Moses,
dying, said, 'The Lord hath said unto me, thou shalt not go over this
Jordan. The Lord thy God, He will go before thee.' Not even Paul is
indispensable. The under-shepherds die, _the_ Shepherd lives, and
watches against wolves and dangers. Paul had laid the foundation, and
the edifice would not stand unfinished, like some half-reared palace
begun by a now dead king. The growth of the Church and of its
individual members is sure. It is wrought by God.
His instrument is 'the word of His grace.' Therefore if we would grow,
we must use that word. Christian progress is no more possible, if the
word of God is not our food, than is an infant's growth if it refuses
milk. That building up or growth or advance (for all three metaphors
are used, and mean the same thing) has but one natural end, the
entrance of each redeemed soul into its own allotment in the true land
of promise, the inheritance of those who are sanctified. If we
faithfully use that word which tells of and brings God's grace, that we
may grow thereby, He will bring us at last to dwell among those who
here have growingly been made saints. He is able to do these things. It
is for us to yield to His power, and to observe the conditions on which
it will work on us.
Even at the close Paul cannot refrain from personal references. He
points to his example of absolute disinterestedness, and with a
dramatic gesture holds out 'these hands' to show how they are hardened
by work. Such a warning against doing God's work for money would not
have been his last word, at a time when all hearts were strung up to
the highest pitch, unless the danger had been very real. And it is very
real to-day. If once the suspicion of being influenced by greed of gain
attaches to a Christian worker, his power ebbs away, and his words lose
weight and impetus.
It is that danger which Paul is thinking of when he tells the elders
that by 'labouring' they 'ought to support the weak'; for by _weak_ he
means not the poor, but those imperfect disciples who might be repelled
or made to stumble by the sight of greed in an elder. Shepherds who
obviously cared more for wool than for the sheep have done as much harm
as 'grievous wolves.'
Paul quotes an else unrecorded saying of Christ's which, like a
sovereign's seal, confirms the subject's words. It gathers into a
sentence the very essence of Christian morality. It reveals the inmost
secret of the blessedness of the giving God. It is foolishness and
paradox to the self-centred life of nature. It is blessedly true in the
experience of all who, having received the 'unspeakable gift,' have
thereby been enfranchised into the loftier life in which self is dead,
and to which it is delight, kindred with God's own blessedness, to
impart.