And having passed through those parts, and having exhorted them with much discourse, he came to Greece.
Luke gives nearly a year of Paul's life a single line. Paul walks back through Macedonia, strengthens the believers there, and arrives in Greece. Behind it lie months of travel, letters we still read today, and deep strain of heart.
"Those regions" and "Greece" are not vague names. They cover towns where Paul had already preached, and he had already written letters to some of them.
We are not told how long he spent in Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea, but he gave them much encouragement. This of course took place well after his second letter to the Thessalonians. Luke was clearly there too, and joined Paul's party when he left. We are not told which places he may have visited in Greece (or Achaia): we know only of an assembly at Corinth. This visit also came after his second letter to the Corinthians.
Luke's record here is very short. Paul's own letters fill in what he leaves out.
The historian is very brief in his record of what Paul did at this time. He packs all his information into these words: "He said farewell and departed for Macedonia. When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. There he spent three months." Most take these few words to cover a period of nine or ten months. Happily, the apostle's letters supply what is missing. The letters written on this journey give us many historical details. Better still, they give us from his own pen a living picture of the deep and painful struggles of mind and heart he was going through at the time.
Paul went back to people who already believed. One writer sees in that care the clearest difference between those early days and our own.
This passage, like many others in Scripture, shows us the joints and ligaments that held the saints together so well in the days of the apostles, keeping them in unity, fellowship, and love. There was no lack of missionary zeal. But the Spirit of God also worked much in the exhortation and encouragement of the saints. This is how the body of Christ was built up. Here is where we see the clearest contrast between our own times and those earliest days. Keeping converts from turning aside is usually the most that anyone attempts now. Zeal usually goes out towards the conversion of sinners... Growth in the truth is rare, and almost unknown even among the teachers, let alone the converts.
The care shown in these visits was not only spoken.
In these early days we see the opposite: the greatest care and zeal in going back to visit those who had already been brought to God and gathered to the name of Jesus. And it was not only by spoken teaching. A new and distinctive kind of Christian teaching, which took shape in the letters of the apostles, was now fully at work. No form of writing allows greater openness and closeness; none gives such room for the affections of the heart.
Paul encouraged others while he waited for news from Corinth. His fellow worker Titus carried that news, and Paul's own words show the strain.
At last the long-awaited Titus arrived in Macedonia, probably at Philippi. Now Paul's mind is at rest and his heart is comforted. Titus brings him better news from Corinth than he had expected to hear... "For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn — fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus."
Those three months in Greece produced one of the great letters of the New Testament. They also show God overruling a plan Paul had held for years.
It was during the three months spent there that he wrote the Epistle to the Romans. He had long wanted to visit Rome in person, but so far he could not. Urgent duties kept him elsewhere, and God purposed that His servant should enter Rome only as a prisoner. This is not how even the apostle would have arranged things, and still less the saints. It is good, however, to learn and accept God's profound wisdom in all these dealings of His.
- Silence — One sentence covers about nine or ten months. What Luke leaves out, Paul's own letters supply.
- Strengthening — Paul went back to believers he had already won. Building them up is how the body of Christ was built.
- Writing — The visits were not only spoken. The letters of the apostles were now fully at work, with an openness and closeness no other writing allows.
- Suffering — He encouraged others while he had no rest himself. There was conflict outside and fear inside, until God comforted him by sending Titus.
- Sovereignty — Those three months in Greece produced the letter to the Romans. God also kept His servant from reaching Rome except as a prisoner.
And having spent three months [there], a treacherous plot against him having been set on foot by the Jews, as he was going to sail to Syria, [the] resolution was adopted of returning through Macedonia.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.