how I held back nothing of what is profitable, so as not to announce [it] to you, and to teach you publicly and in every house,
Paul is giving the elders of Ephesus a last account of how he worked among them. Two claims stand out: he held back nothing useful, and he taught in two settings — in public and in people's homes.
Holding nothing back has a cost. One writer names what it takes.
Further, he could say that they knew how he kept back nothing that was profitable. This needs faith, and without faith, faithfulness will fail. The apostle was completely above the fear of man. He withheld nothing that was for their good. He announced it to them and taught them publicly and in their houses, testifying to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
So what counts as profitable? One writer says the apostle owed his hearers everything he had received — and that every truth needs its right place.
The apostle knew very well that what he received he had to pass on; he was a steward "of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor. 4:1). He later wrote to this very assembly a letter that unfolds the highest truth, and that subject was no doubt part of his spoken teaching. So he counted it, no less than the other parts of revelation, profitable to his hearers. The fact is, under the Spirit's guidance, it is impossible to turn to any part of revealed truth that is not profitable. "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable," the same writer says in another letter (2 Tim. 3:16). There is need to emphasise that word all. No doubt there are chapters in God's word — as well as doctrines — of special importance, but the point to keep in mind is that all are necessary. We would think a face sadly deformed if any feature were missing. Giving the other features extra prominence would not make up for it; and so not only should every truth find a place, but its right place, and that in proper proportion.
Paul limits his claim to what was profitable. One writer draws out what that implies.
He kept back no ministry that was profitable, which means that he did keep back what was unprofitable. That is a further example to follow honestly. From house to house and publicly, to the few or the many, he had the good and the profit of all at heart.
Two verbs are used, not one, and commentators read the first differently. One takes "showed" as demonstration that then has to be driven home:
He was not content with showing; he explained and enforced what he had shown. A teacher may fully understand a mathematical problem and be able to work it out on the blackboard. Passing that knowledge on to his pupils is another thing. Now this is what the apostle, the "teacher of the Gentiles," sought to do... To this end the apostle, not content with public ministry, went from house to house. He no doubt found on his visits that much he had said in his public address had not been grasped. Are we not often surprised, when we question our hearers, to find how little they have retained?
Another writer takes the showing as the life Paul lived in front of them.
We only teach effectively if our own lives match what we say. The apostle Paul illustrated this well. He referred to it twice when speaking to the elders of Ephesus: "I have showed you, and have taught you," and again, "I have showed you all things" (Acts 20:20, 35). He illustrated in his life what he taught with his mouth. This is the effective way of teaching, in Paul's day or in ours.
The verse names two settings, and one writer sees two kinds of work joined in one man.
The teacher unfolds truth; the pastor applies it. The teacher enlightens the understanding; the pastor looks to the state of the heart. The teacher supplies the spiritual food; the pastor sees what use is made of it. The teacher's work is mostly public; the pastor's work is mostly private. When the two are joined in one person, the teaching gift gives the pastor immense moral power. The pastoral element gives the teacher a tender affection.
The same writer notes which half tends to be dropped, and what is lost with it.
A man may perhaps give us a short address on the Lord's day, or a lecture on a weekday; but where is the "house to house" side of the question? Where is the close, earnest, diligent looking after individual souls day by day? Very often the public teaching shoots completely over the head; it is the house to house teaching that is sure to come home to the heart. How often something said in public is entirely misunderstood and misapplied, until the loving pastoral visit during the week supplies the true meaning and the right application.
For one writer, private visiting is not the lesser half. It is what keeps public ministry sound.
I think the visiting part quite as important, if not the most important part of the work: it is said, "publicly, and from house to house."... The clock strikes the hours, and that serves the passers-by. But the works inside make the good clock, and make the striking and the hands right. I think it should be your main work; indeed, I do not believe anyone can minister well without it. The springs of love, and the use and application of doctrine, are fed there; minds are understood. Otherwise we are apt to get essays, theories or thoughts... I dread much public testimony, and altogether so, if there is no private work.
- Faith first. Holding nothing back takes faith. Without faith, the fear of people wins.
- All is profitable. Every part of revealed truth is useful. Each truth needs its right place and proportion; what a servant holds back is the unprofitable.
- Show, then teach. Showing is not enough. The truth has to be explained, pressed home, and matched by the teacher's own life.
- Two settings, two gifts. Public teaching unfolds the truth; house-to-house work applies it to the individual heart. Much of a public address is not grasped until a visit follows it up.
- Inside the clock. Private work feeds public ministry. Without visiting we get essays and theories; the works inside make the striking right.
testifying to both Jews and Greeks repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul is saying goodbye to the leaders of the church at Ephesus. He sums up everything he preached among them in two words: repentance and faith. What is repentance? Why does it point to God, while faith points to Christ? And does one come before the other?
Paul names two groups. One writer notes how that message would land on the first of them:
The Jew would strongly resent that message. He would say it was obvious that the Greek should be told to repent, but to come and tell them, the people of God, to repent was very objectionable. But Paul calmly and plainly told the truth of God in both directions.
Repentance is not what many people assume. One writer clears away the wrong ideas, then defines it and explains the word "toward":
It is not a mere change of mind on certain points (this would confuse it with faith); for the Lord preached, "Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). It is not simply a conviction of having done wrong; for when the crowd were cut to the heart, Peter urged them to repentance (Acts 2:38). It is not sorrow for sin, for "godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret" (2 Cor. 7:10)… But it is a change of mind, a judgment of self, of one's ways and sins, shown by a changed life. It is God's gift; the risen and ascended Christ gives it (Acts 5:31)… It gives God His right place in the conscience of His creature, so it is "toward God."
Why is repentance directed one way and faith another? The answer lies in two different needs. The name Paul uses matters too:
It is against God we have sinned, and it is He who has passed judgment on our sins. So when we are convicted of our guilt, it is to Him we turn with confession and self-judgment. In this state our one need is to learn the way of salvation, just as the jailer, conscience-stricken, ran to Paul and Silas and cried, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They answered by presenting Christ… But they used the full title — the Lord Jesus Christ. That shows they preached a full gospel: the gospel about His person, His death and resurrection, and His present exaltation as Lord at the right hand of God.
The verse names two things. Where God is at work, each one guarantees the other:
Repentance and faith are inseparable where there is reality… As there is no genuine repentance without faith, so there is no faith of God's elect without repentance. Repentance toward God is the soul judging itself and confessing its ways as in His sight. Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is the soul receiving the good news God sends concerning His Son.
Does the order of the words set an order of events? One writer says repentance cannot come first:
But people badly abuse that sentence (Acts 20:21), putting repentance before faith. If it means faith in the full efficacy of Christ's work, then of course it can and will come after repentance. Repentance cannot go before faith. When a man brings a testimony, it produces no effect unless people believe it.
Two opposite errors twist this verse. Neither one is of God:
The low views which make repentance a human work as a preface to faith are no less objectionable than the so-called high views which merge everything in faith, making repentance no more than a change of mind. Neither legalism nor antinomianism is of God, but the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ.
If both must be present, must they be equally strong? The answer is no. Here is what repentance sounds like when it speaks:
Peter repented when he said, in the presence of the Lord, "I am a sinful man." The tax collector repented when he said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" The prodigal repented when he said in the presence of the father, "I have sinned against heaven and before you." The thief repented when he said, "We are receiving the due reward of our deeds." There may be different measures of repentance, just as there are different measures of faith… but wherever there is a work of God in the soul, these two things will be found.
- Same message. Paul told Jews and Greeks the same two things. The religious hearer needed to repent as much as the Greek did.
- Repentance is Godward. Not regret, not sorrow, not a mere shift of opinion — it is self-judgment that gives God His right place in the conscience.
- Faith is Christward. Once we turn to God in confession, our one need is the way of salvation. The answer is a person: the Lord Jesus Christ, in His death, resurrection and present exaltation.
- Never separated. No genuine repentance exists without faith, and no faith without repentance. Repentance cannot come first, since a message nobody believes does nothing.
- Real, not uniform. The depth varies from soul to soul, yet where God works, both are always there.
And now, behold, bound in my spirit *I* go to Jerusalem, not knowing what things shall happen to me in it;
Paul's farewell to the Ephesian elders turns from his past work among them to the road ahead. He is going to Jerusalem, held by something he cannot shake off. Two questions follow. What was binding him? And how could he be so sure of the destination while knowing nothing of what waited there?
The phrase behind "constrained by the Spirit" can be read two ways, and translations still divide over it. One writer weighs the older reading against the usual sense of the words.
Some of the older writers take the phrase to mean that Paul went "led captive by the Spirit." But the usual sense of the words, and the way the following verses say "the Holy Spirit" instead, both point to his own spirit. Paul was not free in his spirit for any other direction than Jerusalem, whatever it might cost.
Reading it as Paul's own spirit does not leave God out of the story. It changes how He is at work in it.
Paul (Acts 20:22) was not, I believe, bound "in the Spirit," but in spirit, his own. It was the overruling hand of God upon him, not the actual guidance of the Spirit of God. God so ordered it for His own divine purposes. Morally, Paul was not going for testimony; he was going with the collections for the saints.
If it was his own spirit, something had gripped it. One writer traces that grip to Paul's love for his own people, and to the words he wrote about them to the Romans.
Behind his burning desire to go up to Jerusalem stood the mighty constraint of love for his own beloved people. His heart, filled with the love of God, yearned over them. He expresses this love so fully in his letter to the Romans. "I am speaking the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit — that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Romans 9:1-3).
The verb itself carries a shadow. One writer sets Paul's tone here beside his tone elsewhere, and hears the difference.
He is going to Jerusalem, bound in spirit. Surely this is not the Holy Spirit, since the word he uses could not apply to Him. Nor does it speak of the sweet and happy constraint of love, though love is in it — deep and constraining love. But along with that love there is certainly a foreboding which casts a shadow over him. The word "bound" reminds us of a sacrifice tied for the altar. Yet if that were all, and he felt the Lord was leading him this way, his spirit would be brighter. Contrast his words to the Philippians. There he writes: "Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all" (Philippians 2:17).
Paul had been warned, and more than once. What he did with the warning is the question.
The apostle had no lack of warning. He said so himself to the elders from Ephesus: the Holy Spirit testified to him in every city that chains and afflictions were waiting for him. Yet he clearly treated this as a note of the danger ahead, not as personal direction he had to obey. His mind was made up. Whatever the danger, whatever the suffering, he would go through with it.
Even those who question the journey refuse to belittle the man who made it.
But none of these things could move him from his purpose. His devotedness itself is precious, though we may question if it was rightly directed on this occasion.
The chains came, exactly as forecast. So did something no one forecast.
Still, God was in it all. During these very bonds Paul wrote the letters which give us — as we are glad to know — the fullest and brightest light of Christ and on heavenly things ever given for the lasting instruction and comfort of the saints of God.
- Bound — most writers here read it as Paul's own spirit, not the Holy Spirit. Some earlier writers read it the other way, and translations still differ.
- By love — his longing for his own people tied his spirit. That same longing made him wish himself cut off from Christ for their sake.
- With a shadow — "bound" carries foreboding. It lacks the brightness he shows in Philippians, where he speaks of being poured out as an offering.
- Past warning — the Spirit's testimony in every city told him the cost. He went with his eyes open, treating it as danger to face, not a route to change.
- Under God's hand — the chains came as promised. Out of them came the letters that give the church its clearest light on Christ.
only that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and tribulations await me.
Paul is saying goodbye to the elders of the church at Ephesus, and he does not know what waits for him in Jerusalem. He knows only what the Holy Spirit keeps telling him in city after city: chains and hardship.
The verse just before this says Paul went "constrained by the Spirit." Which spirit is meant? One writer answers by looking at what was pushing him to Jerusalem.
When he speaks of going "bound in the spirit" to Jerusalem, it is his own spirit he is speaking of, not the Spirit of God. His love for Israel was so deep and so real that it urged him forward. He went despite warnings from the Holy Spirit "in every city" that going there would end in imprisonment and suffering. Notice that he fully believes that it was the Holy Spirit who was giving these warnings.
The wording of the two verses points the same way.
Normal usage, and the separate naming of "the Holy Spirit" in the verses that follow, point to his own spirit... Paul was not free in his spirit to go in any direction but Jerusalem, whatever it might cost.
Paul did not know the shape of what was coming, only its character. One writer traces both the cost of it and what God did with it.
He did not know the exact shape of what was coming. Still, he lets them know that he went in with open eyes to the weight of trouble ahead. That trouble paused only for a short time, and then it all ended in a martyr's death. He knew as well that, whatever the end might be, chains and hardships came first. To a heart that loved the church, what could be more serious for the testimony of the Lord and for the saints? Yet God was in it all. During these very chains Paul wrote the letters that give the fullest and brightest light on Christ and on heavenly things ever given. And we are glad to know it: that light was given for the lasting teaching and comfort of God's saints.
Commentators differ here. Some point to how Paul himself took the testimony: as news about the road, not as an order to change route.
Certainly the apostle did not lack warning, as he said himself to the elders from Ephesus... But he clearly took it as a note of the danger waiting for him, not as a personal order he had to obey. He had made up his own mind to go through with it, whatever the danger and whatever the suffering. The Master had done the same, in a perfection no one can match, for His infinite work, at any cost.
Others find the repeated warnings unusual. Even so, they do not conclude that Paul was outside God's will.
The Holy Spirit does not usually warn of danger. He leads in the path of the Lord, and if persecution comes, He gives strength to endure it. Here the warnings came to Paul again and again. His friends beg him not to go up. Nothing changes his mind. They fall silent, far from satisfied, and say, "The will of the Lord be done." I do not doubt that it was His will. But it was His will in order to work out purposes Paul did not know through the understanding the Holy Spirit gives. He only felt pressed in spirit to go, and ready to suffer all things for the Lord.
Kelly goes further elsewhere. He holds that Paul went past a warning from God — and then he turns the lesson away from Paul and onto us.
He had gone where God had warned him not to go. And if this is true of him, what shall we say of ourselves? Do not allow your lips to say strong things about the apostle Paul; but let your own conscience, and let mine, take heed to our own ways, and above all beware of this — that we are not found slighting one word that comes to us from the Holy Spirit. Let us weigh and treasure every expression of God's mind.
Whatever the warnings meant, Paul's own answer to them was settled devotion.
"Now," he has to add, "the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me." There was more trouble for the pattern servant, but he says, "None of these things move me." He was a man of extraordinary steadiness and faith... Here was a man devoted to death for the name and the service of the Lord.
- Bound — What pushed Paul to Jerusalem was his own spirit, moved by love for Israel. The voice naming chains and hardship was the Holy Spirit's.
- Warned — He believed the warnings came from God. He took them as news of what the road held, not as a fence across it.
- Disputed — Commentators differ on whether he read them rightly. Some see a servant walking into the cost with open eyes. Others see a check he pressed past.
- Weighed — The best use of the passage is not to judge Paul. It is to watch our own ways and never brush aside a word from the Spirit.
- Fruitful — God was in the chains. Out of that prison came the letters that give the brightest light on Christ and heavenly things the saints have ever received.
But I make no account of [my] life [as] dear to myself, so that I finish my course, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the glad tidings of the grace of God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom [of God], shall see my face no more.
Paul is saying goodbye to the elders of the church at Ephesus. In one sentence he tells them they will never see him again, and names the one theme of all his years with them: the kingdom.
One commentator notes that the manuscripts differ over how this verse names what Paul preached.
It is his farewell. His work, as far as being present among them, was ended. The best and oldest manuscripts and versions, apart from the Vulgate and others, read simply "the kingdom." Others add "of God," which is meant even if not expressed; others "of Jesus," and "of the Lord Jesus."
One writer reads this parting as the close of Paul's public work, with lasting effects on the church he left behind.
Solemn departure, the end of the apostle's public work. He speaks of it as a finished work. He announces that from now on, because he is gone, evil would prevail in the outward assembly of God on the earth. But he assures the faithful that God and the word of His grace would be enough to build them up and give them an inheritance among those who are sanctified.
Paul preached grace, and one writer notes he pressed the Lord's authority just as firmly.
Though Paul emphasised the gospel of the grace of God, he insisted just as much on the authority of the Lord Jesus. That authority belongs to the kingdom of God. And that kingdom has an important present aspect that we cannot ignore. Now he tells the Ephesian elders that he knows they will not see his face again. That fact gives more solemn weight to his message for them.
Paul names one theme for all his work among them. One writer argues that this theme has dropped out of much preaching since.
Here we have another and distinct topic, one that modern preaching easily overlooks — "the kingdom." Anyone who examines the Acts of the Apostles will find how large a place it holds in the preaching, not of Peter only but of Paul. We may be sure it filled the preaching of all the other servants of the Lord in those early days. It is a grave blank where the kingdom is left out as it is now. Unfaithful preachers today rob the saints of the future as God has planned it. And the gospel of God's grace suffers by it too.
Commentators differ on which kingdom Paul was announcing. One writer, asked which he meant, ruled out the options put to him and pointed to what is still to come.
Neither, as I believe. It is that coming intervention of God to change the heavens and the earth. The Lord will start and establish it when He comes in visible power and glory, to the joy of all the earth, of Israel and all the nations… Neither the gospel nor the church wiped out the apostle's value for this grand truth. That truth has faded from the testimony of many who were once zealous.
Another writer holds that Paul was not pointing only to the future.
This clearly has a present bearing. When he spoke of the things to come, no doubt he spoke of the kingdom that will one day be set up for all to see. But he also kept before them that in receiving Christ as Lord they had already come under the authority of God. He showed them what it meant in practice to be subject to God's holy will.
The kingdom is not the starting point. It follows what he has just said about the gospel of the grace of God.
If we are to learn the truth of God, we must first receive the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24). Grace having met our deep need, our souls are then helped on by the preaching of the kingdom of God (Acts 20:25). We learn that God has marked out our course down here under the authority of His dear Son. As we live in subjection to the Lord Jesus, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit mark all our ways.
- Farewell. Paul's work among them was finished. His absence would let evil spread, yet God and the word of His grace would still build them up.
- Weight. He will never speak to them again, so every word of this charge carries added weight.
- Kingdom. Paul sums up his whole ministry among them in one word: the kingdom. It fills the book of Acts. One writer warns that dropping it leaves "a grave blank."
- Two readings. Commentators differ. One takes the kingdom here as God's coming intervention in visible glory. Another sees the present authority of Christ over His people.
- Order. Grace first meets our need; the kingdom then teaches us to live under the authority of God's Son.