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.