Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own.
Paul has called the elders of the church at Ephesus down to Miletus, and this verse is the heart of his farewell charge. In one sentence he tells them who appointed them, what to do, and what the flock cost God.
The men Paul summoned in verse 17 are called elders; here he calls them overseers. That single fact settles a long argument about church order.
The Greek word episkopos is once translated "overseer," in Acts 20:28. This use proves that the "elders" and the "bishops" were the same. Paul called for the elders of the church at Ephesus, Acts 20:17, and called them "overseers." … Each city had more than one bishop or overseer, and at that time there was only one assembly in a city.
The order of the words matters. Paul does not begin with the work; he begins with the worker.
"Take heed therefore" — does that mean, be diligent in your work? No, it means "to yourselves." As he later wrote to Timothy, it is, first of all, "Take heed to yourself." This is the first responsibility. Neglecting it has left so many servants powerless, and has caused so many shipwrecks.
Two limits sit inside the phrase "all the flock." No one in the elder's own place is left out, and no one beyond it is added.
There might be, and in general were, several overseers. But the duty of the overseer is to take heed "to all the flock" where he lives. This matters all the more, because it humbles the spirit while it enlarges the heart… It works against the self-importance of "my people," and against the rivalry when one thinks of another and "his people." … Yet the elders had to do with all the flock where they lived, not elsewhere. Eldership was a local charge.
Human hands had a part in making these men elders. Yet Paul traces their appointment past every human hand.
No one could claim to be an elder unless he was properly appointed. This is admitted, and even pressed. Scripture is plain that no one could appoint except the apostles, or someone an apostle expressly commissioned for the task. … But once appointed, they could be described, as here, as men whom the Holy Spirit set as bishops or overseers. His sanction went with the apostle's choice.
Commentators differ on what this means for today. Some say the way of appointing elders has closed. On that view there can be no such elders now, "either in the source of their authority, or in the sphere of its exercise" (Morrish Bible Dictionary). Others hold that the Spirit's action continues:
It is only God the Holy Spirit who can make and appoint overseers over His flock and He still does so today.
Paul is careful to say whose sheep these are. Ownership changes how the work feels on both sides.
It is God's flock, not yours; and you are not to lord it over as if it were your own property. If it were your heritage, you would have certain rights. But the truth is that anyone who stands in the position of an elder carries a heavy responsibility. … When this is truly weighed, it makes a wonderful change in the mind, tone, and temper — a change both in those who tend the flock, and in those who are cared for.
The work itself falls into three parts. Elders take heed to their own walk and to the walk of God's people. They "feed the church of God," seeking "the welfare of their souls." And they "watch," guarding the flock from attacks outside and corruption within (Hamilton Smith).
The closing clause is the hardest phrase in the verse. Some translations read "the blood of His own," meaning the blood of God's own Son.
This puts not the least cloud over the truth that He who shed His blood for us was God. If the Saviour here was not God, His purchase would have only a creature's value. It would be nowhere near enough to win the assembly for God, as it was and as it is. Being a divine person, His gaining it to Himself by blood is infinitely and eternally effective.
That price sets the worth of every single person an overseer deals with.
How blessed to realize that every member of this great company has been "purchased" at such a cost! God Himself places infinite value on each one.
- His Spirit appoints. No one makes himself an overseer. Where an apostle appointed, the Holy Spirit's sanction went with the act.
- His servant watches himself first. "Pay careful attention to yourselves" comes before the flock. Neglect here has wrecked many a servant.
- His flock, not yours. The sheep belong to God. Oversight is a trust, never ownership, and it covers the whole flock in one place, not a favoured few.
- His blood sets the price. The price has infinite value because the One who shed the blood was God.
- His worth becomes your motive. Because each person cost God that much, the weight of the responsibility is the measure of the privilege.
[For] *I* know [this,] that there will come in amongst you after my departure grievous wolves, not sparing the flock;
Paul says goodbye to the Ephesian elders, and warns them in the same breath. Two questions follow. Who are these wolves? And what protects God's people once the apostle is gone?
Paul does not guess. He speaks as a man shown what is coming, and what he sees is damage, not growth.
Then he speaks as a prophet. He knows for certain that after he leaves this life, fierce wolves — heartless unbelievers — will get in among the flock and do great damage.
He promised no coming success:
He did not say, "You are going to have a big revival, everybody is going to be converted, and everybody is going to join the church." He said, "after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock."
Paul gives the elders a reason to feed the church: a wolf wants nothing good for the sheep.
Feed the church of God! ... Why do wolves come among the flock? They come to kill, to scatter, and to destroy — to damage the flock as much as possible.
The animal itself shows what "not sparing" means:
They are very destructive among the sheep, worrying and destroying more than they can eat. This makes the wolf a fit emblem of the wicked, who molest the sheep and lambs of God's flock, and even creep in among them.
These wolves "come in among you." They are not an army at the gate. They get inside, and they get inside by looking like they belong.
The wolf comes to the flock in sheep's clothing. He makes a fair profession, and it deceives the saints. So the Apostle Paul can warn us that after his departure wolves would come in among the saints, "not sparing the flock" (Matt. 7:15; Acts 20:29). The wolf cannot snatch the sheep out of the hand of the Shepherd, but he can seize and scatter the sheep.
Verse 29 and the verse after it are often read as one warning. Commentators differ: William Kelly holds that they describe two separate kinds of men.
Other commentators tell us that fierce wolves are not persecutors, but false friends — real enemies who come in among those who bear the name of the Lord and do not spare the flock. But those commentators are wrong to identify the fierce wolves with the men described in verse 30: "from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things." These are clearly two different classes of evil men. The first are more violent, the second more subtle. The first seek their own pleasure and gain. The second do the deadlier work of speaking twisted things to draw the disciples away after them. To use the flock for selfish ends is wicked; to put self and error in the place of Christ is worse still, though it looks more respectable.
Paul lived long enough to see the beginning of it. His own later letter records the collapse he had predicted.
In Paul's address to the Ephesian elders, sorrow at his own departure was mixed with a sadder warning of evil that would soon come to the church of God... And it began so soon, and spread so fast, that in his second letter to Timothy he writes of it as a well-known fact: "You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me."
What guards the flock now is God Himself, and food from His word.
The fierce wolves and the selfish, erring leaders are still with us, and we need to be on our guard against them. Paul points to the great safeguard against these evils: "I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up." God is more than a match for anything the enemy may bring against us. Depending on Him with constant watchfulness will keep us safe. But we need to be strengthened and built up by the word of His grace. If we rely on the word of men, we will be led astray. If we feed on the Word of God's grace, we will be able to resist every attack of the enemy.
The wolves do real damage, but they do not get the last word over a single sheep.
However great our failure may have been, and though fierce wolves may have come in among the Lord's people, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29), yet at last all His sheep will come home. Not one will be lost, and not one missing on that great day.
- Foreseen. Paul speaks as a prophet. He knows what follows his departure: not revival, but wolves.
- Ferocious. Wolves come to kill, scatter and destroy, destroying more than they can eat: that is "not sparing."
- Disguised. They come in among the flock in sheep's clothing, deceiving the saints by a fair profession.
- Twofold. Kelly divides the violent wolves of verse 29 from the subtler men of verse 30, who twist the truth to gain a following. Commentators differ on this.
- Guarded. Against both, Paul points to God and the word of His grace. It builds the flock up, and every sheep still reaches home.
and from among your own selves shall rise up men speaking perverted things to draw away the disciples after them.
Paul is warning the elders of the church at Ephesus. The next danger, he says, will not come from strangers but from men inside their own circle, who want a following of their own.
Paul had just warned of wolves coming in from outside. This second danger was already inside, and it worked the other way.
These would not "enter in" like the grievous wolves; they were already within the church. The wolf scatters. These men would seek to gather, but not around Christ. They wanted to gather followers around themselves. In doing so they would draw them away from simple loyalty to Christ.
Paul's phrase, "twisted things," appears in other translations as "perverted things." Commentators show how a small twist works.
The Darby translation gives, "speaking perverted things." There is an element of truth in it, but a clever twist perverts it. That again and again has taken place in the history of the church. This has happened even with men who may be elders. If self comes in, along with a desire to be first, there is a tendency to teach something very new with a little twist. Soon he becomes the leader of a kind of party in the church of God.
The effect of that twist is to move a believer's confidence from Scripture onto a man.
They would not directly deny the truths of Scripture. They would pervert them by giving them their own meaning. It was a different meaning from the one the apostles had taught the saints. This would throw their followers back on them, so that they would look to their leaders for teaching instead of to the word of God.
Paul was speaking to overseers. The danger would come out of that very group.
The very elders were to become a danger and an evil to themselves and to the disciples. Not they only, but they above all. Out of them the clergy (not gifted men) soon emerged, unknown while the apostles lived. Had the word of Christ dwelt in the saints richly, such a change could not have happened. People looked to man, and the word of God's grace became more slighted, forgotten, and powerless.
Commentators see two halves of one process.
The evil here is the reverse of what the Apostle speaks of in Acts 20:30. There he warned the Ephesian elders that trouble would come from leaders. Here he says it comes from disciples… One evil leads to the other. It begins with Christians forming parties around leaders. It ends with those leaders teaching perverse things. This principle showed itself at Corinth, and it has been at work through the whole history of the church with the same sad results.
The men Paul describes may not be frauds at all. That is what makes the warning so serious.
These men may well be true believers, but they give a twist to their teaching, and that twist perverts the truth… They attract people to themselves instead of leading them to Christ. In these words Paul sketched the future of what we know as Christendom.
Commentators draw a practical conclusion from this.
Perhaps this is why Scripture gives no instruction about continuing the office of elder in an official way beyond the apostle's lifetime… In the case of men speaking perverted things, an official appointment would only give approval to what is wrong.
Paul did not point the elders to the church's judgment. He did not tell them to stay neutral about false teaching. He gave them something outside any man.
He does not speak of the teaching of the church as a reliable guide. He does not hint at "neutrality" about the perverse things spoken. The word is to test everything. It is to be the unfailing guide of the sheep when those who ought to lead the flock go astray themselves.
This gives a plain test for any teacher. It mentions the Bereans — hearers who checked what they were told against Scripture.
A teacher who comes from God will always point his hearers to Christ. He will rest them on God's unerring word as the sure resting place for the soul. When someone speaks the truth, true believers will receive it "with all eagerness," like the Bereans. But they will also search the Scriptures to confirm what they have heard (Acts 17:11). The faithful teacher will always want his hearers to test what he has said by the authoritative words of Holy Scripture.
- Inside, not outside. The wolves break in; these men were already there. One danger scatters the flock, the other collects it — around the wrong centre.
- A twist, not a denial. "Twisted things" are truths given a man's own meaning. The error keeps enough truth in it to convince.
- The pull is toward self. The aim is a following. A teacher sent by God points people to Christ and to Scripture. These men point people to themselves.
- It starts both ways. Leaders twist the truth; followers crowd around favourites. Each feeds the other, as Corinth showed.
- The word is the test. Paul's resource was not the church's verdict or its silence. It was God and the word of His grace — the guide that holds when leaders fail.
Wherefore watch, remembering that for three years, night and day, I ceased not admonishing each one [of you] with tears.
Paul has just warned the leaders at Ephesus that wolves will come in from outside and that false teachers will rise from among themselves. He leaves them no plan and no successor — only a command to stay awake, and the memory of three years of his own tears.
The verse holds two duties that need each other. Watching without memory has nothing to fight with. Memory without watching sees the danger too late.
So he presses two things on their consciences — "watch and remember." We must be alert to recognize danger when it raises its head, so that we can deal with it properly. We must also not forget the truth we have learned in the past, by which to meet such things. In this case Paul had spent three years instructing and warning the saints. Today we have no less help in his writings, which are as urgent as his tears were.
Warning was a duty the elders might have preferred to avoid. Few people welcome it, and the servant who gives it must be content with one opinion of his work.
What then were these elders to do in view of the evil days? They were to copy Paul's example. For three years he had never stopped warning every one, night and day, with tears. So they were to labour with all earnestness to walk in his steps. Such a ministry might not be acceptable. The people of God, like Israel of old, prefer those who prophesy "smooth things." But faithfulness to his Lord alone must govern the path of the true servant. His Lord's approval must be enough to encourage him.
The words "every one" point past public teaching. Paul reached people one at a time, and feeding them was only half of his care.
"I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears," he says. Plainly he did this one by one. What a watchful pastor he was! He not only fed the flock, but warned them of the dangers that threatened them. There would be little use in feeding sheep if wolves ate them the next moment. The apostle warned the saints at Ephesus of what was coming in. Now we are in the middle of it, so the need to warn is greater still. Note the apostle's words: "did not cease," "night or day," "with tears."
Count the time in days instead of years, and see how far his care reached.
For over a thousand days, all counted — surely counted in heaven too — he admonishes each one, with tears. No favouritism, but genuinely deep feeling that each believer should be held by and in the truth.
Tears are the detail Paul chooses to make them remember. They were not the mark of a man defending a cause or a position.
"Therefore be alert," says the apostle to the elders, "remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears." Necessity drew this little glimpse out of the apostle's heart. It lets us see his complete devotion. It was not business, nor even the spread of truth, still less the prevailing of his own opinions for good. It was one who loved Christ, and pressed this devotion to Him and to His own above all on those who took the lead. Tireless, tender, watchful care filled his heart. He cared with the deepest feeling, always and at any cost. He would have us feel the same, as well as those he addressed that day. Who is able for these things? The ability is in and from God.
Guarding the flock against its enemies is part of an elder's work. One writer asks whether the warning side of it still happens.
They were to watch and be on their guard against the adversaries, remembering how Paul himself had warned them with deep feeling for three years. Is it not a fact that this ministry of warning has almost lapsed through disuse?
Paul's tears test us too, and they were no sign of weakness.
He was no weakling nor a sentimental girl, whose tears come easily and dry as easily. He was a strong man, and his tears were manly. They revealed the depth of his sympathies. Have we ever shed one tear over perishing souls? Do we really care for the straying sheep, or grieve over the fierce wolves that get in among the flock, doing deadly damage?
- Watch. Danger from outside and inside is coming, so alertness is the first duty of anyone caring for God's people.
- Remember. No new strategy guards the flock. The truth already taught does, and Paul's writings now carry the urgency his tears once did.
- Every one. He warned people one by one, night and day. Feeding without warning leaves the sheep fed and then eaten.
- With tears. The tears rose from love for Christ, not from ambition or the defence of opinions. They marked a strong man, not a soft one.
- Copy it. The elders were to walk in the same steps, even though warning is unpopular. One writer notes this ministry has nearly fallen out of use.