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.
And now I commit you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build [you] up and give [to you] an inheritance among all the sanctified.
Paul is saying goodbye to the elders at Ephesus, and he has just warned them of fierce wolves coming once he is gone. So he leaves them not with a plan, a structure or a person, but with God Himself and the word of His grace.
Notice the long list of things Paul does not name.
He does not commend them to any group of men. Not to apostles or their successors. Not to general councils and their decrees. Not to church fathers and their traditions. Not to teachers and their dogmas. None of these would be any help against the "fierce wolves" that were about to come in among them, or against the "twisted things" that some of their own number would say. Nothing but God Himself and the word of His grace could stand in an evil day, or keep a soul standing.
He could not even hand them over to their own leaders, since the trouble would come out of that very circle.
He did not commend them to the other apostles. He could not commend them to the elders either, for he was speaking to elders, and men who would cause trouble were going to come from among them. God, and God alone, is the resource of His people.
Why point them to the word instead of to men who would come after him?
In the same way, Paul commends the believers at Ephesus to God, and to the word of His grace, which was able to build them up. Why did he do this? He knew that after he left, fierce wolves would come in among them and not spare the flock. So he commended them to the word of God's grace, and not to apostles who would follow him.
Paul names two things, and commentators stress that neither works alone.
He commends them not to one only, but to both. Without God before the heart, the word becomes dry and lifeless, and we grow discouraged and impatient. Without the word to direct our life, we are in danger from the will and wisdom of man, or from his folly.
The same writer describes what happens when the two are split apart in practice:
When the word leads you out in prayer to God, you have neither the word without prayer, nor prayer without the word. Both of those habits are very dangerous. One leads to rationalism, the other to fanaticism.
The phrase marks a contrast. God once made demands of men; now He speaks in Christ.
In the past He spoke through Moses, as recorded in the Old Testament. That was the word of His demand on men. Now He has spoken in Christ, as recorded in the New Testament, and that is the word of His grace.
Nothing else can do this work, because building up depends on truth, not on skill.
Bold thinking and beautiful language are all worthless if the truth is not there. And the truth is never so sure, so strong and so holy as in His own word, which is truth. This searches the conscience. This strengthens the heart. This feeds faith, and it makes the blessed hope full and strong in the love which is the strength of all that is good.
Some have asked whether it is God or the word that is able to build up.
In Acts 20:32, should it read "which is able", or "Who is able", to build you up? Comparison with 2 Timothy 3:15 strengthens the first reading.
God's word does more than keep believers safe.
This is our only real protection. It is also the vital means of building up believers, and of giving an inheritance among all those who are sanctified — that is, set apart to God from everything that is against His Word and will.
This inheritance is not something we are still waiting for.
The inheritance is ours by faith in Christ (see Acts 26:18), but the word of His grace gives it to us in present power.
What Paul left the Ephesians has not shrunk with time.
It was able to build them up and give them an inheritance among the sanctified; it is still able to give the soul today a portion as large as ever. We have no limit except the one we make for ourselves. Why make it?
- Danger — Fierce wolves were coming, and men who twist the truth would rise from inside the eldership itself. Paul saw it before it happened.
- Handover — Paul named no successor. He handed them to God and to the word of His grace, not to apostles, councils, traditions or dogmas.
- Pairing — Hold both together. Without God in view the word goes dry; without the word, human will and folly take over.
- Grace — Moses carried God's demand on men; the word of His grace is God speaking in Christ, and this is what builds up.
- Inheritance — Our place among those set apart for God is already ours by faith. The word gives it to us in present power — a portion as large as ever, limited only by us.