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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Acts 20:18 - 20:18
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Ye yourselves know (humeis epistasthe). Pronoun expressed and emphatic. He appeals to their personal knowledge of his life in Ephesus.
From the first day that (apo prōtēs hēmeras aph' hēs). “From first day from which.” He had first “set foot” (epebēn, second aorist active indicative of old verb epibainō, to step upon or step into) in Ephesus four years ago in the spring of 51 or 52, but had returned from Antioch that autumn. It is now spring of 54 or 55 so that his actual ministry in Ephesus was about two and a half years, roughly three years (Act 20:31).
After what manner I was with you (pōs meth' hūmōn egenomēn). Literally, “How I came (from Asia and so was) with you.” Cf. 1Th 1:5; 2Th 2:1-10 where Paul likewise dares to refer boldly to his life while with them “all the time” (ton panta chronon). Accusative of duration of time. So far as we know, Paul stuck to Ephesus the whole period. He had devoted himself consecratedly to the task in Ephesus. Each pastor is bishop of his field and has a golden opportunity to work it for Christ. One of the saddest things about the present situation is the restlessness of preachers to go elsewhere instead of devoting themselves wholly to the task where they are. 19.
Serving the Lord (douleuōn tōi kuriōi). It was Paul’s glory to be the doulos (bond-slave) as in Rom 1:1; Phi 1:1. Paul alone, save Jesus in Mat 6:24; Luk 16:13, uses douleuō six times for serving God (Page).
With all lowliness of mind (meta pasēs tapeinophrosunēs). Lightfoot notes that heathen writers use this word for a grovelling, abject state of mind, but Paul follows Christ in using it for humility, humble-mindedness that should mark every Christian and in particular the preacher.
With tears (dakruōn). Construed with meta. Paul was a man of the deepest emotion along with his high intellectuality. He mentions his tears again in Act 20:31, tears of sorrow and of anxiety. He refers to his tears in writing the sharp letter to the church in Corinth (2Co 2:4) and in denouncing the sensual apostates in Phi 3:18. Adolphe Monod has a wonderful sermon on the tears of Paul. Consider also the tears of Jesus.
Trials which befell me (peirasmōn tōn sumbantōn moi). Construed also with meta. Second aorist active participle of sunbain, to walk with, to go with, to come together, to happen, to befall. Very common in this sense in the old Greek (cf. Act 3:10).
By the plots of the Jews (en tais epiboulais tōn Ioudaiōn). Like the plot (epiboulē) against him in Corinth (Act 20:3) as well as the earlier trial before Gallio and the attacks in Thessalonica. In Act 19:9 Luke shows the hostile attitude of the Jews in Ephesus that drove Paul out of the synagogue to the school of Tyrannus. He does not describe in detail these “plots” which may easily be imagined from Paul’s own letters and may be even referred to in 1Co 4:10; 1Co 15:30.; 1Co 16:9; 2Co 1:4-10; 2Co 7:5; 2Co 11:23. In fact, one has only to dwell on the allusions in 2 Corinthians 11 to picture what Paul’s life was in Ephesus during these three years. Luke gives in Acts 19 the outbreak of Demetrius, but Paul had already fought with “wild-beasts” there.