Acts 20:26

Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. WHEREFORE I TAKE YOU TO RECORD THIS DAY, THAT I AM PURE FROM THE BLOOD OF ALL MEN - a deeply solemn way of expressing conscious freedom from guilt, in respect both of the subjects brought before them and the faithfulness with which these were pressed upon them. (See ; and compare ; ; Ezekiel 3:17; Ezekiel 33:8....

− 26._Wherefore I take you to record. _It is all one as if he had said, I call you to witness, or I call you to bear witness before God and his angels. And this doth he not so much for his own cause, as that he may prescribe unto them their duty with greater authority. Furthermore, this place containeth a brief sum of teaching rightly and well, and it exhorteth the teachers themselves, vehemently and sharply, that they be diligent in their function. What order must pastors then keep in teaching? First, let them not esteem at their pleasure what is profitable to be uttered and what to be omitted; but let them leave that to God alone to be ordered at his pleasure. So shall it come to pass that the inventions of men shall have none entrance into the Church of God. Again, mortal man shall not be so bold as to mangle the Scripture and to pull it in pieces, that he may diminish − (431) this or...

17-27 The elders knew that Paul was no designing, self-seeking man. Those who would in any office serve the Lord acceptably, and profitably to others, must do it with humility. He was a plain preacher, one that spoke his message so as to be understood. He was a powerful preacher; he preached the gospel as a testimony to them if they received it; but as a testimony against them if they rejected it. He was a profitable preacher; one that aimed to inform their judgments, and reform their hearts and lives. He was a painful preacher, very industrious in his work. He was a faithful preacher; he did not keep back reproofs when necessary, nor keep back the preaching of the cross. He was a truly Christian, evangelical preacher; he did not preach notions or doubtful matters; nor affairs of state or the civil government; but he preached faith and repentance. A better summary of these things, witho...

Verse Acts 20:26. _I_ AM _PURE FROM THE BLOOD OF ALL_] If any man, _Jew_ or _Gentile_, perish in his sins, his blood shall be upon him; he, alone, shall be accessary to his own perdition. I am blameless, because I have fully shown to both the way to escape from every evil....

WHEREFORE - In view of the past, of my ministry and labors among you, I appeal to your own selves to testify that I have been faithful. I TAKE YOU TO RECORD - Greek: I call you to witness. If any of you are lost; if you prove unfaithful to God, I appeal to yourselves that the fault is not mine. It is well when a minister can make this appeal, and call his hearers to bear testimony to his own faithfulness. Ministers who preach the gospel with fidelity may thus appeal to their hearers; and in the day of judgment may call on themselves to witness that the fault of the ruin of the soul is not to be charged to them. THAT I AM PURE - I am not to be charged with the guilt of your condemnation, as owing to my unfaithfulness. This does not mean that he set up a claim to absolute perfection; but that, in the matter under consideration, he had a conscience void of offenc

EXPOSITION ACTS 20:1 _Having sent for_ …_ and exhorted _for _called unto him, _A.V. and T.R.; _took leave of them, and departed _for _and embraced them, and departed, _A.V. DEPARTED FOR TO GO INTO MACEDONIA. This was St. Paul's purpose, as he had written to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 16:5) from Ephesus. He judged it wise, not only with a view to his own safety and that of his companions, but also for the rest and quiet of the Ephesian Church, to take advantage of the lull in the popular storm, and withdraw into quiet waters before any fresh outbreak occurred. Aquila and Priscilla seem to have left Ephesus about the same time, or soon after, since the Epistle to the Romans found them again at Rome ...

WHEREFORE I TAKE YOU TO RECORD THIS DAY,.... This is a solemn appeal to the elders of the church at Ephesus, who knew his doctrine and manner of life for a considerable time among them: THAT I AM PURE FROM THE BLOOD OF ALL MEN: or "of you all", as some copies, and the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read; which seems most natural, since they could only bear a testimony for him with respect to themselves, and the people at Ephesus, where he had so behaved both in the faithful discharge of his ministry, and in his exemplary life and conversation; as that the ruin and destruction of no one of them could be laid to his charge, or any one perish for want of knowledge, or through any negligence of his; see Ezekiel 33:6....

CHAPTER 20 __ 1. Paul in Macedonia (Acts 20:1). 2. His abode in Greece, the visit to Troas and what transpired there (Acts 20:3). 3. The journey from Troas to Miletus (Acts 20:13). 4. The farewell to the Ephesian Elders (Acts 20:17). The record before us is very brief. Some have thought the reason is the fact that the Apostle had turned aside from His given ministry, and therefore the Holy Spirit had nothing to report. We believe that this is correct. The object of the Spirit of God is now to lead us rapidly forward to the last visit of the Apostle to Jerusalem, therefore much is passed over in the untiring s

PAUL'S SPEECH TO THE ELDERS OF EPHESUS AT MILETUS. See Ramsay, art. Miletus in HDB, as to the difficulties of the journey at that period from Miletus to Ephesus; one had to sail to Priene and make from there a journey of 25 miles across the mountains to Ephesus. The elders or presbyters (_mg.),_ afterwards called bishops or overseers (Acts 20:28), make the toilsome journey, and Paul addresses them. We have had Paul addressing Jews (ch. 13) and Gentiles (ch. 17); here he addresses Christian office-bearers at a solemn point of his life. This speech hardly stood as we have it in the source; still there are things in it which do belong to this situation and to no other; some heads of it might be in the source, which have been worked up later with hints from Paul's epistles and other writings, and with reference, as we shall see, to later circumstances in the Church. The whole is in a fine st...

SETTING OUT FOR JERUSALEM (Acts 20:1-6)...