Acts 20:30

Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. ALSO OF YOUR OWN SELVES SHALL MEN ARISE, SPEAKING PERVERSE (OR CROOKED') THINGS. 'As a member of the body may be strained (says Lechler), and by violent bending put into a distorted position, so also truths may be perverted, placed in false relations to each other, distorted by exaggeration, changed into caricatures of that which they originally represented. And this is the nature of all false doctrine, Error is only a misrepresentation of truth; every false doctrine has some truth at bottom, which is misrepresented by the fault of men.' TO DRAW AWAY DISCIPLES - rather, 'the disciples` [ tous (G3588) matheetas (G3101)]...

− 30._Of your ownselves shall arise. _This amplifieth the grievousness of the evil, because there be some wolves within, and so hiding themselves under the title of pastors, [which] do wait for some opportunity wherein they may do hurt. Also, he declareth what danger these wolves do threaten, to wit, the scattering abroad of the flock, when the Church is drawn away from the unity of faith, and is divided into sects. Neither are all those wolves who do not their duty as they ought, but there be oftentimes hirelings, a kind of men not so hurtful as the other. But the corruption of doctrine is a most deadly plague to the sheep. Now, in the third place, the fountain and beginning of this evil is noted, because they will draw disciples after them. Therefore, ambition is the mother of all heresies. For the sincerity of the word of God doth then flourish when the pastors join hand in hand to br...

28-38 If the Holy Ghost has made ministers overseers of the flock, that is, shepherds, they must be true to their trust. Let them consider their Master's concern for the flock committed to their charge. It is the church He has purchased with his own blood. The blood was his as Man; yet so close is the union between the Divine and human nature, that it is there called the blood of God, for it was the blood of Him who is God. This put such dignity and worth into it, as to ransom believers from all evil, and purchase all good. Paul spake about their souls with affection and concern. They were full of care what would become of them. Paul directs them to look up to God with faith, and commends them to the word of God's grace, not only as the foundation of their hope and the fountain of their joy, but as the rule of their walking. The most advanced Christians are capable of growing, and will...

Verse 30. _ALSO OF YOUR OWN SELVES_, c.] From out of your own assembly _shall men arise, speaking perverse things_, teaching for truth what is erroneous in itself, and perversive of the genuine doctrine of Christ crucified. _TO DRAW AWAY DISCIPLES_] To make _schisms_ or _rents_ in the Church, in order to get a _party_ to _themselves_. See, here, the cause of divisions in the Church: 1. The superintendents lose the life of God, neglect the souls of the people, become greedy of gain, and, by secular extortions, oppress the people. 2. The members of the Church, thus neglected, oppressed, and irritated, get their minds alienated from their rapacious pastors. 3. Men of sinister views take advantage of this state of distraction, foment discord, preach up the necessity of _division_, and thus the people become _separated_ from the great body, and associate with those who profess to care for

ALSO OF YOUR OWN SELVES - From your own church; from those who profess to. be Christians. SPEAKING PERVERSE THINGS - Crooked, perverted, distracting doctrines διεστραμμένα diestrammena. Compare the notes on Acts 13:10. They would proclaim doctrines tending to distract and divide the church. The most dangerous enemies which the church has had have been nurtured in its own bosom, and have consisted of those who have perverted the true doctrines of the gospel. Among the Ephesians, as among the Corinthians 1 Corinthians 1:11, there might be parties formed; there might be people influenced by ambition, like Diotrephes...

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 ...

ALSO OF YOUR OWN SELVES SHALL MEN ARISE,.... Not only false teachers from abroad should come and enter among them, but some would spring up out of their own communities, such as had been admitted members of them, and of whom they had hoped well; such were Hymenseus, Philetus, Alexander, Hertoogenes, and Phygellus; SPEAKING PERVERSE THINGS; concerning God, and Christ, and the Gospel; distorted things, wresting the Scriptures to their own destruction, and that of others; things that are disagreeable to the word of God, and pernicious to the souls of men: TO DRAW AWAY DISCIPLES AFTER THEM; to rend away members from the churches, make schisms and divisions, form parties, set themselves at the head of them, and establish new sects, called after their own names; see 1 John 2:19....

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)...