Acts 20:31

Therefore watch The sort of watching implied is that unsleeping alertness which can never be taken by surprise.

and remember, that by the space of three years As the verb here is a participial form the Rev. Ver.translates "Wherefore watch ye, remembering, &c.," in which there is this gain, that the watchfulness which the Apostle enjoins is thus enforced by his own example. Be ye watchful, because ye know that I was so night and day while I was among you. The "three years" may be a speaking in round numbers, yet it cannot have been far from the length of time which Paul spent at Ephesus. See notes on Acts 19:8; Acts 19:10.

I ceased not to warn[admonish, Rev. Ver. every one night and day with tears We know from his appeal to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 11:29) and other places, how sympathetic St Paul was in all that concerned his flock. "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?" And if for weakness and offences, how much more in a city like Ephesus where idolatry was rampant everywhere. We need not confine the "every one" to the presbyters, St Paul's labour was spent on the whole Ephesian Church.