Daily Thought

This section gives a number of insights: firstly, into the experience of the apostle Paul; secondly, into the role and function of elders in an assembly. Note regarding elders that: (1) there is a plurality of them and that they are a distinct and recognized group within the assembly, v. 17; (2) they are to be spiritually mature, denoted by the term ‘elders’; (3) they are appointed by the Holy Spirit and are responsible to Him, remembering that it is God’s assembly, v. 28. They also have a responsibility to the assembly as overseers and shepherds, v. 28 - note the terms ‘flock’, to ‘take heed’, ‘to feed’, to ‘watch’, and to ‘remember’, vv. 28, 31. In the fulfilling of their responsibilities Paul points them to his own example, vv. 26, 27, 33-35 and commends them to God and to His word, the importance of which he stresses in verse 32.

In relation to Paul we see his tears in this chapter: tears arising from afflictions and opposition, v. 19, and tears that fell as he sought to warn the believers persistently of the dangers that they would face from false teachers, v. 31. We are reminded that the Lord Jesus, too, shed tears. Paul is not ashamed to speak of them as, perhaps, many of us would be. We understand, therefore, that the work of a true shepherd or of a preacher will involve many tears.

Notice, too, his faithfulness in declaring the word of God, vv. 20, 21. His preaching was comprehensive: he ‘kept back nothing’. It was ‘profitable’. It was varied: he both ‘shewed’ or ‘announced’ and ‘taught’, that is, he declared the truth of God whether or not people would listen, and taught it to those who would, with a view to their increase in understanding. He was consistent: what he said publicly was the same as what he said ‘from house to house’. He did not confine his activities to ‘the platform’ but also sought to instruct believers privately. Finally it was universal: ‘both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks’. As a result he had confidence before God that he was ‘pure from the blood of all men’, v. 26, for he had ‘not shunned to declare . . . all the counsel of God’. How many of us could say the same?

No wonder the believers ‘wept sore’ at the thought that they would not see him again, v. 37.