blood of all men. For I 27 27. For I have not shunned to declare unto you shrank not from declaring all the counsel of God. unto you the whole counsel of God. Eph. 1: 11. the crime of murder, and the method by which guilt is ordinarily brought home to the criminal. In many cases conviction depends on blood being found on the clothes of the murderer. Thus in effect he invites the elders to look to their hands and garments to make sure that there is no blood on them. - - Arnot. 27. For I have not shunned. Literally, for I shrunk not back. No fear of unpopularity, no anxiety to say only smooth and pleasant things had kept him from declaring all of God's truth; not only the pleasant and hopeful, but the terrible; not only the promises of God, but his threatenings; not only his pleasure in virtue, but the blackness and ugliness of their sins in his sight.-P. All the counsel of God. What God had proposed and planned in his own wisdom for the salvation of men. See Cremer's Bib.- Theo. Lexicon. The "counsel of God" means the whole plan of salvation; what God offers and what he asks of men. This includes the "repentance and faith" as well as the " grace and mercy." Cambridge Bible. He could not be held responsible because he had done what was his duty. God does not bid us convert men; he bids us declare all his counsel, leaving the result with him. Our first concern is not to be successful in winning souls, but to be faithful to God's truth, keeping none of it back. Such faithfulness is true success; it leaves us "pure from the blood of all men," whether they hear or forbear. — Prof. Riddle. KEEPING BACK THE TRUTH. Truth may be disguised or kept back (1) by avoiding the subject altogether, from timidity or from an apprehension of giving offence if it is openly proclaimed; or (2) by giving it too little prominency, so that it shall be lost in the multitude of other truths; or (3) by presenting it amidst a web of metaphysical speculations, and entangling it with other subjects; or (4) by making use of other terms than the Bible does, for the purpose of involving it in a mist so that it cannot be understood. Men often preach a philosophical explanation of a doctrine instead of the doctrine itself. They deserve the credit of ingenuity, but not that of being open and bold proclaimers of the truth of God. Barnes. LIBRARY REFERENCES. The Commentaries mentioned under our last lesson; Sermons by the Monday Club for 1877; Howson's Metaphors of St. Paul; Wm. Taylor's Paul, the Missionary; Macduff's Footsteps of St. Paul; Pask's The Apostle Paul; Lewin's, Farrar's, and Conybeare and Howson's Life of St. Paul; Donald Fraser's Speeches of the Apostles; Jacox's Sidelights on Scripture Texts, p. 278; Adolph Monod's St. Paul, chap. 2; see Carlyle's Heroes and HeroWorship, under Hero as a Priest, for illustrations of faithful boldness. Sermons by J. M. Mason, "Evangelical Ministry Exemplified"; by Tillotson, "Necessity of Faith and Repentance," ver. 21; by Emmons, on vers. 21, 24, and 27. PRACTICAL. I. Ver. 17. Keep on sowing the good seed by the wayside an everywhere. 2. Ver. 18. The Christian's life should be so pure and good that he can appeal to those who know him best for their testimony to its quality. 3. What religion does is the best proof of its reality. 4. The qualities of Paul's character show in this address: sensitiveness, tenderness, boldness, faithfulness, firmness, unselfishness, humility, devotion, and faith in the midst of trials. Such should be ours. 5. Ver. 19. The true object of life to serve the Lord in helping men. 6. Ver. 21. The true teaching for the Sabbath school - repentance toward God and faith toward Jesus. 7. The true method of teaching of the whole truth, in public and in private, with sympathy. 8. Personal work with individuals a great means of success. 9. God reveals truth; we are to testify to it. We must experience God's goodness and love and the power of religion in order to testify to them. IO. II. The faithful servant of God can finish his course with joy. We know not what is before us, but can commit our whole future to God's wise and loving care. 12. Blessed are they who so live and so teach that they are pure from the blood of souls. 13. Neglect of duty, of warning, of teaching, tempting others to sin, setting a bad example, are ways of becoming guilty for the loss of others' souls. 14. BAXTER'S SUMMARY OF THIS ADDRESS. Here we are taught: our general business, serving the Lord; our special work, taking heed to ourselves and all the flock; the substance of our doctrine, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; the places and manner of our teaching, publicly, and from house to house; the object and internal manner, warning every one, night and day, with all humility of mind and with tears; the faithfulness and integrity that are requisite, I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you; I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. - Bible Reader's Com. SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. Have the scholars TRACE OUT this part of Paul's journey on the map, noting especially Miletus and Ephesus. REVIEW briefly Paul's stay at Ephesus, how long, what doing. Note the CIRCUMSTANCES of Paul's being at Miletus, and why he sent for the elders of Ephesus instead of going himself. Call attention to the SUBJECT of the lesson,- A FAITHFUL TEACHER AMONG HIS BELOVED PUPILS, which will be practical to all, and an example in which we are to find what is worthy of imitation. I. HIS LIFE (vers. 18-20). Open before all; nothing to be concealed; its purpose, its humility, its tenderness and love for others; its bold faithfulness; its trials. Illustration of the power of humility. Paul set Christ forward and kept himself in the background. Steam when visible as a cloud has little power. The steam that drives the engine and does the work is invisible. Watch the hot steam from the tea-kettle, invisible when it first pours out. Illustrations of boldness in the truth. John Knox before Queen Mary. Luther at the Diet of Worms. The Madagascar Christian martyrs described by Mr. Ellis in his book on Madagascar. Illustrate his tenderness and tears from Christ weeping over Jerusalem, not for the awful death he was to die. And his tears of sympathy over the tomb of Lazarus. II. HIS WORK (vers. 20, 21). Serving the Lord by teaching the Gospel publicly and from house to house. Personal work. His faithfulness in teaching the whole truth. Teachers must warn, and show God's wrath, and point out the evil of sin plainly but sadly, else not pure from the blood of men. Explain this, and show how even children must be pure in this. Illustration, "The saddest sight than eye can know, But there is one thing sadder than this, -to be the means of the shipwreck of a soul; to tempt others to their loss; not to save when we can.. III. HIS TEACHINGS (vers. 21, 27). The whole counsel of God, dwelling chiefly on the great practical truths of Christianity. Enforce repentance, and press the duty of believing, on the conscience. Illustration. These great truths are like the keel of a ship, into which are fastened all the other parts of it. Without this keel no ship, no freight, no passengers, no commerce. IV. HIS OUTLOOK (vers. 22-25). He saw trials and sorrows in the way, but he pressed on in the path of duty. Explain vers. 22, 23. But he saw beyond these a completed work and a crown of righteousness and joy, such as the angels feel over souls that repent. Illustration. Compare Paul's experience when about to finish his course (2 Tim. 4: 6-8) with Dr. Payson's later hours. "To adopt the figurative language of Bunyan, I might date this letter from the land of Beulah, of which I have been for some weeks a happy inhabitant. The celestial city is full in my view. Its glories beam upon me, its breezes fan me, its odors are wafted to me, its sounds strike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my heart. The Sun of righteousness has been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and brighter as he approached, and now he fills the whole hemisphere, pouring forth a flood of glory, in which I seem to float like an insect in the beams of the sun; exulting yet almost trembling while I gaze on this excessive brightness, and wondering, with unutterable wonder, why God should deign thus to shine upon a sinful worm. A single heart and a single tongue seem altogether inadequate to my wants. I want a whole heart for every separate emotion, and a whole tongue to express that emotion.” GOLDEN TEXT. - Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. - ACTS 20: 28. TIME. Sunday, April 23, A.D. 58. PLACE. Miletus; a city of Ionia in Asia Minor, 30 miles south of Ephesus. INTRODUCTION. This lesson is a continuation of Paul's address to the Ephesian elders, which we began to study last Sabbath. The address consists of two parts. The first is a review of Paul's own work and experience, a leaf out of his own life. Having considered this, we now turn to the second part, his solemn charge to these leaders and teachers of the church. In the absence of the apostle they are to take his place and "feed the church of God." Enemies from without, "grievous wolves," and foes within will assail them; but they are to watch and remember his own example of fidelity and courage. Rev. 7. F. Norton. The address affords a suggestion of what are the essential elements of a successful Christian ministry. Abbott. hath 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost made you overseers, to feed the church of God, 3 which with his own blood. he hath purchased man. 11 Tim. 4: 16. 3 Eph. 1: 7, 14. Col. 1: 14. Take heed unto yourselves, 28 which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops to feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. and to all the flock, in the EXPLANATORY. 4 Heb. 9: 14. I. An Exhortation to Faithfulness. - Vers. 28-31. 28. Take heed therefore, Paul went on to say, "My part is done. For the future the grave responsibility of guiding this precious flock will be yours, elders of the church of Ephesus, yours the care of providing that it be kept from error; and first I press home to you to take heed unto yourselves, to your own lives, to the example you set, to the influence you exert. Schaff. We must ourselves first be cleansed, and then cleanse others; be instructed, and then instruct others; be enlightened, and then enlighten others; be conducted to God, and then conduct others to him. Gregory Nazianzen. Spiritual efficiency in the ministry depends to a large extent on what the minister is himself, and so his first duty is to "take heed" to himself. Even a heathen philosopher declared that the first requisite for an orator is that he should be a good Rhetoric without holiness is but tinsel. The life of the preacher is itself a sermon. — Taylor. Second, they must take heed not only to themselves but to all the flock. The church is the flock of Christ, sheep of his fold. This is the Old Testament figure (Isa. 63: 11; Jer. 31: 10; Mic. 7: 14). And Christ calls himself "the Good Shepherd" (John 10). - Jacobus. He commits to them, as Christ had at first to St. Peter, the charge to feed both lambs and sheep in the name and with the word of the "Good Shepherd " himself. Cambridge Bible. All the flock. The rich and the poor, the bond and the free, the old and the young. A shepherd regards the interest of the tenderest of the fold as much as the strongest. Barnes. Indeed the weak, the poor, the neglected, the erring, the despised should be the especial care of the under-shepherds, as they were and are of the Good Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. And especially should they take heed to the young, the lambs of the flock, whose whole future may depend on their faithful feeding and guidance. -P. Paul now gives a number of reasons why these elders should thus take heed. FIRST REASON. God had committed the church to their care. Over the which. "In (not "over ") which," since the bishops made part of the flock while they had the direction of it. Hackett. The Holy Ghost hath made, may refer (1) to their having been chosen under the direction of the Spirit (13: 2; 14: 23), or (2) to their having been qualified for their office by the Spirit (1 Cor. 12: 8) by the bestowal of spiritual gifts (Hackett), or (3) to the inward call of the Holy Spirit, which drew them to this self-denying work, and made them feel "woe is me if I preach not the Gospel." - P. Hath made you Overseers. The Greek word rendered here" overseers" is usually rendered "bishops," as 1 29. For I know this, that after my departing 1 shall I know that after my depart-29 grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the ing grievous wolves shall enter flock. in among you, not sparing the 1 Matt. 7: 15. 2 Pet. 2: 1. for instance the same word in the singular in 1 Pet. 2: 25, "Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."-Schaff. To feed the church. To be shepherds of. It applies to the whole shepherd care of the flock, watching, tending, leading, as illustrated in Ps. 23 and John 10: 1-18. Abbott. It gives no authority over the church except that which comes from greater piety, wisdom, and experience. The flock is to be fed with the Word of God, guarded from false teachers and errors of doctrines, to be led into rich pastures of the highest Christian experience, and into fields of usefulness. — P. Mr. Ruskin, in his Sesame and Lilies, commenting on the strange phrase blind mouths in Milton's Lycidas, says those two monosyllables express the precisely accurate contraries of right character in the two great offices of the church, - those of bishop and pastor. A bishop means a person who sees; a pastor means one who feeds. The most unbishoply character a man can have is, therefore, to be blind; the most unpastoral is, instead of feeding, to want to be fed. Nearly all the evils in the church have arisen from bishops' desiring power more than light. They want authority, not outlook. It is the King's (Christ is our King) office to rule. The bishop's office is to oversee the flock, to number it sheep by sheep, to be ready always to give full account of it. John Ruskin. The church of God. There is another reading of almost equal authority," the church of the Lord," i.e., of Christ. Critics are greatly divided, but the Rev. Ver. rightly retains the old reading. The difference is important because of the closing clause of the verse, Which he hath purchased with his own blood. If this declaration is made respecting God, the verse becomes a conclusive evidence of the divinity of Jesus Christ. Abbott. We possess in these words a distinct expression of the belief of the apostolic church in the absolute divinity of the Son, and the nature of his work as Redeemer; in other words, Paul authoritively taught here that, "As for the church of God, God purchased it with his own blood.". Schaff. SECOND REASON. The preciousness of the church to Christ. Which he hath purchased. Better, as the price was paid once for all," which he purchased." The verb implies the "making of what is bought peculiarly one's own." It is not the usual word for "buying.". Cambridge Bible. The expression purchased does not imply that a person (the devil) has a right to the sinner, but only to what the purchase cost the Redeemer,sacrifice and suffering.- Rev. Com. With his own blood. With the sacrifice of his own life; for blood is often put for life, and to shed the blood is equivalent to taking the life. Barnes. This represents the atonement as consisting pre-eminently in the sacrifice and death of Christ. See Matt. 20: 28; Rom. 3: 24; Eph. 1:7; 1 Tim. 2: 6; Heb. 9: 12; 13: 12, etc.- Hackett. Nothing can so show the intensity of God's love for his people as does this fact of the infinite cost to him of their redemption. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son," to leave heaven, to dwell humbly on the earth, to labor, to suffer, to be despised and rejected of men, to die upon the cross," that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life." And whatever Christ suffered God suffered. It was well for these elders to take heed to the church which was so precious to God. — P. THIRD REASON. Dangers from without. 29. For I know this. This prediction without doubt rests on the observations and experiences which he had made during his long ministry in Ephesus and Asia. He must have known the existence of germs, in which he saw the sad pledge of the truth of his warning; and we have no reason to doubt that the reality corresponded to this prediction. Meyer. We find traces of the fulfilment of the prediction in the "turning away" of 2 Tim. 1: 15; the "fiery trial" of 1 Pet. 1:7; 4:12; the suffering" as a Christian" of 1 Pet. 4: 16.- Plumptre. That after my departing. After his leaving them, not after his death. He was about to leave them not to return again. Shall grievous wolves enter in among you. The figurative language followed naturally on the idea of the flock, and of the shepherds who keep watch over it. It lies in the nature of the case that the wolf stands primarily for the open enemies of the flock, the persecutors of all ages (comp. John 10:12). The wolves, however, might come in sheep's clothing (Matt. 7: 15), and so the false prophets, the usurpers of authority, and leaders of parties within the church, are also included in the term. Plumptre. Wolves ravage and destroy the flock. They are from without, but disguised in sheep's clothing they enter in among the flock, and hence it appears that they were to be baptized Christians, belonging to the church. Teachers of false doctrines and bad morals, dividing and misleading the 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speak ing perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. 31. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. 32. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, 11 Tim. 1: 20. 1 John 2: 19. flock; and from among your 30 own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Wherefore watch ye, 31 remembering that by the space of three years I ceased not to admonish every one night and day with tears. And now I 32 Acts 19: 10. people, bringing in false principles and worldliness, ravage the church like ravening wolves. P. Not sparing the flock. Seeking their own selfish interests, no matter how many are lost or injured by it. It has been suggested with great probability that the apostle foresaw that his bitterest enemies would be the Judaizing teachers who came from a distance, and that they, who had injured him and his cause in past times, are hinted at here. — Schaff. FOURTH REASON. Dangers from within. 30. Also of your own selves. That is, from their own community; not necessarily from the number of those present. — Hackett. Shall men arise, speaking perverse things. Perverted things; truths distorted and made an instrument of error. The most dangerous errors are truths distorted and perverted; truth enough to make some believe them, and error enough to injure or ruin those who do believe.-P. The Ephesian mind was especially given to speculation. "Ephesus," observes Creuzer, 66 was above all others the place where oriental views were in various ways combined with the philosophy and mythology of Greece. In truth, this city was a complete storehouse of magical arts and deceptions." The church of Ephesus singularly enough became notorious in after days as a famous seat of the great and widespread Gnostic heresy. Even in the New Testament writings no fewer than six of the pioneers of these fatal teachers of error are mentioned as belonging to Ephesus. - Schaff. Hymenæus and Alexander (1 Tim. 1: 20), Phygellus and Hermogenes (2 Tim. 1: 15), and Philetus (2 Tim. 2: 17, also 3 John 9) fulfilled this prediction. Cook. Unfortunately false charity has made dangers of this kind too little dreaded in these days. Those whom Paul calls "grievous wolves" and speakers of "perverse things" are too often deemed "smart men." - Riddle. To draw away disciples after them, i.e., to draw away the disciples. Those who had previously been disciples of Christ and his apostles. This was at once the motive and the result of the work of the false teachers. — Plumptre. They will do their best, after their own falling away, to drag others likewise from the true faith. This is expressed also by the verb, which implies the tearing away from that to which they are already attached, and this more literal translation of the verb expresses the labor and exertion which these false teachers will spend to achieve their object. Cambridge Bible. FIFTH REASON. Paul's own example and labors. 31. Therefore watch. The sort of watching implied is that unsleeping alertness which can never be taken by surprise. The word was, as it were, an echo from our Lord's teaching (Matt. 24: 42; 25: 13, et al.), which could hardly have been unknown to St. Paul.-Plumptre. The very image under which the church of God is presented to us, that of a flock, gives us a lesson as to the amount of watching which is demanded of those who by the Holy Ghost have been made overseers or shepherds of the flock. - Denton. And remember, or remembering, as a motive and example of such vigilance. Alexander. The space of three years may be a proximate expression, but must come nearer to three years than two. - Hackett. The three years consists of three months' preaching in the synagogue (chap. 19:8), May to July, A.D. 54, two years' ministry in the school of Tyrannus (chap. 19: 10), Aug., 54 to Aug., 56, and then several months longer, to May, A.D. 58. Lewin. I ceased not to warn. To admonish; to place before the mind, setting the danger and duty of each individual before him. Every one. He had admonished each individual, whatever was his rank or standing. Night and day. Continually; by every opportunity. With tears. Expressive of his deep feeling and his deep interest in their welfare. Barnes. Observe how every word in this sentence here has its significance; every one indicates personal work; night and day, ceaseless industry; with tears, warmth of feeling. Abbott. There must be something serious in life and something formidable in eternity if this kind of perpetual, personal, sorrowful warning was judged necessary or reasonable by St. Paul. Vaughn. The approving words to the angel to the church of Ephesus, written about a quarter of a century after these warnings of St. Paul, tell us that the earnest wishes and the affectionate pleadings of the apostle were not in vain. Schaff II. Paul Commends the Ephesians to God. — Ver. 32. 32. And now, as I am about to leave you, and can no more teach you or watch over you, I commend you to God. |