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`And when they (the Jews) opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them,
Your blood be on your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles'.
The apostle, whose knowledge of the Old Testament is apparent from his writings, had evidently pondered the
solemn words of Ezekiel and had taken them to heart. In chapter 33 we read:
`If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever
heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall
be upon his own head ... But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet ... if the sword
come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the
watchman's hand' (Ezek. 33:3-6).
In Acts 20:26 the apostle declares: `I am pure from the blood of all men', and the ground of his confidence is
expressed in the following verse:
`For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God' (Acts 20:27).
There are some who clutch at this statement in their endeavour to moderate the teaching of Scripture concerning
the Mystery, pointing to this passage as a proof that `all the counsel of God' had been made known, as though this
expression covered truth which at the time of utterance had not been revealed. Those who take this view seem to
forget that Paul makes another equally important statement concerning his ministry in Acts 26:22:
`Saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come'.
The `whole counsel of God', at the time of Acts 20, was limited to the testimony of the Law and Prophets. If
there was still further truth to be revealed, truth unknown to the Old Testament Scriptures, and not yet revealed to
the apostle, no one could possibly blame Paul for not making it known, and he could obviously have no
responsibility in the matter.
The Prison Ministry Foreshadowed (Acts 20:17-38)
Final counsel, example and commendation (Acts 20:28-38)
In his examination of the teaching of the apostle Paul, the student of the Scriptures will have recognised that it is
rare to find either believer or fellow servant exhorted to follow a particular course, without, either in the near or
remote context, the apostle himself being found practising the precepts he preached. The elders of Ephesus had
witnessed this balanced exhibition of `doctrine and manner of life' (Acts 20:17-27), with its challenge concerning
Paul's faithfulness as well as his tenderness and courage, so that the apostle had no hesitation in introducing his
correspondingly searching exhortation with the word `therefore':
`Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood' (Acts 20:28).
It is comparatively easy to warn a company concerning the evil character of those who are without, or of those
who differ from them, but this the apostle did not do. He bade them take heed unto themselves, and said further in
verse 30: `Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them'.
Evidently it was a customary thing for Paul, when addressing those who held any office of responsibility in the
church, to use the word prosecho, `take heed', for it is found only twice outside the pastoral epistles. To Timothy
and to Titus he wrote:
`Neither give heed to fables' (1 Tim. 1:4).
`Not giving heed to Jewish fables' (Tit. 1:14),
and revealed that the apostasy of the last days would result from `giving heed to seducing spirits' (1 Tim. 4:1). As a
counter to this, the same section of 1 Timothy emphasizes the importance of giving heed `to the reading' (1 Tim.
4:13). In the Gospels, this same word is translated a number of times `beware', as in the exhortations `beware of