Acts 20:32Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since the attention of pastors alone can accomplish nothing without God's help, he commands them to take heed to themselves and to their flock, and then commends them to God. He says, "Brethren, and now." He did not say only "now," because he had done this before. He says "and now," that is, now also, as before. I commend you to God the Father and to His Only-begotten Son and Word, who is able to order both you and your attention. He is able to give you, for the labor undertaken during your attentiveness and watchfulness, the inheritance of the eternal kingdom, together with all who have lived in holiness. After this expression of his desire, he again begins to teach them by his own example.

Day and night, without ceasing, and with tears, I taught each one of you. On my part, everything was done to preserve the flock of God for you whole and unharmed.

Therefore you bear before God a great responsibility for the salvation of every believer. Let this also be an example for you of how you must live and act in the house of God, which is the Church of the Lord and God.

Remember in me the pattern of activity that was not constrained or lazy, but willing. For I taught each one of you day and night without ceasing (1 Pet. 5:2).

Remember that I acted among you as a truly spiritual pastor. I did not force you to fulfill my rules by external authority or by the power of rebukes, threats, and punishments.

Rather, with tears I taught, persuaded, entreated, comforted, and encouraged each one of you (1 Pet. 5:3). While I was with you, on my part I did everything to make you worthy pastors of the Church.

I taught you everything necessary for this. And now, parting from you, brethren, I commend you to God, to His almighty help, and to the word of His grace, which I delivered to you.

If you attend to it, this word can further and more fully disclose, purify, and sanctify your Christian understanding. It can give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Therefore constant deepening in the word of the grace of God, accompanied by prayer to God for His almighty help, should likewise be one of the chief qualities of your activity as pastors of the Church.

Finally, the apostle reminds the Ephesian pastors of the selflessness with which he acted among them. This too must distinguish their pastoral activity, for they must shepherd God's flock not for filthy gain, but eagerly (1 Pet. 5:2).

“I have not taken, nor even desired, silver or gold or clothing from anyone. You yourselves know that these hands of mine served not only my needs, but also the needs of my fellow workers in the Gospel.”

“In all things I showed you that, by laboring in this way, one must support the weak in faith” (cf. Rom. 14:1; 15:1; 1 Thess. 5:14). Such people, especially when false teachers distort pastoral work, may regard a pastor's labor as self-serving if he receives support from those he pastors.

One must also remember the words of the Lord Jesus, Who said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” This saying of Jesus Christ has not been preserved in our Gospels.

Here, as in some other cases, the Apostle Paul supplements the accounts of the evangelists, just as the evangelists supplement one another. This is not an ordinary saying of worldly wisdom, whose meaning would be that it is better to be able to distribute alms than to need alms.

Like other sayings of worldly wisdom, in the mouth of Jesus Christ it serves here as a covering and image for the expression of a purely spiritual and moral lesson.

Blessed are those who give alms, lend to the needy, perform the works of spiritual pastorship, and in general do good to their neighbors, “hoping for nothing” for themselves here on earth.

They neither seek nor receive any earthly reward for themselves. They are more blessed in eternity than those who do good to their neighbors and receive payment for it from men.

He brought his hearers into great fear by the words, 'savage wolves will enter among you.' Therefore, lest he strike and destroy their souls, he offers consolation: I commend you to His grace. He spoke well, for he knew that grace saves. He often reminds them of grace, wishing to make them more zealous and to inspire boldness." However difficult the ascetic labor of pastoral ministry may be, God who calls to this ministry, and His grace, are almighty. In every difficult circumstance He strengthens Christ's faithful strugglers. He will surely bring them to the final goal of their earthly labor, the inheritance of eternal life, if only they remain faithful to the Lord unto death. One may conclude with certainty that the Apostle foresaw the possibility of false teaching arising on the soil of ideas that had entered the Christian community from the Judaizers. At that time theosophical views may have been spreading in Ephesus. The Apostle armed himself against such views in the Epistles to the Colossians, Philippians, and in the Pastoral Epistles. By calling the later heretics savage wolves, the holy Apostle Paul defined only the character of their hearts. He did the same in the Epistle to the Philippians, where he called them evil dogs (cf. Phil. 3:2). Therefore, from these words of the Apostle one cannot determine the specific character of the heretics, nor identify them with the gnostics. Nor can one thereby prove the later origin of this speech, as some Western critics do.