Acts 26:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

If I teach others a virtuous life, he says, how can I myself be the cause of disturbance and disorder?

The speech of the Apostle Paul at this trial, in the presence of King Agrippa, is likewise a defense, just as his speech before the Jews on the steps of the Jerusalem fortress was. But now the Apostle spoke with greater freedom than he had then, before a crowd of fanatics. Since he was not interrupted and could speak fully, he defended himself in such a way that he also bore solemn witness to Christ. He testified that Christ had died and risen, according to the prophecy of Moses and the other ancient prophets. He also called his hearers to repentance and conversion to God.

In Damascus, in Jerusalem, throughout all Judea, and afterward among the Gentiles, he was a preacher of repentance and conversion to God, and also of the life corresponding to this.

After this the Apostle briefly indicates both the sphere and the content of his earlier preaching activity from that time onward. The sphere of his preaching activity first embraced Damascus, Acts 9:19ff. Then it embraced Jerusalem, Acts 9:26ff. and parallels. Then it extended to the whole land of Judea, an emphatic expression, during his journeys from Antioch to Jerusalem and back. Finally it embraced the Gentiles, during his repeated journeys through Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece. The Apostle characterizes the content of his preaching generally as preaching repentance and conversion to God for Jews and Gentiles. Together with this repentance and conversion, they were also to do works worthy of repentance; see the notes on Mt 3:2; Mt 3:8; Acts 2:38 and parallels.

Looking at his destiny after his conversion to faith in Christ, the Apostle speaks of his preaching in Damascus, Jerusalem, Judea, and among other peoples. He also indicates the chief subjects of his preaching: that people should abandon sins, repent, and do good works in keeping with repentance and drawing near to God. By drawing attention to the moral side of his preaching, the Apostle, so to speak, adapted himself to the perception of his hearers. They were more inclined to hear moral instruction than dogmas of faith, which were inaccessible to them because of their height above ordinary concepts, especially pagan ones. Repentance and conversion to God were the subjects of the preaching of all the prophets of the Jewish people. These words were not alien to the pagan world either.

These words of Peter show that repentance is required of the one being baptized.

The Apostle Paul presents the preaching of repentance as a universal need and as the chief apostolic work when he says of himself: “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,” that is, to the vision that called him to the apostleship. “But first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.”