Acts 21:13 Then Paul answered, What mean you to weep and to break my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only… It might be thought that Paul had already sufficiently run the gauntlet of warnings touching the consequences of going to Jerusalem (Acts 19:21; Acts 20:16, 22, 23; Acts 21:4, 11). If his resolution could have been altered, or his conscience stilled an hour, this was the hour. But, instead of showing any symptom of being "in a strait betwixt two," even in an hour of such tenderness, it is now that "his heart is fixed." The needle points unerringly and without a quivering deflection, and moral resolution touches the point of moral sublimity. And we may justly sound here the praise of conscience; for in advancing degrees, we see - I. THE PRAISE OF CONSCIENCE, IN ITS ATTITUDE IN THE PRESENCE OF DANGER. II. THE GREATER PRAISE OF CONSCIENCE, IN ITS ATTITUDE IN THE PRESENCE OF AFFECTION. III. THE GREATEST PRAISE OF CONSCIENCE, IN ITS ATTITUDE OF COMPLETE SURRENDER TO THE SPIRIT OF PERFECT TRUTH AND PERFECT GUIDANCE. IV. THE PERFECTION OF THE CONSCIENCE IN ITSELF, WHEN IT OWNS TO NO TREMBLING, NO WAVERING. There was no coldness, no hardness, no unrelentingness of heart, in that grand hour, when Paul's heart was ready to break for human affection's sake, but was a very tower of strength toward Christ as in him. - B. Parallel Verses KJV: Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. |
    |