Acts 19:21-22 After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying… Note — I. A PRACTICAL BENEFICENCE IN ITS SPIRIT. There is distress in Jerusalem. Paul feels that something must be done for its relief. He communicates it to Timotheus and Erastus, and they feel the same; they go to the Churches of Macedonia and Achaia; they feel also, and relief comes as a matter of course. It was not a subject in those days requiring argument and declamation. In the letter which Paul wrote at this time he indicates the order in which the collection should be made, but uses no argument to enforce the duty (1 Corinthians 16:1-9). This is as it should be. True Christians are all members of one spiritual body; and the feeling of one member should be participated in by the whole. II. AN HEROIC AGGRESSIVENESS IN ITS DISCIPLES. "I must also see Rome." What for? Merely to see it, in order to gratify curiosity, to study the institutions and habits of a wonderful people, to enrich his experience of life, to increase his acquaintance with men and things? No, but to carry the gospel there. His purpose indicates — 1. That Christianity could stand the scrutiny of the most enlightened people. 2. That no intellectual or social advancement can supersede the necessity of the gospel. 3. That evangelisation should have a special regard to the most influential centres of population. III. AN OFFICIAL AUTHORITY AMONGST ITS MINSTERS. Here are Paul, Timotheus, and Erastus, and there is a manifest subordination. Paul is the superior. He "sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him." The authority was not legal or prescriptive, but simply moral. In a society where all minds are spiritually pure, the simple wish of the greatest soul is the greatest law. IV. AN INCIDENTAL ARGUMENT FOR ITS GENUINENESS. In the account which is here given of Paul's purpose to visit Rome, and that which he gives himself years afterwards, there is one of those undesigned coincidences which constitute an incontrovertible argument for the truth of Christianity. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. |
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