Acts 20:26 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all,

NIV: Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you.

NASB: Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all people.

CSB: Therefore I declare to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you,

NLT: I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault,

KJV: Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.

NKJV: Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.

Paul is in Miletus, speaking with the elders of the church of Ephesus. He has just told them he will soon be imprisoned in Jerusalem and never see them again (Acts 20:22–25).

His words here are those of a prophet. When God called Ezekiel to be His prophet for the Jews in exile in Babylon, He set very strict ground rules. God told Ezekiel that if He gave him a warning and people died because Ezekiel refused to pass on the warning, Ezekiel was accountable for their deaths. If Ezekiel did pass on the warning but people died because they ignored it, their deaths were on their own heads (Ezekiel 3:17–21). As a living representation of the importance of Ezekiel's commission, God made him mute, except for God's messages, until the exiles received word that Jerusalem had fallen (Ezekiel 3:26–27; 33:22).

There's no indication that God gave Paul a similar warning, but Paul certainly lives as if He had. As he says to the church in Corinth, "For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16). He will later write Timothy, "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching" (2 Timothy 4:2). Paul speaks to government officials, Jews, Gentiles, women, Greek philosophers, and kings (Acts 13:7, 16, 46; 16:14; 17:22; 18:7; 25:23). He preaches at synagogues, riversides, prisons, homes, marketplaces, and the Areopagus of Athens (Acts 14:1; 16:13, 25; 17:17, 22; 18:7; 26:1). He even tries to preach to the mobs that wanted him dead (Acts 19:30–31; 22:1–22).

If anyone around Paul does not accept Jesus as their Savior, it isn't because Paul failed in his efforts to convert them.

In Acts 20:17–27, Paul begins his farewell to the elders of Ephesus. He and his team leave Troas and sail to Miletus, south of Ephesus, where Paul requests the Ephesian elders meet him. He reminds them how he served with dedication and self-sacrifice, and he also relays disturbing news. When he gets to Jerusalem, he will be imprisoned, and they will never see him again. Next, he will challenge them to protect their church from false teachers and to emulate his humble leadership (Acts 20:28–35).

Acts 20 finishes Paul's third missionary journey. He leaves Ephesus after three years and travels to Macedonia and Corinth. Threats from the Corinthian Jews send him and his team back to Macedonia and Troas. In Troas, Paul gives a very long sermon and raises Eutychus from the dead after he falls—both asleep and out a window. In Miletus, Paul meets with the Ephesian elders. He reminds them to beware of false teachers and tells them he is going to be imprisoned and will not see them again. After a tearful farewell, he boards a ship for Judea.

Acts 20 records the last stages of Paul's third missionary journey. He started by visiting the churches he and Barnabas had planted in central modern-day Turkey (Acts 18:23). From there, he traveled southwest to the province of Asia, where he established a church in Ephesus (Acts 19). In Acts 20, he visits the churches in Macedonia and Greece before returning to Judea. When he lands, he meets briefly with Philip the Evangelist in Caesarea Maritima before going to Jerusalem and getting arrested. He will stay in house arrest for the next two years before embarking on a dangerous sea voyage to Rome (Acts 21—28).

The summary of the book of Acts is provided in Jesus' words in Acts 1:8: ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'' In Acts 2:1–13, the Christ-followers receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:14—7:60 describes the rapid growth of the church in Jerusalem. Chapters 8—12 find Jewish persecution inadvertently spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. And in chapters 13—28, Paul and his companions spread the good news throughout the Roman Empire.