Acts 20:32 - Exposition

Now for now brethren, A.V. and T.R.; the inheritance for an inheritance, A.V. and T.R.; that for which, A.V. I commend you to God ( παρατίθεμαι ὑμᾶς ). A most beautiful and significant phrase! The apostle is leaving for ever the flock which he had fed with such devoted care and loved with such a fervent love. He was leaving them with a strong impression of the dangers to which they would be exposed. To whom could he entrust them? to what loving hands could he consign them? He gives them to God, to take watchful custody of them. He brings them to him in the prayer of faith. He commits to him the precious deposit ( παραθήκη ) , to be preserved safe unto the day of Christ. So the Savior of the world, when dying on the cross, said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit "( Luke 23:1-56 . 46), and then trustingly gave up the ghost (see too Acts 14:23 ). No less beautiful are the words which follow: And to the word of his grace . He was thinking of the grievous wolves, and of their pernicious doctrine; of the deceivers that should arise, and their soul-destroying heresies; and so he turns to the one source of safety "the Word of God's grace in Jesus Christ." If they are kept in that Word of truth, if they nourish their souls with that sincere milk, they will be safe. The gospel which he had preached would be their safety unto the end. It would build them up on the one Foundation which never can be moved; it would preserve them holy to take possession of the inheritance of the saints in light. The inheritance ( τὴν κληρονομίαν ) ; comp. Ephesians 1:14 , Ephesians 1:18 ; Ephesians 5:5 ; and Ephesians 1:11 , ἐκληρώθημεν . In Acts 26:18 it is κλῆρον (as in Colossians 1:12 ), and the ἡγιασμένοι are further defined by the addition of πίστει , τῇ εἰς ἐμέ , "by the faith which is in me" (for the use of ἀγιάζεσθαι , comp. Hebrews 10:10 , Hebrews 10:14 ; 1 Corinthians 1:2 ; 1 Corinthians 6:11 , etc.).