Issues Facing Missions Today: 56. When Wolves Come Among
You: Paul’s Speech to the
Ephesian Elders
[This post continues New Testament studies on false teaching and ministry in the Church. Such studies are relevant for understanding mission as Church renewal, which is a particular need in the Church's mission to the West (but not only there) in our time.]
Introduction
If there was one
certainty the early Church had about its future, it was that it would be plagued
by persecution from without and false teaching from within. Jesus, himself, was crucified by the Roman
and Jewish leaders and betrayed by Judas, and he warned of false prophets who
would arise as wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7.15). Even persons intimately involved in ministry
could be false ministers:
Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to
me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does
the will of my Father in heaven. 22
On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,
and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your
name?' 23 Then I will declare
to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'
Paul also warned of savage
wolves preying on the Church. His final
address to the elders of the church of Ephesus is a somber warning of this very
thing. He tells them to be on guard for
the divisions that will arise in the Church because of false ministers and
their false teachings. This post looks at Paul’s speech to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20.18-35.
Not all divisive issues
are of equal importance. Matters of indifference
in the early Church entailed differences over food, drink, circumcision, and days
of religious observance (e.g., Galatians 6:15; 1 Corinthians 7.9; 8.1-10.31; Romans
14.1-15.13). More significant matters were
matters essential to Christian faith and to salvation. For example, Paul began ministry to new
converts with teaching on sexual ethics, communal love, and living a quiet life
in society (1 Thessalonians 4.1-8, 9-10, 11-12).
Paul’s warning to the
Ephesian elders is not over matters of indifference in the church. He speaks to several kinds of issues, which
we might categorize as ministerial and convictional issues.
Ministerial Issues
Paul contrasts the
nature of his ministry with false ministers on a number of points.
Humility, Meekness, Gentleness
Paul emphasizes that his
ministry was conducted in humility (Acts 20.19). This is an issue that had arisen earlier in
his ministry as he encountered pretentious ministers who had arrived in Corinth. These ‘super apostles’ tried to minister out
of their personal authority rather than the authority of the Gospel (2
Corinthians 10-12). Over against such
ministers, Paul set before the Corinthian church the ministerial conduct of
Christ himself. They may have been perfectly
acceptable to the Corinthian church because they fit rather well into the
pattern of travelling orators in the Graeco-Roman world. However, Paul sets over against them the
‘meekness and gentleness of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10.1). Indeed, he sought to model his own conduct
after Christ, being humble and yet destroying ‘every proud obstacle raised up
against the knowledge of God’ (2 Corinthians 10.1, 4-5). His ministry was gentle, like the care given
to children (1 Thessalonians 2.7)—a gentleness that, nevertheless, corrects
others out of love for them.
Financial Independence
Paul realized that, in
his case, financial independence in ministry was important. He recognized his right to be paid for
ministry (1 Corinthians 9.1-18), yet he saw that remuneration could be
construed in such a way that it would be an obstacle to his ministry. Rather than being a means to some personal
gain, he wanted the ministry to be understood as an obligation laid upon him (1
Corinthians 9.16). Nor did he want
anyone to be able to accuse him of coveting what others had:
Acts 20:33-34 I coveted no one's silver or gold
or clothing. 34 You know for
yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions.
This same issue arises
in various ways in the Church today.
Where salaries, medical benefits, pensions, manses, mission support, and
other benefits offered to ministers create a dependency that leads to some
compromise of the Gospel, the situation is comparable to Paul’s. How easy it is for a minister to look the
other way when an elder in the church needs correction because the same elder
is determining the minister’s salary.
How easy it may be for a minister or bishop to compromise the Gospel
when a heretical church or compromised archbishop offers money along with
political, moral, or doctrinal changes contrary to Scripture. Thus, Paul reminds the elders in Ephesus that
his ministry among them was self-supported and therefore untainted (Acts
20.33-34).
Paul also saw his own
work to support his ministry as a way to model work for the Christian
community. As community could lead to
dependency relationships, where some persons benefit from the gifts and labours
of others, Paul wanted to offer an alternative arrangement. He wanted to provide the example of service instead
of dependency, where able-bodied persons worked to support the weak. He said to the Ephesians,
Acts 20:34-35 You know for yourselves that I
worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions. 35 In all this I have given you an
example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of
the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to
receive.'"
Pastoral Correction, with Tears
Financial independence
gave Paul freedom to correct persons, which was essential for a ministry of the
Gospel. Proclamation of the Gospel
called people to change their lives—their beliefs and behaviours—in significant
ways. Ministry was not and should not be
passive, conducted only by invitation, or entail a softening of the truth. It is still confrontational even if done with
humility and gentleness, with sincerity and conviction and out of love and
caring concern. Paul said to the
Thessalonians that he and those ministering with him ‘made demands as apostles
of Christ’ (1 Thessalonians 2.7). The
minister must guard against any distortion of the truth in order to gain
people’s favour. Paul says,
Acts 20:30-31 Some even from your own group
will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow
them. 31 Therefore be alert,
remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to warn everyone
with tears.
Paul’s compassion and desire
for fellowship with the church did not cause him to soften the Gospel; rather,
it led him to tears in admonishing persons to receive Christ and transform
their ways. He said to the Thessalonian
church,
1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 As you know, we dealt with each one of you
like a father with his children, 12
urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who
calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
Paul’s compassion for the church is also seen in his
direct involvement in their lives. He
does not simply want to write them letters, but he prays to be present with
them in order to ‘restore whatever is lacking in your faith’ (1 Thessalonians
3.10). Indeed, his presence in ministry
was not to affirm communal unity in itself but in order to have such unity through his sharing the spiritual gift of
his ministry among them (Romans 1.10).
His ministry involved preparing Christians to be an acceptable and sanctified
offering to God (Romans 15.16).
Thus, Paul reminds the
Ephesian elders that he had ministered among them in just these ways. He never distorted the truth, as some false
ministers would inevitably do among them (Acts 20.30). Nor did he tell half the truth so as to avoid
any conflict or to pander to what ‘itching ears’ wanted to hear (cf. 2 Timothy
4.3). Rather, he says, ‘I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose
of God’ (Acts 20.27).
Life-on-Life
Ministry
Paul understood how essential ministry in person
was. While he did minister in public
settings, he also ministered from house to house (Acts 20.20). His ministry among the Galatians took place
through intimate fellowship, which appears to be why God used some infirmity of
his to draw people into close relationships (Galatians 4.13-15). The closeness of this relationship did not,
however, lead Paul to soften the truth that it was his duty to share (Galatians
4.16). The close relationship was,
rather, like that of a mother, who endures the pain of childbirth for her
children ‘until Christ is formed in you’ (Galatians 5.19).
Any pastor finding his or her ministry to be more from
the pulpit than from around the kitchen table is a minister who has lost touch
with the intensely personal calling of pastoral ministry. Thus, Paul exhorts the Ephesian elders to care for the church of
God, which Christ obtained with his own blood (Acts 20.28). The supreme cost of obtaining the Church—through
Christ’s blood—also reminds us of the priceless value of the Church. No minister can take his or her
responsibilities lightly, and no minister can narrow ministry to services and
programmes when the Church was established through a very personal, blood
sacrifice.
Convictional Issues
Paul’s speech to the
Ephesian elders picks up some of the content of the convictions on which
ministry is based, the essential teaching that ministers are called to
teach. He mentions (1) repentance toward
God, which means that the Church is composed of persons who (a) acknowledge
their sins and (b) repent of their sins.
Also, (2) Christian convictions centre on ‘faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ’ (Acts 20.21). Thus, Christian
teaching entails trusting in the salvation that God provides in Jesus Christ,
the Lord of the Church. There are no
alternative paths of salvation. As Peter
said to the rulers and elders of the Jews,
Acts 4:12 There is salvation in no one
else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we
must be saved."
Further, (3) in this speech Paul
spoke of the ‘Gospel of the grace of God’ (Acts 20.24). God’s grace—His salvation—was a free offer,
but it was an offer of life in the
kingdom (v. 25), and therefore it involved the offer to submit to the ‘whole counsel of God’ (Acts
20.37). Only so, could Christ be called ‘Lord.’
Grace was not license, but citizenship, life in the Kingdom of God. Entrance was free, by the blood of Christ, and
yet it was, after all, an entrance into life with Jesus Christ the Lord. Thus, Paul’s ministry was not only a
proclamation of God’s grace but also a declaration of the ‘whole counsel of God’
(Acts 20.37).
The Church, then, is a
community that is commended to God and to His grace. This is an offer of inclusion, whether to
Jews or to Gentiles—that is, to everyone who will answer the invitation. But it is more. The Church does not merely receive God’s
message, for His message is an active Word among them that is able to build them up such that they will
receive an inheritance ‘among all who are
sanctified’ (Acts 20.32).
Whenever ‘savage wolves’
come among the flock—Paul is saying—they will turn the sheep away from the
truth so as to gain followers for themselves (Acts 20.29-30). They speak twisted things. Such wolves in the Church regularly devalue
Scriptural authority, discount orthodox teaching, and undermine Christian
ethics. It is a pattern regularly
repeated since the early days of the Church and one that Paul warned against with
tears. Thus, elders in the Church are to
pay attention to their own lives and to the flock in their care. They are to remember that their ministry is
as overseers appointed by the Holy Spirit to shepherd the flock (Acts 20.28).[1]
Conclusion
Acts 20.18-35, Paul’s speech to the Ephesian
elders, is a speech about divisions that will inevitably come to the church. It is an instructive word for the Church
today. We learn, first, that there will
be divisions—faultlines—in the Christian community. The Church is not to labour to smooth over
these divisions but to identify them and their causes and to recognize that
some in the Church are not shepherds but savage wolves. The first pastoral duty is to overcome the instinct
to find unity where there is serious error.
Only so can one heed Paul’s warning.
Second, error can develop through a harmful
understanding of ministry itself. We can
put into effect practices in ministry that will actually harm the people of
God. Paul encourages the Ephesian elders
and other churches to affirm humility, meekness, and gentleness rather than
power in Christian ministry. He commends
financial arrangements that will not compromise the Gospel and the concern in
pastoral ministry to speak the truth rather than what people will want to
hear. The pastor’s heart is not soft
towards the truth but towards people, and he or she can only be so by
presenting to the flock the whole counsel of God. The pastor, moreover, is to be in intimate
fellowship with the flock, not aloof. He
or she is to be so involved in the lives of the church that he or she visits
from house to house and admonishes persons with tears to let Christ be formed
in them. This life-on-life ministry is
essential for keeping wolves at bay from the flock that Christ purchased with
his own blood.
Paul also warns of the distorted content of the
wolves’ teaching. They will distort and
soften the full counsel of God, accommodating the truth to what people wish to
hear rather than what God has revealed in His Word. They thereby undermine the Lordship of Christ
while they promote ideas that do not separate the Church from the world but blur
the distinction altogether. We might
remember that Paul’s letters to Timothy were written to him in Ephesus, and
therefore his warning against false teachers in 2 Timothy is quite relevant to
the concern in Paul’s speech in Acts 20.
Paul says to Timothy,
2
Timothy 4:3-4 For the time is coming when people will not
put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for
themselves teachers to suit their own desires,
4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander
away to myths.
[1] The ESV, NIV, and NRSV punctuate
this verse in a way that separates being appointed as overseers from shepherding
the church of God. However, the verse
reads naturally as a single thought: the elders are appointed by the Holy
Spirit to shepherd the flock: their authority as elders is not in being in a
position of elder-leadership but in being responsible shepherds.