Acts 20:13-38
I must admit that when I first read Paul's farewell to the Ephesian elders, I thought that for some reason, the Ephesians were arguing about Paul's previous life of persecuting the Christians. When Paul said that he was innocent of the blood of all men, I thought that referred to the people he had killed before he became a Christian. I read a few commentaries on this passage though, such as William Barclay's, Matthew Henry's, and Barnes's notes, and I found out that Paul was actually just saying that he preached the gospel with such dedication in Ephesus that if people weren't saved, it was through no fault of his own.
I hope we can say the same for ourselves. I was reading Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Church this morning and he was saying that faithfulness does not exclude fruitfulness, rather, it requires fruitfulness. Jesus said a number of times that bearing fruit is of utmost importance. In fact, he even cursed a fig tree that didn't have fruit as an example to his disciples about the importance of bearing fruit. Am I being faithful? If I believe the answer is yes, is there evidence of my faithfulness?
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