Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
19. Serving the Lord. He reckoneth up first not only in what straits he was, but most of all his humility, coupled with contempt of the world, and rebukes, and other afflictions; as if he should say, that he was not honorably received or with commendation; but he was conversant among them under the contemptible form of the cross.
Paul sent for these elders not to leave them, but to instruct and encourage them in the work they had undertaken. His life among them, serious, gracious, heavenly, no self-seeking, proved God was truly with him and animated him by a better spirit than his own.
AI summary
Commenting on Acts 20:17-35
And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you,.... The Syriac version supplies, "to your souls"; to lead them into a true knowledge of the doctrines of the Gospel, and to confirm them in the same, and to preserve them from errors in principle, and immoralities in practice, and to encourage the exercise of every grace, and to instruct them in every branch...