Acts 20: Gospel Trajectory

This was Paul's farewell address to his friends in Ephesus. Essentially, he was laying the basic elements of Christian leadership in a brief beach-side meeting... He called the leaders to imitate his life saying things like, "you saw how I lived when I was with you" (vs. 18, paraphrased), "you know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you" (vs. 20), "I only want to finish the task Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace" (vs. 24, paraphrased), then he says, "I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God" (vs. 26,27). All of these verses serve as a call to christian leaders to do those things; Preach the Word, live lives worthy of imitation, declare the Gospel of God's grace, and proclaim the whole will of God.

Then, in addition to those things, defend the truth. "Keep watch... even men from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on guard!" Proclaim and defend. This, my friends, might be the hardest vocation in the world. If you are too heavy on proclamation you become a bumbling fool with no credibility. Too hard on the defending and you become self-righteous, arrogant doctrine police.

So what are we to do?

Here is my plan... I am going to apply the Gospel of God's grace to my life first. Then, I am going to patiently and prayerfully live cultivating both discernment to defend and grace to extend toward others... I want to set a trajectory that moves me closer to Jesus and not closer to Pharisee-ism. Then, maybe when I am old, I can revisit this portion of scripture and have more to say.