Acts 20:30

"For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock."

Key Reflection

In Acts 20:30, Paul warns the Ephesian elders about the imminent arrival of false teachers who would disrupt the Christian community (vicious wolves). This imagery draws on a common metaphor in both Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts to describe harmful intruders who would prey upon the faithful (the flock). Paul's warning underscores the importance of vigilance and discernment among believers to protect the church from spiritual threats.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Verse 30. Also of your own selves. From your own church; from those who profess to be Christians. Speaking perverse things. Crooked, perverted, distracting doctrines, diestrammena. See Barnes "Ac 13:10". They would proclaim doctrines tending to distract and divide the church. The most dangerous enemies which the church has had, have been nurtured in its own bosom, and have consisted of those who have perverted the true. doctrines of the gospel. Among the Ephesians, as among the Corinthians, 1 Co 1:11-13, there might be parties formed; there might be men influenced by ambition, like Diotrephes, 3 Jo 1:9, or like Phygellus or Hermogenes, 2 Ti 1:15, or like Hymeneus and Alexander, 1 Ti 1:20.

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