As Paul said goodbye to his friends from Ephesus at the seaport town of Miletus on the Mediterranean Sea, about 37 miles from their home, he shared a number of touching thoughts with them. They had made their way to his side expressly for the purpose of visiting with him and hearing from him one more time. He was on his way from Greece to Jerusalem. Closing out his speech to them, he said:
And now I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and give you the inheritance among all them that are sanctified (Acts 20:32).
These, along with a few other brief sayings, were to be his final words to these brethren with whom he had spent much time and effort in the kingdom of God. They would not see his face again (Acts 20:38). On such an occasion one would expect that only important things would be taken up. Only weighty matters that touched the future for those you love would be spoken of at such a time and therefore imprint themselves upon the mind and memory of all parties concerned from that day forward. Such was indeed the case here. And the few terse remarks recorded in this instance are appropriate for a situation of this kind. They are worthy of much thought and study.
In a nutshell, here is what Paul said to these beloved Christian brethren he was never to see again:
1. I commend you to God. Paul placed them and their future henceforth into the hands of the Almighty God. A commendation to God simply states that God is fully able to take care of you and supply all of your needs, and that he will indeed do this very thing. Paul evinces that he will not worry over them personally, because he trusts that God will take care of their many needs. We often worry about our children and what will happen to them in the future, when what we should do is precisely what Paul did in the case of his spiritual children: he commended them to God and his provision and care. The future of these Christians was out of his hands at this point, so he gave the matter over to God. They were now in his care and keeping.
Often the people of God show too little faith in their view of the future. Jesus himself warned that we may fall into the classification of those with “little faith” if we are not careful. And it can and will often happen to us in relation to things that are very ordinary and common to the human condition:
And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you (ESV, Luke 12:22-31).
The point the Savior was making is that God will richly supply us with all of our needs, both for the body and for the soul, and that worry will not in any way change any of that. So worry and sleeplessness are not the answer to this problem. Commendation to God is the right response. Paul chose it, and so should we.
Thus, each of us in a sense needs to commend our own selves to God in faith, being willing ourselves to do on our part what is essential for us to do, and then trust the Lord for the rest. He is fully capable of delivering on all of his promises. He is always faithful if we are trusting (1 Corinthians 1:9; 10:13; 2 Corinthians 1:18; Hebrews 3:6). Our part in this is to trust God; He will attend to what remains.
2. I commend you to the word of His grace. Having commended these saints to God and to his capable hands, the Bible says that Paul commended them to the word of God’s grace. God’s grace, of course, is His favor shown toward his people in love. Because he loves us, he favors us in very many ways, ways too many for us to count. Every blessing God grants us, whether we even notice it or not, is a manifestation of his love for us. They are also indications or pointers of his gracious favor shown to his children. Just as we favor our own children and provide them with special benefits that the children of others do not enjoy, so God showers upon us blessings that children of the devil do not enjoy.
But in reality most of what we have thus far described was encompassed in the first part of Paul’s benediction, his commendation of his brethren to God. This second part underscores a wholly different aspect of God’s blessing of his people. Here it is “the word of His grace” that they are being commended to. And that is special. It comprehends an entirely different aspect of this favor shown toward his people. A loving mother will often pen a special note to one of her children for their birthday or some other important occasion. Sometimes she will write a letter to express the thoughts and sentiments of her heart. God has done this too.
From the very beginning of the Lord’s relationship with his special people Israel, there was one element that was unique in every sense of the word, and that was the element of revelation. He communicated with his people. God spoke to his people through apostles and prophets, providing them with written instruction for their lives. They were not left to guess about what his will for them should be. God told them his will. He communicated it to them and for them. As Jeremiah the prophet reminded his people on one occasion, “From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day” (Jer. 7:25; 26:5; 29:19; 35:15; 44:4; Ezek. 38:17; Zech. 1:6). God only fell silent at the end of the period of revelation. Later, he spoke to them once more, but this time through his only Son.
Jesus was the final word in this long line of prophetic voices intended to instruct and enlighten his children (Hebrews 1:2). At the last, God spoke through his Son, “through whom he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory, and the very image of his substance…”, the hence Lord had given finality to his revelatory process. The word of Jesus is the final word. Neither the word of Joseph Smith nor that of Mohammed constitutes God’s final word, even though both pretend to be. It is the word of God’s Christ, pure and simple. So says the writer of the letter to the Hebrews.
That being true, two conclusions may be drawn from this important truth, and Paul draws them together at the end of this benediction. The following two points address them each in its own turn.
3. The word of His grace is able to build you up. Paul made this commendation because God used the word of his grace as an agent of change and development. The word of the Lord’s grace has great power. Too often we read or quote from this text without recognizing the force of what the apostle has had to say here. The word of God’s grace is able to build you up in the most holy faith. In another place Paul wrote that love builds us up (1 Corinthians 8:1).
The Greek term chosen (oikodomeo, “to build, to edify, to embolden”) to communicate this idea is one that means “to construct a house,” that is, “to build up from the foundation.” The expression is used here in the sense of causing one to grow in the Christian graces and qualities of life. We build our lives daily as we follow the pattern of Jesus’ life and character. And we read about him in the Bible.
The present text informs us then that “the word of His grace” has an enormous influence upon this process. As we spend time with it we imbibe its attitudes and attributes. We become more like the Christ who is at its center. And thus we are building a life in the image of Him who inspired the words that comprise this spiritual message and its weighty content. As a consequence, the edifice which is our life becomes a memorial to the one who loved us and gave himself for us. “It is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
4. The word of His grace is able to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. The word of God’s grace is viewed also as an agent toward receiving an inheritance as the Lord’s dear children. Children receive the inheritance in any family. In making this assertion Paul attaches a qualifier; he notes that God’s inheritance for his saints is promised to “those who are sanctified,” that is to say, the ones who have allowed themselves to be set apart for divine duties and responsibilities. This word for sanctification is related to the term representing holiness. In that sense it means someone or something that is not common or ordinary.
Thus, it is that person who is “extraordinary” not because of peculiar merit or talent of his own but on account of having been set apart for a special purpose. God’s people are individuals who have a special purpose in life and so are “sanctified.” When Paul wrote the church of God at Corinth he addressed them saying that he was writing:
To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours (1 Corinthians 1:2).
With all of its questions and troubles, the church at Corinth was in Christ and on that account was “sanctified in Christ Jesus.” They were God’s chosen people, set aside from all the earth’s inhabitants as God’s own. They enjoyed special status because they had special work to do. The reader should note also, however, that Paul does not here identify this group as having been separated for divine purposes in isolation from others, but rather in conjunction with the Lord’s people “who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus.” Such folk are not only to enjoy a high and holy calling in the present time, but as our text explains, their end is to enjoy “the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
People often dispute and quarrel about the inheritance that is enjoyed as a result of a family relation who has left a considerable fortune to his or her heirs. In reality, even if that “fortune” numbers in the millions of dollars, it is a pittance compared to the inheritance that awaits God’s people. Its value is beyond accounting. In the Final Day a man would give all the world’s money and possessions to have some part in what awaits God’s children! And this passage informs us that it comes to us by means of God’s “word of grace,” the message of salvation in Christ Jesus. As Peter explains:
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you
(1 Peter 1:22-25).
I would commend you also to the word of His grace. It is fully capable of building you up and giving you the eternal inheritance about which Paul speaks with such glowing confidence. The Bible contains the mind of God and the will of God for mankind. Mine its treasures and your future will be assured. The New Testament in particular will enrich your life in the present and will provide you with a certain hope that, if held on to tenaciously to the end of life, will give you an inheritance unlike any billionaire could ever bequeath to his heirs. Read it. Study it. Meditate over it. Live with it and let it settle down deep into your heart. The dividends it pays are like no other.