Paul Meets with the Ephesian Elders

¹⁷ From Miletus he sent messengers^[a] to Ephesus to ask the elders of the church to meet with him. ¹⁸ When they came to him, he told them, “You know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day I set foot in Asia. ¹⁹ I served the Lord with all humility, with tears, and with trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. ²⁰ I never shrank from telling you anything that would help you nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house. ²¹ I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance to God and faith in our Lord Jesus.^{[b] 22} And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, ²³ except that in town after town the Holy Spirit assures me that imprisonment and suffering are waiting for me. ²⁴ But I don’t place any value on my life, if only I can finish my race and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.

²⁵ “Now I know that none of you among whom I traveled preaching about the kingdom will ever see my face again. ²⁶ I therefore declare to you today that I’m not responsible for the blood of any of you, ²⁷ because I never shrank from telling you the whole plan of God. ²⁸ Pay attention to yourselves and to the entire flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to be shepherds of God’s^[c] church, which he acquired with his own blood. ²⁹ I know that when I’m gone, savage wolves will come among you and not spare the flock. ³⁰ Indeed, some of your own men will arise and distort the truth in order to lure the disciples into following them. ³¹ So be alert! Remember that for three years, night and day, I never stopped tearfully warning each of you.

³² “I’m now entrusting you to God and to the message of his grace, which is able to build you up and secure for you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. ³³ I never desired anyone’s silver, gold, or clothes. ³⁴ You yourselves know that I worked with my own hands to support myself and those who were with me. ³⁵ In every way I showed you that by working hard like this we should help the weak and remember the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”^[d]

³⁶ When Paul^[e] had said this, he knelt down and prayed with all of them. ³⁷ All of them cried and cried^[f] as they put their arms around Paul and kissed^[g] him affectionately. ³⁸ They were especially sorrowful because of what he had said—that they would never see his face again. Then they took him to the ship.