Acts 20:17-31

¹⁷From Miletus, however, he sent to Ephesus and invited the church elders to meet him;

¹⁸and, when they came, he said to them, “You know well the life that I always led amongst you from the very first day that I set foot in Roman Asia,

¹⁹serving the Lord, as I did, in all humility, amid the tears and trials which fell to my lot through the plots of some of the Jewish leaders.

²⁰I never shrank from telling you anything that could be helpful to you, or from teaching you both in public and in private.

²¹I earnestly pointed both Jews and Greeks to the repentance that leads to God, and to faith in Jesus, our Lord.

²²And now, under spiritual constraint, I am here on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there,

²³except that in town after town the Holy Spirit plainly declares to me that imprisonment and troubles await me.

²⁴But I count my life of no value to myself, if only I may complete the course marked out for me, and the task that was allotted me by the Lord Jesus — which was to declare the good news of the love of God.

²⁵And now, I tell you, I know that none of you will ever see my face again — you amongst whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom.

²⁶Therefore I declare to you this day, that my conscience is clear in regard to the fate of any of you,

²⁷for I have not shrunk from announcing the whole purpose of God regarding you.

²⁸Be watchful over yourselves, and over the whole flock, of which the Holy Spirit has placed you in charge, to shepherd the church of God, which he won for himself at the cost of his life.

²⁹I know that, after my departure, merciless wolves will get in amongst you, who will not spare the flock;

³⁰and from amongst yourselves, too, people will arise, who will teach perversions of truth, so as to draw away the disciples after them.

³¹Therefore, be on your guard, remembering how for three years, night and day, I never ceased, even with tears, to warn each one of you.