Acts 20:17-35

¹⁷From Miletus he sent men to Ephesus and called to himself the elders of the church.

¹⁸When they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I always spent my time with you.

¹⁹I kept serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind and with tears, and in sufferings that happened to me because of the plots of the Jews.

²⁰You know how I did not keep back from declaring to you anything that was useful, and how I taught you in public and from house to house,

²¹testifying both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus.

²²Now look, I am going to Jerusalem, compelled by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there,

²³except that the Holy Spirit warns to me in every city that chains and sufferings await me.

²⁴But I do not consider my life is valuable to myself, if only I may finish the race and complete the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

²⁵Now look, I know that you all, among whom I went about proclaiming the kingdom, will see my face no more.

²⁶Therefore I testify to you this day, that I am innocent of the blood of any man.

²⁷For I did not hold back from declaring to you the whole will of God.

²⁸Therefore be careful about yourselves, and about all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be careful to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.

²⁹I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.

³⁰I know that from even among you some men shall come and distort the truth in order to draw away the disciples after them.

³¹So be on guard. Remember that for three years I did not stop instructing every one of you with tears night and day.

³²Now I entrust you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are being sanctified.

³³I coveted no man's silver, gold, or clothing.

³⁴You yourselves know that these hands served my own needs and the needs of those who were with me.

³⁵In all things I gave you an example of how you should help the weak by working, and of how you should remember the words of the Lord Jesus, words that he himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”