διὸ γρηγορεῖτε, therefore watch. And the sort of watching indicated is that unsleeping alertness which can never be taken by surprise.

μνημονεύοντες κ.τ.λ., remembering that by the space of three years. St Paul enforces watchfulness by appealing to his own example. Be ye watchful, bearing in mind that I was so night and day while I laboured among you. The three years may be a speaking in round numbers, but it cannot have been a much less time that St Paul spent in Ephesus. See notes on Acts 19:8; Acts 19:10.

οὐκ ἐπαυσάμην μετὰ δακρύων νουθετῶν κ.τ.λ., I ceased not to admonish every one with tears. We know from his appeal to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 11:29) and from other places, how sympathetic St Paul was in all that concerned his flock. ‘Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?’ And if for weakness and offences, how much more in a city like Ephesus where idolatry was rampant everywhere! We need not confine the ‘every one’ to the presbyters; St Paul’s labour was spent on the whole Ephesian Church.

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Old Testament