Acts 20:24

None of these things. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) reading the first part of v. 24 as follows: “But I do not count my life of any value or as precious to myself.”

Count I my life. Literally, “I do not make my life of any account.” That is, Paul did not reckon matters of self as worth anything (see Phil. 3:7, 8). This was the Lord’s attitude when He condescended to the incarnation (Phil. 2:7, 8).

Dear unto myself. That is, valuable for my own desires. No personal choices or wishes distracted Paul from the arduous privileges of his ministry. He was not his own man; he was a slave of Christ (Rom. 1:1). Nothing was of enough importance to tempt him to a neglect of duty. This was the spirit of the Saviour and of the early Christians.

Course. Gr. dromos, “race,” “racecourse”; “span of life” or “term of office”; “career.” Paul was making of himself a living offering (Rom. 12:1), in order that the course laid out for him might be finished successfully. Such a course he claimed, in his valedictory epistle, to have finished (2 Tim. 4:7). So he exhorted the Hebrews to “run with patience [perseverance] the race” that was set before them (Heb. 12:1). Paul wanted so to run his life course that at the end he would not have to regret any neglect or failure from carelessness or indifference. He wished to end his career in the contentment of a clear conscience.

With joy. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the omission of these words.

The ministry. The Gr. diakonia, “service,” from which comes the English term “deaconate.” Here it means, not an ecclesiastical office, but a service rendered to God. To do faithful service was the ruling principle of Paul and he admonished his “son” Timothy to equal devotion (2 Tim. 4:5).

Of the Lord Jesus. Paul’s strong sense of the reality of his call to the gospel ministry was a consequence of his unique conversion, when Christ Himself commissioned him and told him through Ananias of the work he was to do (chs. 9:15-17; 22:14, 15; 26:16-18). Paul never doubted his calling, though others apparently did so (2 Cor. 3:1-6; Gal. 1:10-24).

To testify. Or, “thoroughly to bear witness to.”

The gospel. See on Mark 1:1. The gospel is the good news of God’s mercy to sinful men through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross. Such a witness can be borne only by those who have known themselves to be sinners alienated from God, and have, by faith, experienced for themselves the saving grace and power of Jesus Christ.