THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES - Chapter 20 - Verse 30

Verse 30. Also of your own selves. From your own church; from those who profess to be Christians.

Speaking perverse things. Crooked, perverted, distracting doctrines, diestrammena. See Barnes "Ac 13:10".

They would proclaim doctrines tending to distract and divide the church. The most dangerous enemies which the church has had, have been nurtured in its own bosom, and have consisted of those who have perverted the true. doctrines of the gospel. Among the Ephesians, as among the Corinthians, 1 Co 1:11-13, there might be parties formed; there might be men influenced by ambition, like Diotrephes, 3 Jo 1:9, or like Phygellus or Hermogenes, 2 Ti 1:15, or like Hymeneus and Alexander, 1 Ti 1:20. Men under the influence of ambition, or from the love of power or popularity, form parties in the church, produce divisions and distractions, and greatly retard its internal prosperity, and mar its peace. The church of Christ would have little to fear from external enemies if it nurtured no foes in its own bosom; and all the power of persecutors is not so much to be dreaded as the counsels and plans, the parties, strifes, heart-burnings, and contentions which are produced by those who have power, among the professed friends of Christ.

{d} "of you own selves" 1 Jo 2:19; Jude 1:4