🌊WEB · Acts 20:38
What does Acts 20:38 mean?
"sorrowing most of all because of the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship."
— Acts 20:38 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
When he had spoken these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
They all wept a lot, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him,
sorrowing most of all because of the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.
Explanation
Acts 20:38 concludes a deeply emotional scene in which the apostle Paul says farewell to the elders of the church at Ephesus. In plain language, this verse tells us that the elders were grieving, and their grief was heaviest because of one particular thing Paul had told them: they would never see his face again. Despite their sorrow, they did not simply say goodbye and walk away—they physically walked with him all the way to the ship, unwilling to part from him a moment sooner than necessary.
The context is found earlier in Acts 20. Paul, traveling toward Jerusalem near the end of his third missionary journey, stopped at Miletus and sent for the elders of the Ephesian church to meet him there, since he did not have time to visit Ephesus itself. In his farewell address (Acts 20:18-35), Paul reviewed his ministry among them, warned them of coming dangers to the church, urged them to guard the flock and remain faithful, and reminded them of his own sacrificial example. He explicitly told them that he knew none of them would see his face again (verse 25), likely because he was heading toward suffering and possible death in Jerusalem, and his future travels would take him elsewhere. After he finished speaking, they knelt together in prayer (verse 36), and then came the outpouring of emotion described in verses 37-38: weeping, embracing, kissing him, and finally escorting him to the ship.
Theologically, this passage highlights the depth of Christian relationship and love that forms through shared ministry and spiritual partnership. The elders' sorr
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