Acts 15:36 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And some days after After they had continued a considerable number of days at Antioch; Paul Whose active spirit was ever forming some new scheme for the advancement of Christianity; said to Barnabas His former associate; Let us go again and visit our brethren The churches we have planted; in every city Wherever we have preached the word of the Lord; let us go and water the seed sown. Those who have preached the gospel should visit those to whom they have preached it; that they may see what effect their ministry has had, and whether any real and lasting fruit has been produced by it. And see how they do How their souls prosper; how they grow in faith, hope, love; and what is the state of religion among them. And what else ought to be the grand and constant inquiry in every ecclesiastical visitation? As the apostle could not but be sensible of the great danger in which the Gentile converts, in distant countries, were of being perverted by the Jews, and as his zeal for the purity of the gospel would lead him to consider by what means they might most probably be confirmed in the truth, it is likely that another end which he had in view in proposing this journey was, to make these Gentiles acquainted with the decrees which had been ordained by the apostles, elders, and brethren in Judea. For no expedient could appear to him more proper than this, to preserve them from being misled. Accordingly, as we find chap. Acts 16:4, he and his fellow-traveller delivered these decrees to them as they went through the cities.