Acts 20:22-24 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And behold I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem Strongly impelled by the Spirit which intimates my duty to me in such a manner, that I can neither omit nor delay it. I am, therefore, fully resolved to proceed, being well assured that it is by a divine direction and influence that I am so, and not from any humour, fancy, or will of my own. Or, the expression may mean, “foreseeing by the Spirit that I shall be bound,” as it follows in the next verse. So Grotius and Whitby understand him. Not knowing Particularly; the things that shall befall me there What I shall suffer in that city, or what shall happen to me when I come thither; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth Namely, by other persons; (for it was God's good pleasure to reveal these things to him, not immediately, but by the ministry of others;) in every city Almost, through which I passed; saying By the mouths of divinely-inspired prophets; that bonds and afflictions abide Or await, me This I know in the general, though the particulars of those sufferings I know not; such as, whence they shall spring, what shall be the occasion of them, what the circumstances, and to what degree they shall rise. These things God had not thought fit to reveal to him. Reader, it is for our good to be kept ignorant of future events, that we may be always waiting on God, and waiting for him. But none of these things more me Greek, αλλ ' ουδενος λογον ποιουμαι, I make no account of any of those things; neither count I my life dear Τιμιαν, precious; to myself On such an occasion. It adds a great force to this, and all the other passages of Scripture, in which the apostles express their contempt of the world, that they were not uttered by persons like Seneca and Antoninus, who talked elegantly of despising the world in the full affluence of all its enjoyments; but by men who daily underwent the greatest calamities, and exposed their lives in proof of the truth of their assertions. So that I might finish my course Of duty and of suffering, as a Christian and an apostle; with joy Arising from the testimony of my own conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity I have had my conversation in the world; from evidences of my having pleased God, and been accounted faithful by him, and from a lively expectation of being approved of by him in the day of final accounts, and of enjoying felicity and glory with him for ever; and the ministry The infinitely-important ministry; which I have received of the Lord Jesus With which he has graciously intrusted me; to testify the gospel of the grace of God To which grace, free and abundant as it is, I am myself obliged beyond all expression, and beyond all the returns I can ever make by any labour or sufferings I may undergo in its service.