Acts 14:22

14:19-28 See how restless the rage of the Jews was against the gospel of Christ. The people stoned Paul, in a popular tumult. So strong is the bent of the corrupt and carnal heart, that as it is with great difficulty that men are kept back from evil on one side, so it is with great ease they are persuaded to evil on the other side. If Paul would have been Mercury, he might have been worshipped; but if he will be a faithful minister of Christ, he shall be stoned, and thrown out of the city. Thus men who easily submit to strong delusions, hate to receive the truth in the love of it. All who are converted need to be confirmed in the faith; all who are planted need to be rooted. Ministers' work is to establish saints as well as to awaken sinners. The grace of God, and nothing less, effectually establishes the souls of the disciples. It is true, we must count upon much tribulation, but it is encouragement that we shall not be lost and perish in it. The Person to whose power and grace the converts and the newly-established churches are commended, clearly was the Lord Jesus, on whom they had believed. It was an act of worship. The praise of all the little good we do at any time, must be ascribed to God; for it is He who not only worketh in us both to will and to do, but also worketh with us to make what we do successful. All who love the Lord Jesus, will rejoice to hear that he has opened the door of faith wide, to those who were strangers to him and to his salvation.

It is not enough to sow the seed of the word, but it must be watered also, frequent endeavours must be used that it may be fruitful. Thus the apostles return to visit such as they had preached unto; the persecution they had endured, increasing their resolution for God, and their strength from him. Lest they should be offended at what they saw St. Paul had endured, or themselves might be called to endure, they preach unto them the doctrine of the cross, not hiding from them the miseries which in this world the profession of Christ and his truths might bring upon them. God hath indeed dealt all along thus with his people. The troubles which the Israelites met with in the wilderness, in their journey towards an earthly Canaan, did typify the calamities which God’s people will meet with in this world, as they journey towards the heavenly Canaan, or Jerusalem which is above.

{8} Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. (8) It is the office of the ministers, not only to teach, but also to confirm those that are taught, and prepare them for the cross.

21. and when they had preached … to that city and had taught many—rather, "had made many disciples" (Margin); but probably without suffering any persecution, as Derbe is not mentioned along with Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra (2Ti 3:11). Ac 14:21-28. Paul and Barnabas Retrace Their Steps, Return to Antioch in Syria, and Thus Complete Their First Missionary Journey. 21, 22. they returned … to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls, &c.—At Derbe, Paul was not far from the well-known pass which leads down from the central tableland to Cilicia and Tarsus. But his thoughts did not center in an earthly home. He revisited the places where he had been reviled and persecuted, but where he had left as sheep in the desert the disciples whom his Master had enabled him to gather. They needed building up and strengthening in the faith, comforting in the midst of their inevitable suffering, and fencing round by permanent institutions. Undaunted therefore by the dangers that awaited them, our missionaries return to them, using words of encouragement which none but the founders of a true religion would have ventured to address to their earliest converts, that "we can only enter into the kingdom of God by passing through much tribulation" [Howson].

Verse 22. - Exhorting for and exhorting , A.V.; through many tribulations we must for we must through much tribulation , A.V. St. Paul spoke from his own experience: "In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft," etc. ( 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 ; see too 2 Timothy 3:10-12 ). It is very touching to see the tender care of the apostles for the young converts, lest they should fall away in time of persecution (see Acts 15:36 ; 1 Thessalonians 3:1, 5, 8 ; 1 Peter 5:8-10 ). Acts 14:22

22 . confirming the souls of the disciples ] The strengthening indicated by this word is that which Peter was charged to afford to his fellow-disciples. “When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren,” i.e. by warnings and exhortations drawn from thy own trials and thy deliverance from them. We see that this was the purport of St Paul’s charge to the Churches. and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God ] From the use of the pronoun “we” in this sentence some have thought that, although unmentioned, the writer of the Acts was present with Paul and Barnabas in this first missionary journey as well as in the others. St Luke only indicates his presence at Troas and elsewhere in the same manner ( Acts 16:10-12 , &c.), though in those passages the mention is more conclusive than in the verse before us.

(22) Confirming the souls of the disciples. —Better, perhaps, strengthening, so as to avoid the more definite associations connected with the other term. In Acts 18:23 , the word is so rendered. It is not the same as that used by later writers for the ecclesiastical rite of Confirmation. Exhorting them to continue in the faith.—The question meets us whether “faith” is used in its subjective sense, the “feeling of trust,” or objectively, as including the main substance of what was believed and taught—“a belief or creed.” That the latter meaning had become established a few years after St. Luke wrote, we see in 1Timothy 5:8; Jude Acts 14:3; Acts 14:20; and on the whole it seems probable that it is so used here. And that we must through much tribulation.—More accurately, through many tribulations. The use of the first personal pronoun is suggestive. Is St. Luke generalising what he heard from those who had listened to St. Paul, and giving it in their very words? Was he himself one of those listeners? The two had clearly met before we find them both at Troas; and on the supposition suggested in the last question, the apparently casual use of the pronoun would be analogous to what we find afterwards. (See Note on Acts 16:10.) In St. Paul’s latest Epistle to the chosen disciple of Lystra we have a touching reproduction of this teaching.

He speaks of the afflictions which came on him at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, and adds the general truth that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecutions” (2Timothy 3:12). The kingdom of God.—We may pause to note the occurrence of the familiar phrase and thought of the Gospels in the earliest recorded teaching of St. Paul. In his Epistles it recurs frequently (Romans 14:17; 1Corinthians 4:20; 1Corinthians 6:9; Colossians 4:11; 2Thessalonians 1:5). For him, too, that which was proclaimed was not a theory or an opinion, but an actual kingdom, of which Jesus the Christ was king.

Confirming - "strengthening" ἐπιστηρίζοντες epistērizontes. The expression "to confirm" as in some churches a technical signification, denoting "to admit to the full privileges of a Christian by the imposition of hands" (Johnson). It is scarcely necessary to say that the word here refers to no such rite. It has no relation to an imposition of hands, or to the thing which is usually supposed to be denoted by the rite of "confirmation." It means simply that they established, strengthened, made firm, or encouraged by the presentation of truth and by the motives of the gospel. Whether the rite of confirmation, as practiced by some churches, be founded on the authority of the New Testament or not, it is certain that it can receive no support from this passage. The truth was, that these were young converts; that they were surrounded by enemies, and exposed to temptations and to dangers; that they had as yet but a slight acquaintance with the truths of the gospel, and that it was therefore important that they should be further instructed in the truth, and established in the faith of the gospel. This was what Paul and Barnabas returned to accomplish. There is not the slightest evidence that they had not been admitted to the full privileges of the church before; or that any ceremony was now performed in confirming or strengthening them. The souls - The minds, the hearts, or the disciples themselves.