Apostolic supervision of Church life.
From Ephesus through Macedonia, to Greece, returning through Macedonia by way of Philippi to Troas.
I. The cautious vigilance of Paul in superintending THE RISING SPIRITUAL LIFE of the infant Churches; a lesson in faithfulness and devotion to the interests of fellow-Christians, as well as in allegiance to Christ. It was not enough that the Churches had the truth. It was endangered by many difficulties and surrounding obstructive influences, both from Jews and heathen.
II. THE SELF-SACRIFICE involved in such journeys, not only in the great toil, but in danger to life.
III. THE INCREASING INFLUENCE of the apostle seen in his gathering so many round him as his fellow-travelers and fellow-laborers, a testimony to the hold which his teaching had upon the Churches, showing that the view of Christianity given in the Pauline Epistles, written about this time, was a fair representation of the current belief of the early Gentile Church. Nor could it have been widely different from that taught by the Jewish leaders; otherwise Paul could not have declared that he taught "the whole counsel of God."—R.