Bible Strands
Acts 20:27
For I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole will of God.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Ephesian elders at Miletus as he prepares for Jerusalem. He speaks to them during his final charge to the church leadership he helped establish.
The words — The Greek ὑπεστειλὴμην (hupesteilēn) literally means "I held back" or "I shrank back," paired with the infinitive ἀναγγεῖλαι (anangeilai) "to declare" or "to report." Paul uses these terms to emphasize his complete refusal to withhold any part of God's message.
The thread — This commitment to unreserved proclamation runs through Acts 20:20, where Paul refuses to withhold anything helpful, and 2 Corinthians 4:2, which rejects secret deceit in favor of open truth. The same priority of divine approval over human opinion appears in 1 Thessalonians 2:4.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to examine whether they withhold difficult truths to avoid conflict or gain favor. It demands a commitment to deliver the complete message regardless of personal cost or audience reaction.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Cross-references
- Acts 20:20 I did not shrink back from declaring anything that was helpful to you as I taught you publicly and from house to house,
- 1 Thessalonians 2:4 Instead, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, not in order to please men but God, who examines our hearts.
- 2 Corinthians 4:2 Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
- Galatians 1:7 which is not even a gospel. Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ.
- Galatians 4:16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
- Jeremiah 23:22 But if they had stood in My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and turned them back from their evil ways and deeds.”
- Psalms 32:11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous ones; shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
- Luke 7:30 But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.
- Acts 2:23 He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
- Acts 20:35 In everything, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”