Limitless Word
For I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole will of God.
Acts 20:27 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB for I didn’t shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
  • KJV For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
  • NKJV For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
  • NASB For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.
  • NLT for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Paul did not hold back from declaring the whole counsel of God. He preached the complete message, not a selective one.

Overview

The "whole counsel of God" embraces the full scope of God's revealed will, His plan of salvation, His commands, and His warnings. Paul's refusal to edit the message for comfort or popularity is the ground of his innocence in the previous verse. Faithful ministry proclaims all of Scripture, trusting God's word entirely rather than human preference.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 17

  • Acts 20:20I did not shrink back from declaring anything that was helpful to you as I taught you publicly and from house to house,
  • 1 Th 2:4Instead, 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 Cor 4:2Instead, 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.
  • Gal 1:7–10which is not even a gospel. Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ.
  • Gal 4:16Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
  • Jer 23:22But 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.”
  • Eph 1:11In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,
  • Ps 32:11Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous ones; shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
  • Acts 2:23He 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.
  • 1 Cor 11:23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread,
  • Luke 7:30But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.
  • Acts 20:35In 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.’”
  • Acts 26:22–23But I have had God’s help to this day, and I stand here to testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen:
  • John 15:15No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.
  • Matt 28:20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
  • Isa 46:10–11I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’
  • Acts 13:36For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep. His body was buried with his fathers and saw decay.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Acts videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Acts 20:27YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ActsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.

How Acts 20:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.