For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Parallel translations
- WEB for I didn’t shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
- BSB For I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole will 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 20:20And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,
- 1 Th 2:4But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.
- 2 Cor 4:2But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
- Gal 1:7–10Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
- Gal 4:16Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
- Jer 23:22But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
- Eph 1:11In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
- Ps 32:11Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
- Acts 2:23Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
- 1 Cor 11:23For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
- Luke 7:30But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.
- Acts 20:35I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
- Acts 26:22–23Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:
- John 15:15Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
- Matt 28:20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
- Isa 46:10–11Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
- Acts 13:36For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
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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
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