Limitless Word
For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.
Acts 20:27 · New American 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 20:20how I didn’t shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house,
  • 1 Th 2:4But even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts.
  • 2 Cor 4:2But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
  • Gal 1:7–10and there isn’t another “good news.” Only there are some who trouble you, and want to pervert the Good News of Christ.
  • Gal 4:16So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
  • Jer 23:22But if they had stood in my council, then they would have caused my people to hear my words, and would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
  • Eph 1:11in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will;
  • Ps 32:11Be glad in Yahweh, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!
  • Acts 2:23him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;
  • 1 Cor 11:23For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.
  • Luke 7:30But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God, not being baptized by him themselves.
  • Acts 20:35In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
  • Acts 26:22–23Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would happen,
  • John 15:15No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.
  • Matt 28:20teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
  • Isa 46:10–11I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. I say: My counsel will stand, and I will do all that I please.
  • Acts 13:36For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, and was laid 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.