With

We are following Paul’s third missionary journey. Last week, we read about a riot that brought confusion to the city of Ephesus. Today, we are going to pick up the story as it follows that riot. There is a link in the “sites” section of the blog that will allow you to interactively track his journey.


Acts 20
1 When the uproar was over, Paul sent for the believers and encouraged them. Then he said good-bye and left for Macedonia. 2 While there, he encouraged the believers in all the towns he passed through. Then he traveled down to Greece, 3 where he stayed for three months. He was preparing to sail back to Syria when he discovered a plot by some Jews against his life, so he decided to return through Macedonia. 4 Several men were traveling with him. They were Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea; Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica; Gaius from Derbe; Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. 5 They went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. 6 After the Passover ended, we boarded a ship at Philippi in Macedonia and five days later joined them in Troas, where we stayed a week.


With. I appreciate the fact that Luke (the author of Acts) included this list of guys traveling with Paul. For many, this part of the story might seem like a waste of time to write and even read. I believe it reveals something far more important than a “ship’s manifest”. These guys were traveling with Paul for the sake of integrity. Paul throughout this third missionary journey was collecting money for believers in Jerusalem (check out Romans 15:25-27, a letter Paul wrote while on this third journey). Each guy represented a church or a community that had provided resources for this financial gift. Their presence, on this journey, would ultimately uphold and then provide testimony to Paul’s integrity and the integrity with which this gift had been handled. It might seem a little excessive to you and me to go to such lengths to maintain one’s integrity; but it didn’t to Paul ... and it probably shouldn’t to us. Who is “traveling” with you on your journey through life to uphold your integrity?