Savage Wolves Will Come In Among You

Paul had three years with the Ephesian elders. He is leaving and he knows he will not see them again, and he has one shot at the last thing he will ever say to them.

He does not use it on encouragement. He uses it on a warning about their own building.

The order of the sentence

"Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28)

Yourselves first. Then the flock.

That order is not an accident and it is not modesty. A shepherd who is not watching himself is not a safe man to have over other people, and Paul puts it in that sequence because he has watched it go wrong.

Then he tells them where the trouble is coming from.

"I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them." (Acts 20:29-30)

Paul names two doors. Wolves that come in from outside, and men who rise up from inside. It is the second one he lingers on, and it is the one nobody in that room saw coming. From among your own selves. From the men he is speaking to.

We are watching the wrong door

Most Christian men have a threat model and it points outward.

The culture. The schools. The politicians. The people online. Whatever is coming for the family is coming from out there, and the job is to build the wall higher.

Paul, given his last words to men he loved, spent them on the inside. And the warnings that follow keep pointing the same way. Jesus says they come in sheep's clothing, which means they arrive dressed correctly and nobody at the door stops them. Peter says false teachers will arise among you. John says they went out from us, but they were not really of us.

The reason is simple and it is uncomfortable. A wolf outside the fence cannot get to your kid's beliefs. A man with a microphone and your trust can, in twenty minutes, and your kid will thank him for it.

What the wolf is not

Let me be careful, because this passage gets used badly and I have watched it done.

A wolf is not a man who preached a sermon you disagreed with. He is not the elder who voted the other way on the building, or the guy whose politics annoy you, or the young pastor who is worse at this than the old one was. Handing a man this verse because he rubs you wrong is how churches eat themselves, and a man who goes wolf hunting in his own congregation every Sunday will find one every time, because he is looking for a feeling and feelings are always available.

Paul gives you two marks and they are narrow. Speaking perverse things, which means the content is twisted, not merely unpleasant. And to draw away the disciples after them, which means the aim is a following for himself.

Twisted teaching, plus a personal following. Both. That is the animal.

Everything else is a brother you disagree with, and the way to handle a brother is to go talk to him.

Be on guard for yourselves

Now the harder half, and Paul put it first for a reason.

Most men who became wolves did not set out to be one. They were men in the room when Paul said this, some of them nodding, and it happened to them over years, and it happened by increments none of which felt like the moment.

A man starts enjoying being agreed with. Then he starts arranging to be agreed with. Then the people who disagree get moved away from him, and it is always for a good reason, and after a few years he is surrounded by men who tell him he is right and he has no idea it was constructed.

That is the drift, and there is one thing that stops it. Somebody who is allowed to tell you no.

So ask it about yourself, and give the true answer. Who in my life can say you are wrong about that and have it land. Not who theoretically could. Who has, in the last year. If the answer is nobody, you do not have a doctrine problem yet, but you have removed the only thing that catches one.

Purchased with His own blood

Do not skip past the middle of that verse, because it is the reason any of this matters.

The church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

Paul is telling these men why they should stay awake, and his argument is not that the church is important or that people are counting on them. It is that the flock cost blood. Somebody already paid for these people, and paid everything, and what the elders have been handed is not their ministry. It is His property.

That should do two things to a man at once.

It should make him serious, because you handle what somebody died for differently than you handle what you built.

And it should take the weight off, because the flock is not finally yours to keep either. The Shepherd who bought them is not going to lose them while you sleep, and you are going to sleep. He is a shepherd who goes after the one that wandered and does not come back without it.

Three years, night and day, with tears

"Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears." (Acts 20:31)

Each one. With tears.

That is the model of guarding people that Paul leaves them with, and it is not a security posture. It is three years of individual conversations with grown men, over and over, close enough that he cried about it.

You cannot guard people you do not know. Every man who has tried to protect his family with rules instead of relationship has found this out the hard way, usually late. The rules are fine. They are not the watch. The watch is knowing each one, close enough that you would notice a change in him, and staying at it for years.

Find the man who can tell you no

Here is the concrete thing, and it is the one Paul put first.

Name the man who has told you that you were wrong in the last twelve months, and who you listened to.

If a name came to mind, call him this week and thank him, and tell him plainly to keep doing it. Men like that stop when they think it costs them the friendship.

If no name came to mind, that is your assignment. Go find one and hand him the job out loud. Tell him you want him to say it when he sees something. Then, the first time he does, do not defend yourself. Just say thank you and think about it for a week.

Paul told the elders to guard themselves before he told them to guard anybody. A man with nobody over his own door is not ready to stand at anyone else's.