Unstoppable! 'Plans Matter Less than Love' — Acts 20:13-17

Paul was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem before the Festival of Pentecost. Pentecost was the anniversary of the birth of the church by the power of the Holy Spirit.* He also wanted to get to Jerusalem quickly with the gift given by the Gentile churches for the Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ.* However, loving on the people and leaders of the churches Paul helped to start in the Roman province of Asia was more important to him than his own agenda.** Love for his brothers and sisters in Christ was always more important than his personal plans! In the crush of all we feel that we need to do for God, we must never rush past the God-thing to do: Love each other!

* See the first set of Related Scripture Readings.
** In addition to Paul's personal relationships with the Christians in the places he ministered, a major aspect of his love for them was his concern for their faithfulness. As we will see in the remainder of the 20th chapter of Acts, Paul's love for the church and elders in Ephesus led him to tell them goodbye since he expected not to see them again, to remind them of his example, to alert them that he would be imprisoned, and to give them some final instructions and warnings.