¹⁸And when they [the elders of Ephesus] had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, ¹⁹serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews . . .”

Just as Paul elsewhere tells Christians in general to follow his example, so also this message to the Ephesian elders is not limited to leaders only. As Paul is a model for leaders, so also leaders, following his example, should be models for those they lead: the rest of us believers. Therefore, all believers should heed what Paul says to the elders in this passage. Of course, that does not mean all believers are to be exactly like Paul, who was an apostle. But we all should have his attitude. If, as many say, leadership is influence, then we all should be influencing others in their spiritual walk.

Paul begins by reminding them of his manner of life from the beginning of his time in Asia, identifying three attributes.

First, humility. For a person to speak of his own humility might seem like an implicit self-negation of the very thing he asserts. Yet this comes from the apostle Paul, who wrote later:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:5–8)

Paul is practicing what he preached. He did not go around talking all the time about how humble he was. But here he is opening up to elders, sharing his heart. There is a time when a person training others must speak openly and lovingly about the price that must be paid in order to be used by God to influence others. Paul gave up his status as a rising star among the Jewish elite in Jerusalem to reach people like the Ephesians with the gospel. He is not boasting, but he is putting himself out there as an example for others to follow.

Second, tears. His service to them took an emotional toll on him—“with tears,” he says. Paul was not a stoic theologian but a passionate shepherd.

Third, trials. His ministry among the Ephesians was accompanied by great hardship—caused by the very Jews who should have been exalting him as a great leader among them. There were physical hardships, the scars of which he bore the rest of his life.

Lord, I commit to humbling myself in Your service, just as the apostle Paul did.