Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 21:13

"Then Paul answered, What do ye, weeping and breaking my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." — Acts 21:13 (ASV)

What do you mean? Greek: What are you doing? This is a tender and affectionate, but firm reproach.

To weep and to break my heart? That is, to afflict me and distract my mind with alarms and expressions of tenderness. His mind was fixed on going to Jerusalem, and he felt that he was prepared for whatever awaited him.

Expressions of tenderness among friends are proper. Tears may be inevitable when parting from those we love, but such expressions of tenderness and love ought not to be allowed to interfere with the convictions of duty in their minds.

If they have made up their minds that a certain course is proper and have resolved to pursue it, we ought neither to attempt to divert them from it nor to distract their minds with our remonstrances or our tears. We should entrust them to their convictions of what is demanded of them, with affection and prayer, but with cheerfulness.

We should lend them all the aid in our power and then commend them to the blessing and protection of God. These remarks apply especially to those engaged in the missionary enterprise. It is trying to part with a son, a daughter, or a beloved friend so that they may go to proclaim the gospel to the benighted and dying heathen.

The act of parting—for life—and the apprehension of the perils they may encounter on the ocean and in heathen lands may be painful; but if they, like Paul, have looked at it calmly, candidly, and with much prayer—if they have come to the deliberate conclusion that it is the will of God that they should devote their lives to this service—we ought not to weep and break their hearts.

We should cheerfully and confidently commit them to the protection of the God whom they serve, remembering that they are seeking His glory and that the parting of Christians, though for life, will be short. Soon, in a better world, they will be united again, to part no more. The blessedness of that future meeting will be greatly heightened by all the sorrows and self-denials of separation here, and by all the benefits that such a separation may convey to a dying world. That mother will meet with joy in heaven the son from whom, with many tears, she was separated when he entered missionary life. Surrounded by many ransomed heathen, heaven will be made more blessed, and all eternity more happy.

But also to die. This was the true spirit of a martyr. This spirit reigned in the hearts of all the early Christians.

For the name of the Lord Jesus. For His sake; in making His name known.