Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 13:47

"For so hath the Lord commanded us, [saying], I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles, That thou shouldest be for salvation unto the uttermost part of the earth." — Acts 13:47 (ASV)

I have set thee to be a light to the Gentiles.—The context of the quotation has to be remembered as showing that St. Paul identified the “Servant of the Lord” in Isaiah 49:6 with the person of the Christ. (See Note on Acts 4:27.) The citation is interesting as the first example of the train of thought which led the Apostle to see in the language of the prophets, where others had found only the exaltation of Israel, the divine purpose of love towards the whole Gentile world. It is the germ of the argument afterwards more fully developed in Romans 9:25; Romans 10:12.