Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 18:20

"And when they asked him to abide a longer time, he consented not;" — Acts 18:20 (ASV)

When they desired him to stay longer with them. This was, obviously, a hopeful sign and an indication of the fruitful labors that followed. Nowhere, among the churches that he founded, does St. Paul seem to have found so great a receptivity for spiritual truth. While he looked on the Corinthians as being children requiring to be fed with milk (1 Corinthians 3:2), he saw in the Ephesians those to whom he did not hesitate to declare the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), to whom he could, at a later date, appeal as able to measure his knowledge of the mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 3:4).