Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 5:38

"And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will be overthrown:" — Acts 5:38 (ASV)

Refrain from these men.—The advice implies something like a suppressed conviction not bold enough to utter itself. Gamaliel takes his place in the class, at all times numerous, of those who wait on Providence, who are neutral until a cause is successful and then come forward with delayed sympathy, but who, above all, shrink from committing themselves while there seems any possibility of failure.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, St. Paul seems almost to contrast the readiness of his disciples in receiving his gospel, not as of man, but as of God, with the timid caution of his Master. As a prudential dilemma, the argument was compelling enough. Resistance was either needless or it was hopeless. If needless, it was a waste of energy; if hopeless, it involved a fatal risk besides that of mere failure.

We may legitimately think of the fiery disciple as listening impatiently to this temporizing counsel, and as stirred by it to greater vehemence.

It will come to nought.—Better, it will be overthrown, so as to preserve the emphasis of the repetition of the same verb in the next clause of the dilemma.