John Calvin Commentary Acts 20:30

"and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them." — Acts 20:30 (ASV)

Of your own selves shall arise. This amplifies the grievousness of the evil, because there are some wolves within, who hide themselves under the title of pastors, and so wait for an opportunity in which they may do harm. Also, he declares what danger these wolves threaten, namely, the scattering of the flock, when the Church is drawn away from the unity of faith and is divided into sects.

Neither are all those wolves who do not do their duty as they ought, but there are often hirelings, a type of men not as harmful as the others. But the corruption of doctrine is a most deadly plague to the sheep. Now, in the third place, the fountain and origin of this evil is noted: because they will draw disciples after them.

Therefore, ambition is the mother of all heresies. For the sincerity of the word of God then flourishes when the pastors join hand in hand to bring disciples to Christ, because this alone is the sound state of the Church: that He alone be heard. Therefore, both the doctrine of salvation will inevitably be perverted, and the safety of the flock will inevitably come to nothing, where men desire to be masters.

And as this passage teaches that almost all corruptions of doctrine flow from the pride of men, so we learn again from it that it must be that ambitious men will turn away from true purity and corrupt the word of God. For since the pure and sincere handling of the Scripture tends to this end—that Christ alone may have the preeminence, and that men can claim nothing for themselves without taking that much from the glory of Christ—it follows that those are corrupters of sound doctrine who are devoted to themselves and strive to advance their own glory, which only obscures Christ.

This the Lord confirms in John 7:18. Furthermore, by the word arise which he uses, he signifies that those wolves nourish secret destruction until they have an opportunity to break out.

And this passage very well prevents a horrible stumbling block and offense which Satan has always cast in to trouble weak consciences. If external and professed enemies resist the gospel, this does not do as much harm to the Church as when inward enemies issue from the bosom of the Church, who deliver a sudden blow or who unfaithfully provoke the people to fall away. Yet God has from the beginning tested His Church with this temptation, and still tests it.

Therefore, let our faith be fortified with this defense so that it does not fail, if at any time it happens that pastors begin to rage like wolves. He says they shall be grievous wolves, so that he may terrify them all the more. Secondly, they shall be authors of wicked opinions, and that to the end that they may draw disciples after them, because it is almost inevitable that ambition will corrupt the purity of the gospel.

This also shows how frivolous and vain the boast of the Papists is concerning their continual succession. For since we can easily show that these horned beasts are anything but what they wish to be thought, being always convicted, they fly to this fortress: that they succeed the apostles by a continual course.

As if these, of whom Paul warns us to beware, did not also arise in succession. Therefore, since God—either to test the constancy of His people or in His just judgment—often allows wolves to rage under the guise of pastors, authority does not consist in the name and position alone, nor is succession worth anything unless faith and integrity are joined with it.

But if the Papists object that they cannot be called wolves, one word of Paul will be as a touchstone to prove whether this is so or not: that they may (he says) draw disciples after them. And to what end does all Popish religion tend, except that men’s lust and pleasure may reign instead of God’s word? But Christ has no disciples where He is not considered the only Master.