St. Luke says, "Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus," using that Sacred Name as they would have used any of their magical spells or words. "Vagabond" means wandering; and we generally use the word to describe idle, worthless people, who go about begging or stealing, instead of working honestly to gain their own living. "Exorcists" was only a name given to those who professed to cast out evil spirits by the arts of sorcery.
"And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so." The spiritual state of the Jews must indeed have been sad, when the sons of a priest could be found thus wilfully practising arts, upon which the sentence of death was pronounced by the Law! These men, seeing that when St. Paul spake to the evil spirits in the name of Jesus, they immediately left the bodies of those whom they had possessed, wickedly determined to use that Holy Name, in order to heal a man in whom was an evil spirit. And they said, "We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth" to come out of this man. "And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?" The devils were forced to acknowledge the power of Jesus, and that for His sake they must obey His servant Paul; but they plainly told these Jews that they were in no way subject to them: and they gave a strong proof of this, for "the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded." Such an event as this showed clearly that all power belonged to God alone, and that all magical arts were useless, as well as sinful. "And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified,"—more thought of, and treated with greater respect.
And many that believed, who had, before they became Christians, practised magical arts, now convinced of their extreme sinfulness and folly, "came and confessed, and shewed their deeds,"—expressing their repentance for these former sins.
Nor was this all: "many of them also which (still) used curious arts" saw the wickedness of such practices; and warned by what had happened, showed their repentance by their acts; for they "brought their books together, and burned them before all men." This was a great proof of their earnestness to put an end to the use of magical arts in others, as well as in themselves; for they did not attempt to sell these books to others, but destroyed them. The books were very valuable, for "they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver"—all this money these men were willing to sacrifice, in order to please God. This is a warning as well as an example to us, who are too often unwilling to deny ourselves in anything, or make the least sacrifice in order to please or obey our Lord.
"So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed,"—that is, the blessed truths of the Gospel spread on every side, so that the numbers of Christians increased daily.
St. Paul, who had now been nearly three years in Ephesus, began to think of continuing his journey; and "purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome." Just at this time, St. Paul heard an unsatisfactory account of what was going on at Corinth. We have seen that the Apostle had passed eighteen months in Corinth, forming a Church there; and that Apollos had afterwards preached the Gospel in that city with great success: but very soon afterwards, false teachers rose up—that is, persons, who were not sufficiently instructed themselves, fancied that they were able to teach others. But, as they did not themselves understand the whole truth, they could not teach it to others; and therefore their imperfect teaching created great confusion, and unsettled the minds of many believers. Some of these "false teachers" were converts from the Gentiles, who, having been converted by Apollos, now called themselves his disciples; though they mixed up with the truths he had taught them, many of the doctrines and opinions of their philosophers. Some of these teachers on the other hand, were converts from amongst the Jews, who would not give up the idea that it was necessary to keep the whole Law of Moses, observing all the forms and ceremonies ordained by it. These Jewish Christians called themselves followers of Cephas, the Greek word for Peter. These two sets of teachers, both teaching doctrines contrary to the truths of the Gospel as delivered to the Corinthians by St. Paul, made two parties in the Church, so that there were constant disputes and great confusion. Mean time also, many of the native Corinthians, who had joined the Church, began to return to the sinful ways and practices they had followed when they were heathens.
This was the account that now reached St. Paul at Ephesus; and greatly did it grieve him.
So he at once sent into Macedonia two of his company, Timotheus and Erastus, that they might pass on to Corinth, and try to put an end to all these evil doings: he himself remained at Ephesus a little longer.