Acts 18:6
And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.
The setting is Paul's work in Corinth, a city marked by idolatry, degrading rites, gross immorality, and a strong focus on immediate pleasure, which describes the people among whom he labored. There he preached for a year and six months and proved the divine character of his mission by raising up a flourishing church composed of Jews and Gentiles. The Gentile converts were more numerous than the Jewish converts, and many were truly converted from darkness into gospel light. They were in a more favorable condition to receive the truth because they were not walled in by the maxims and traditions of priests and elders.
The Jewish opposers were stubborn, and their hatred was intensified by the conversion and baptism of Crispus. Their opposition was exasperation instead of conviction, and because they could bring no arguments to show the preaching untrue they resorted to deception and malignant attack. Their blasphemy meant reviling the truth and the name of Jesus with bitter words, low devices, and blind anger, resisting the gospel and blaspheming His name. Though unable to deny that Christ had worked miracles, they declared He had performed them through Satan's power and boldly affirmed that the wonderful works done through Paul were accomplished through the same agency.
When the Jews rejected the evidence about Jesus, opposed, and blasphemed, shaking the garment marked separation from their refusal to listen. The declaration of being clean meant public freedom from responsibility for their rejection while announcing a turn to preach to the Gentiles. The turn marks a change in the audience of the ministry, not an end to the work in Corinth. For after leaving the synagogue the work continued among the Gentiles with Silas and Timothy.
The example calls workers today to branch out from place to place preaching truth to those in the darkness of error and to make the world their field of labor rather than working for the churches only. A messenger is clean of the blood of souls when present truth is written and sped to hungry souls where servants cannot go. While the blood of souls who die for want of that truth rests upon the garments of those entrusted with means to be faithful stewards if they let it lie idle and let the work stop for want of means, a failure that will bring anguished weeping. In afterward describing that Corinthian work, it was necessary to mention those who had spread confusion and strife among the church there, but this was done with great gentleness and courtesy, avoiding everything that would unnecessarily wound brethren and dwelling especially on points where harmony was possible.