<p>20:20 <i>You know how <em>I did not hesitate</em></i>- The Greek word means to draw in, and is used about furling / taking in sails. Paul had arrived after a sea voyage, during which he would have observed this and heard the word multiple times. And so he uses it. This is exactly true to life in human language usage, and confirms we are reading words which were really said. The word is used in :27 about his lack of hesitation in revealing to them the whole advice of God; the implication is that he was tempted, as we are, to only tell people those aspects of God's revelation which we think they can cope with or which will be attractive to them.</p><p><em>To declare to you anything that was helpful</em>- The Greek carries the idea of 'profitable' as AV. Paul is here addressing the elders from Ephesus, and the same word is used to describe how the converts in Ephesus had burnt their magic books of profit (19:19). Paul had shown them how to really profit, spiritually; and that had involved a loss of secular profit.</p><p><em>And taught you in public, and from house to house</em>- Luke used the same phrase &ldquo;house to house&rdquo; in Acts 2:46 to describe house churches. Surely Paul was recalling how he had taught the Ephesian church both &ldquo;publicly&rdquo;, when they were all gathered together, and also in their house churches. Aquila had a house church in Ephesus (1 Cor. 16:19), and so did Onesiphorus (2 Tim. 1:16,18; 4:19). Another indication of this structure within the Ephesian church is to be found in considering how Paul wrote to Timothy with advice, whilst Timothy was leading that church. Paul advises him not to permit sisters to wander about &ldquo;from house church to house church&rdquo; carrying ecclesial gossip (1 Tim. 5:13).</p>