"I Commend You to God”

In view of Paul's decease, what was the resource of the Church? Acts 20:32 gives the answer: "And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up." Nothing but "God, and the word of His grace" would be needed by the Church. God and His Word would be sufficient for every exigency of the path. They could pray to God and count on His succor and help, and His Word would give every needed instruction. The Church was not committed to any man or group of men, however faithful they might be. Nothing and no one was to come between the Church of God and God Himself, and He was to be known through His Word.
In Paul's last epistle, Second Timothy, he gives specific instructions for conduct in the last days of Christendom. Evil would come in like a flood, and it would be so hard to distinguish between mere professors and real Christians that it would come down to only the Lord's really knowing who were His (chap. 2:19). Would there then be some new revelation, some new dogma or creed instituted to keep the saints? No. They were to continue in the things Timothy learned from Paul, and rely on the unerring and unchangeable "holy scriptures," which were divinely given, and would be all-sufficient "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect [complete], thoroughly furnished unto all good works." What place is there for a successor to the Apostle Paul? None whatever.