13 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
Nay, Paul too, who had submitted to deliverance from persecution by being let down from the wall, as to do so was at this time a matter of command, refused in like manner now at the close of his ministry, and after the injunction had come to an end, to give in to the anxieties of the disciples, eagerly entreating him that he would not risk himself at Jerusalem, because of the sufferings in store for him which Agabus had foretold; but doing the very opposite, it is thus he speaks, "What do ye, weeping and disquieting my heart? For I could wish not only to suffer bonds, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of my Lord Jesus Christ." And so they all said, "Let the will of the Lord be done.
To this sort of opposition, respond as follows: “Why are you trying to keep me from the way I have set out on by weeping at the mention of the chains and afflictions that await me when I arrive in Jerusalem? Let it be known that I will follow the Spirit that has made known to me what awaits me and that I am setting out on the road to the city. I do not go ignorant of what will happen there, for I have foreseen it, and I am not being checked from going. So do not break my heart with your tears.” Whoever has been nobly prepared to be courageous enough to have no thought for his own life does not succumb to fear even if someone tries to provoke it. Now among them such dread had come to grip their thinking, and so the apostle said that his heart was being broken. He was not saying that he was weak but that he had come to such a state because of their bitter weeping. One could also say that just as little sins, in their actual commission, seem great to a holy person, so do the initial movements toward them, and so here he says the breaking of his heart is great.
Others were crying, but [Paul] was exhorting them as he grieved for their tears. “What are you doing,” he says, “crying and breaking my heart?” Nothing was dearer to him than these people. Because he saw them crying, he grieved, while he cared nothing for his own trials. “Let the Lord’s will,” he said, “be done.” You wrong me by doing this, so stop making me grieve. They stopped when he said, “You’re breaking my heart.” “I weep for you,” he says, “not for my sufferings, on behalf of which I am even willing to die.” They said, “Don’t go into the theatre,” and he did not. Again and again they drew him away and he obeyed. He fled through the window, but now, though myriads, so to speak, exhort him, and those in Tyre and Caesarea weep and foretell countless trials, he does not allow it. And yet they were foretelling terrible things for him, and, what is more, through the Holy Spirit. They were not holding him back through the Spirit, and they were not simply announcing terrible events to come his way. No, they were afraid for him because he had to go up to Jerusalem. Since they could not convince him not to go, they cried, and then they settled down. You see the love of wisdom, you see the affection. “The Lord,” he says, “will do what is pleasing in his sight.” They realized it was God’s will. Otherwise Paul, who was constantly having to snatch himself from dangers, would not have been so eager.
Tell me, what do you think about that adamant will of Paul? Could weeping break it? “Yes,” he says, “for I can hold out against anything except for love, since it is love that has overcome and rules me.” In this he is like God, whom an abyss of waters would not break but teardrops could.
"Then Paul answering, said," etc. While they cried, Paul told them not to be distressed by his bitter plight, since he was ready not only to be bound, but even gladly to be killed for the name of Christ. The disciples said to him, since they could not detain him: "The will of the Lord be done. "When they came to Jerusalem, they were received gladly by the brethren. On the next day, Paul went to James, telling him all that the divine power had granted the Gentiles by his ministry. That made them very happy, and, rejoicing with him, they gave thanks to the Lord, but they warned him to be careful about the people of the Jews, as he was clearly much suspected by them on the grounds that he taught, against the law of Moses, that circumcision should be abolished. They advised him to take four men of their company and to enter the synagogue with them after they had shaved their heads: when the Jews realized this, they would believe that he would not say anything against the law of Moses. As for the Gentiles that believed, they said that they had written to them what things it was enough for them to abstain from and had told them to continue in the rules they had been taught.
[AD 220] Tertullian on Acts 21:13