Scripture Daily

Context No. 1332 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 16:36-40: in context

36The jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go; now therefore come out and go in peace.” 37But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly without a trial, men who are Romans, and have cast us into prison! Do they now release us secretly? No, most certainly, but let them come themselves and bring us out!” 38The sergeants reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, 39and they came and begged them. When they had brought them out, they asked them to depart from the city. 40They went out of the prison and entered into Lydia’s house. When they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them, then departed.

Paul and Silas have been beaten and jailed in Philippi, and after the earthquake and the jailer's conversion, the magistrates send word in the morning to release them quietly. But Paul refuses to slip away. They beat us publicly, he objects, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison; and now they want to send us out secretly? No; let them come themselves and escort us out. When the magistrates hear that they are Romans, they are afraid, for they had violated the rights of citizens, and they come to apologize and personally lead them out, then ask them to leave the city. Paul and Silas go to Lydia's house, encourage the believers, and depart.

Paul's insistence on a public vindication was not wounded pride. He had every reason to leave quietly and gladly, but he chose to make the magistrates own their injustice openly, and the reason becomes clear when you notice what he does next: he goes to the young church meeting at Lydia's house to encourage them before he leaves. Paul was thinking of the believers he was leaving behind. If he and Silas slipped out of town like criminals released on sufferance, the new Christian community in Philippi would be marked as a movement of jailbirds, easy to persecute; but if the magistrates were forced to admit publicly that they had wrongly beaten and imprisoned innocent citizens, the church was left on far safer legal ground. Paul used his rights as a citizen not for himself but to protect the vulnerable community he was leaving behind. There is wisdom in that about the right use of whatever standing or advantage we happen to have. Paul did not despise his citizenship or refuse to use it; he deployed it deliberately, at the right moment, for the good of others rather than his own convenience. The rights and advantages we hold can be spent selfishly, or they can be used, as Paul used his, to shield those who are more exposed than we are.

Do I use whatever standing or advantage I have for my own convenience, or, like Paul, deliberately spend it to protect those who are more vulnerable and to leave things safer for those I will leave behind?

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