Acts 16:19-24: a reflection

19But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 20When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men, being Jews, are agitating our city 21and advocate customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.” 22The multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates tore their clothes from them, then commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. 24Having received such a command, he threw them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.

In Philippi, Paul had freed a slave girl from a spirit that let her tell fortunes. But her owners, who had made money from her fortune-telling, are furious; and the text names the real reason for their rage: when they saw that their hope of gain was gone. It was not concern for truth or justice that moved them, but the loss of their profit. So they seize Paul and Silas, have them beaten, and thrown into prison, for doing good.

Notice what drove the opposition to Paul: the threat to money. The good he had done, freeing a suffering girl, had cut off a source of profit, and the loss of that gain was what provoked the fury against him. The real issue was not the girl, or truth, or justice; it was the money. When their profit was threatened, those who had exploited her turned violently against the one who had done good.

That reveals something we often see: how the threat to money and gain drives opposition to what is good and right. When doing right disrupts someone's profit, when justice or truth costs someone financially, the threat to gain can provoke fierce opposition, dressed up in other language, but really about the money. And it means that doing right may cost us, when it disrupts others' unjust gain, as it cost Paul a beating and prison. Do not be surprised when doing what is right provokes opposition from those whose gain it threatens; and do not let the fear of that opposition keep you from doing right. Paul freed the girl though it cost him dearly; do what is right, even when it disrupts others' profit and provokes their opposition, trusting God with the cost, as Paul and Silas did.

Lord, in Philippi, when Paul freed the slave girl from the spirit that let her masters profit by fortune-telling, they were furious, not out of concern for truth or justice, but because their hope of gain was gone; and they had Paul and Silas beaten and imprisoned for doing good. Show me how the threat to money and gain drives opposition to what is good and right. When doing right disrupts someone's profit, when justice or truth costs someone financially, the threat to gain can provoke fierce opposition, dressed up in other language, but really about the money. And it means that doing right may cost me, when it disrupts others' unjust gain, as it cost Paul a beating and prison. Keep me from being surprised when doing what is right provokes opposition from those whose gain it threatens; and keep me from letting the fear of that opposition stop me from doing right. Paul freed the girl though it cost him dearly; help me do what is right, even when it disrupts others' profit and provokes their opposition, trusting you with the cost, as Paul and Silas did.