The Fear of Men

Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 2:9 that “the word of God is not bound!” He wrote these words from prison to encourage Timothy that although the Apostle was in Roman custody and awaiting trial, his imprisonment did not mean that the gospel could be stopped. The Lord would ensure that His church would continue to proclaim His Word.

Sometimes, as was true during Paul’s imprisonment, a servant of God remains bound by the governmental authorities while others continue ministering outside the walls of prison. At other times, the Lord ensures that His Word remains unbound by setting the preacher free from his captors, allowing him to proclaim the gospel once more outside the jail. This happened in a miraculous way the second time that the Apostles were arrested by the Sanhedrin. God sent an angel to release them (Acts 5:17–21a).

The Jewish authorities did not realize that their prisoners were free until the next day. Luke reports in Acts 5:21b–23 that when the Sanhedrin gathered on the morning after the Apostles’ arrest and sent for the prisoners, the Apostles were gone. In fact, this was not immediately apparent to the officers who went to retrieve them, for when they arrived, the guards were still in place and the doors to the prison locked. The angel had opened the prison doors and brought out the Apostles (v. 19), but apparently he did so in a manner that escaped the notice of the guards and locked the doors behind them. No wonder, then, that the leaders were perplexed; they had no explanation for the Apostles’ escape (v. 24).

While the chief priests and the captain of the temple guard puzzled over the missing Apostles, someone came and reported that the Apostles were back in the temple courts, teaching the people (v. 25). The wise course of action for the Jewish leaders would have been to realize that God was at work in and for the Apostles, and therefore that the Sanhedrin should heed the Apostolic message or at least stop trying to restrain the church. Instead, the Jewish leaders arrested the Apostles again, but not by force because they feared that the common people, who esteemed the Apostles, would stone the Sanhedrin (v. 26; see v. 13). Fear of men drove the choices of the Jewish leaders—fear of losing their popularity and fear for their safety—and people who are driven by the fear of men make foolish decisions.