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Acts 16:35–40
“Paul said to [the police], ‘They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out’” (v. 37).
Exercising faith in Jesus, the Philippian jailer was baptized, along with his household. Paul and Silas then enjoyed his hospitality for the evening, as the family of the jailer celebrated his newfound trust in the Savior (Acts 16:31–34).
In today’s passage, we see that after that night of celebration, Paul and Silas remained in custody, for the magistrates of Philippi had to send word to the jailer for the release of the two men (v. 35). They were being held, essentially, for the civil offense of disturbing the peace, and the Romans rarely imprisoned people for civil crimes for very long. With the charge to let Paul and Silas go came word that they were to “go in peace” (v. 36). We should not let the seeming goodwill of that message deceive us into thinking that the city’s leaders had become hospitable to the missionaries. The magistrates were actually expelling Paul and Silas from the city, commanding them to leave at once.
At this point, Paul said that he and Silas would have to be carried out by the magistrates if they were to exit the city, noting that he and Silas were Roman citizens who had been beaten and thrown into prison without condemnation (v. 37). In the ancient Roman Empire, those who held full citizenship had many rights that noncitizen residents of the empire did not possess. Some of these included a right to a judicial hearing before imprisonment and freedom from the humiliation of a beating. In other words, Paul and Silas had been treated unjustly because they had been condemned without an official hearing and had endured an improper punishment. Their rights as Roman citizens had not been respected, and they were in the eyes of the law actually uncondemned because no trial had established their guilt properly. Why Paul had not appealed to his citizenship before this is unclear; perhaps he thought it would be ignored in the tumult of his arrest (see vv. 19–22). In any case, his appeal to his citizenship shows us that it is appropriate for Christians to appeal to whatever legal rights they have before the civil magistrate when such an appeal might help them.
To mistreat Roman citizens could get a city’s leaders in serious trouble with the emperor, so it is no wonder that they apologized to Paul and Silas and then politely asked them to leave. The pair did so, but not before providing some encouragement to the Christians at Lydia’s house (vv. 38–40).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
What appeared to be a setback to the mission of Paul and Silas actually turned out for good, since the Philippian jailer and his family became Christians and the two men’s innocence was vindicated in the eyes of the law. God delights to work in all things for the good of His people, even that which is evil.
For further study
- Genesis 50:20
- Daniel 6
- Acts 12:1–19
- Philippians 1:12–14
The bible in a year
- Psalms 44–46
- Acts 25