Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Acts 28:11–16
“And so we came to Rome. And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him” (vv. 14–16).
After several weeks of battling a storm at sea that ended in a shipwreck on Malta, Paul and the other men traveling with him enjoyed a winter respite on the island. Not only did they enjoy the hospitality of the residents of Malta, but they also received much friendliness and honor from the people. The citizens came to love Paul and the others so much that when it finally came time for the travelers to leave Malta, the people on the island gave them whatever they needed for the final journey to Rome (Acts 27:1–28:10).
Paul and his followers were on Malta a total of three months, riding out the winter until the time came when it would be safe to sail to Rome again. They set out on a new ship, one that had spent its winter on Malta. This ship was originally from Alexandria, likely carrying a load of grain to Italy, and had “the twin gods as a figurehead” (28:11). Luke refers here to carvings of the Roman gods Castor and Pollux, whom the pagans regarded as the guardians of fortune for sailors. Paul and the others did enjoy divine protection on their travels, of course, but it came from the hand of the one true God, not the pale imitators of the Lord believed to occupy the Roman pantheon (see 27:21–24).
Acts 28:11–16 describes the journey from Malta to Rome, a trip that took nearly three weeks once all the stops along the way are factored in. They spent three days at Syracuse, the capital of Sicily located on that island’s east coast. Next, they sailed seventy-four miles from Syracuse to Rhegium, a city on the toe of the boot that is the Italian Peninsula. From Rhegium, they sailed another two hundred miles north to Puteoli, an important port that sat about 130 miles south of Rome (vv. 11–13). That Paul could stay with other believers for seven days at Puteoli reminds us that while Paul was working in Greece and Asia Minor on the eastern edge of the Roman Empire, other Christians were evangelizing the rest of the Mediterranean world. After all, Paul had not come to Italy before that time, and there were already believers there to receive him. After staying at Puteoli for a week, Paul and the others made the five-day journey by foot to Rome. The Apostle thanked God for bringing him safely to Rome at last, and Paul was granted the privilege of staying in a home, not a prison, with one soldier guarding him (vv. 14–16). It is incumbent on us to regularly thank God for all His blessings, as Paul did (Col. 4:2).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Paul tells us in Romans 1:21 that one of the fundamental sins of humanity is our failure to give honor and thanks to God. From that transgression flow all the other sins that we find in the world. Consequently, one of the best ways to strike all sins at their heart is to seek to regularly give honor and thanks to God. From honor and gratitude flow a life of holiness.
For further study
- Psalm 95:1–2
- Ephesians 5:4
The bible in a year
- Amos 1–3
- Revelation 5
- Amos 4–9
- Revelation 6–7