God’s Word for You
Acts 16:37-40 Farewell Philippi
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, October 7, 2020
37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, with no trial, even though we are Roman citizens. They threw us into prison! Now they want to throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.”
With a neat turn on the same Greek term, Paul makes his complaint: They threw us in (ballo eis) and now they want to throw us out (ek-ballo)? No! After the injustice and injury of their treatment, Paul refused to leave the prison unless the very men who threw him in came and led him out once again. We can’t help but wonder, didn’t Paul protest when they were beating him? But if we look back at Acts 16:19-23, it doesn’t seem like Paul had much of a chance to protest before the shouting started and beatings began. Now that things had calmed down, though, Paul wasn’t about to let this get swept under the rug.
Paul says, “We are Roman citizens.” It was a disgrace in Rome if a citizen was treated like a barbarian. All a citizen had to say was, “I am a Roman citizen” (cuius Romanus sum), which Paul did at a later time during an arrest which went a little more peacefully than this one (Acts 22:25-27). Rather than pretend this never happened, Paul wanted the mistake to be admitted. This wasn’t for Paul’s sake, or that of Silas, or Timothy, but for the other Christians who lived here, like the jailer and Lydia and the rest. Christians needed to be treated with respect by the local authorities, so that the church would be able to thrive and grow.
38 The bodyguards reported these words to the chief magistrates, who became afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. 39 They came and apologized to them. Then they brought them out and asked them to leave the city. 40 So they came out of the prison and went to visit Lydia. And when they had met with the brothers and encouraged them, they left.
The position of the chief magistrates was awkward. Roman citizens could not be expelled from a city if they had committed no crime, and Paul and Silas had not even had a trial. On the other hand, popular opinion was against the missionaries since they had driven the demon from a girl who made several leading men wealthy. Tact and the grace of God won the day. A personal visit, a fearful apology, and personal escort out of the prison (so that they could never be accused of breaking out during the earthquake or of not serving their sentence), and finally there came a private request: Please leave our city. This echoed the treatment Jesus received when he drove the demons into a herd of pigs and the villagers asked him to leave (Mark 5:17; Luke 8:37). It was fear of the power of the gospel that brought on such requests. But it was joy because of the power of the gospel in the human heart that brings the gospel to more and more souls, like yours and mine.
Before they left they went to see Lydia and the church. A last word of encouragement, a teary but joyful farewell, and they moved on to the next city. Did they leave the Philippians with no one to guide them with the gospel? Not at all. The last time Luke used the words “we” or “us” in his description was right here in Philippi (Acts 16:15-16). “We” arrived, but “they” left (Acts 16:40). Luke was staying here. This is where his personal ministry, and perhaps his writing of this book and the Gospel that bears his name, began.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.