NOTES for Act 16:25-40
We have read more than once about imprisonment ending in a miraculous deliverance, so we are no longer surprised that this time too the brothers did not remain in prison for long. But this time there are differences. They lie not only in the absence of an angel visibly coming into the prison and leading the captives out, but also in the captives themselves being in no hurry to go free. Paul and Silas are of course glad to proclaim the message of salvation to the jailer, but there is more to it: Paul and Silas are defending their rights as Roman citizens.
In recent years, one could repeatedly hear statements that Christianity is incompatible with defending civil rights, accompanied by arguments such as these: insisting on one’s rights is not humble; one should think not about rights but about duties. Yet Paul’s example shows that defending the rule of law—and therefore one’s lawful rights—is neither formalism nor legalistic quibbling, but a necessary defense of justice.
Paul’s example also shows us that even earthly laws of the state can serve the proclamation of what is above every law.