NOTES for Act 16:16-40
One can imagine the history of the first centuries of our era as an "ideological confrontation" between Christians and the pagan world. However, from today's reading we can see that this confrontation is a special one. Indeed, Jews and Gentiles, Roman officials and craftsmen of Asia Minor, authorities and the plebs rose up against the apostles (a few decades later these persecutions would grow into bloody slaughters in Roman circuses and the fires of Nero).
But Christians never answer evil with evil. They bear the message of forgiveness, of reconciliation with God. They conquer not by force of arms, but by the power of Christ living in them. We all know how greatly the situation changed a thousand years later: fires, executions, and pogroms became the work of Christians. What will happen in our time depends on us.