Acts 16:17, commentary and pictures

At Philippi, reached in obedience to the Macedonian vision, an enslaved girl possessed by a spirit of divination whose soothsaying enriched her masters followed Paul and his companions crying out that they were servants of the Most High showing the way of salvation. Her words were good and true, naming the way of life through the gospel and Christ's atoning sacrifice and the sincere, faithful, self-denying service of God, yet it was Satan speaking through her to mingle sophistry with truth. The repeated cry distracted hearers, undermined the apostles' influence, and threatened to make people link their Spirit-empowered work with her spirit. Being grieved, Paul refused the testimony and commanded the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ to come out, and its obedience and her immediate silence showed it recognized them as God's servants. The jailer remembered her declaration when earthquake, suffering borne in faith, and miraculous preservation convinced him of his need, and it helped move him to ask them the way of life. Freed, she became quiet, peaceful, in her right mind and a follower of Christ, and that change with report of Paul and Silas as innocent men doing good convicted the magistrates of wrongful scourging and imprisonment.

Setting and Speakers

The outcry happened at Philippi, the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony, reached by a straight course from Troas to Samothracia and the next day to Neapolis and thence to Philippi. Paul arrived there with Silas, Timothy and Luke in immediate obedience to the Lord's call to preach the gospel in Macedonia after the night vision of the man of Macedonia pleading for help. It belonged to the time when the gospel was to be proclaimed beyond the confines of Asia Minor, with the way preparing for Paul and his fellow workers to cross over into Europe following the night vision at Troas on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea of the man of Macedonia praying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.

The us whom she followed included Luke, the beloved physician, whom Paul had sought out because of his skill as a physician, as one to whom the Lord had entrusted a special work, and whose cooperation he had secured. After a time Paul left him at Philippi, where Luke continued to labor for several years doing double service as physician and gospel minister, indeed a medical missionary who did his part and then prayed for the Lord's healing power to rest upon the afflicted. His medical skill opened the way for the gospel message to find access to hearts and opened many doors giving opportunity to preach the gospel among the heathen.

The speaker was a woman possessed with a spirit of divination, an enslaved woman with a spirit of divination, a damsel and girl at Philippi who followed Paul and Silas and Paul and his companions crying out that they are the servants of the most high God who show the way of salvation and served God and showed the way of salvation. By soothsaying she brought her masters much gain and her influence helped strengthen idolatry. Unlike those who suffered under demonic possession, she belonged to the exception, a class of people who welcomed satanic influence in order to gain supernatural power and therefore had no conflict with the demons.

The way of salvation she named is made plain through the gospel, the way of life and salvation through the gospel, leading people to see the power of Christ's atonement and the redemption provided through His sacrifice and to trust in it. People lack true knowledge of that way until Paul presents it.

To be servants of the Most High means loving God and serving Him in all sincerity and fidelity, keeping confidence in Him, and never being afraid or ashamed to be known as His servant. It means doing His work intelligently, following the Lord in the path of self-denial instead of setting their own wage, meeting together in council to strengthen one another and trusting Him for wisdom and protection from the devices of the enemy. It means dealing considerately with faithful brethren who bear heavy burdens by helping them in times of emergency, sickness, and distress just as if they were own relatives.

Truth from Evil Source

What she cried out was good and true in itself, yet it was Satan speaking through her, intending to mingle his sophistry with the truths taught by those proclaiming the Word of God and thereby to undermine the principles of faith. That is why the testimony was refused rather than accepted, even though the words themselves were correct.

The endorsement harmed the gospel because her repeated cries distracted listeners from the apostles' teaching and threatened and undermined their influence. It led people to associate their Spirit-empowered work with Satan and to think they acted by the same spirit that possessed her, making them appear to share its source and discredit their work. The evil spirit's acknowledgment did not make the woman's testimony helpful.

For that reason Paul, being grieved, refused the testimony and commanded the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. The spirit's distress in the apostles' presence and its obedience to the command showed that it recognized them as God's servants. Her immediate and continued silence after the expulsion confirmed that the apostles served God and that the demon had recognized and obeyed their authority.

The same danger exists today when Satan creeps in with sophistry and scientific sophistry to undermine present truth, working through those who ought to be praying for understanding of Scripture to stand against evil influences. Every thread of sophistry, including scientific sophistry, must be purged from every heart, every evil devising and evil work must be rebuked, and the living principles of present truth held fast without accepting one thread of sophistry from any doctor or minister or anyone else. Unless there are men who stand as firm as a rock and as true as steel to principle, the church will not know when the devising of the enemy comes and will not discern when Satan speaks again in the same manner, and suffering follows if such devising goes unrebuked.

Effects on Hearers

The cry identified Paul and his companions as servants of the Most High God who show the way of salvation. The jailer remembered that testimony and it came back to his mind with particular force after the earthquake and the miraculous preservation of the apostles. Their conduct and their faith under suffering, together with the divine intervention he witnessed, led him to recognize his own need and that God had acted to save them. That recognition, prompted by the remembered words, moved him to seek from them the way of life and to ask how he might be saved.

Freed from the evil spirit, the woman became quiet and peaceful and in her right mind, and she became a follower of Christ. While under satanic influence she had caused the city much trouble and her soothsaying had helped strengthen idolatry, but deliverance wrought a visible change in her countenance and demeanor. She was now peaceable where she had been a troubler.

That transformation, joined with further report of the character and work of Paul and Silas as two innocent men doing good, convicted the magistrates that they had wrongly inflicted scourging and imprisonment under Roman law. They therefore decided to have the apostles privately released in the morning and escorted from the city beyond danger of violence from the mob.