Paul and Silas Seized and Dragged to the MagistratesBible World
16:21Acts 16:21
And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
The words are the false accusation brought at Philippi that Paul and Silas were troubling the city by teaching customs that Romans could not lawfully receive or observe. The charge singled out that they were Jews and played upon Roman prejudice and civic standing to turn opposition against their preaching. The immediate occasion was Paul casting the spirit of divination out of the slave girl in the name of Jesus Christ, after which she became a follower of Christ.
Her masters, having lost their hope of gain and income from her divinations and soothsaying, used the charge as a pretext to stir the crowd and the city and to drag the apostles before the rulers and magistrates. They were joined by others in the city who made money by satanic delusions and feared a power able to stop their work. The accusation stirred an uproar, with the multitude rising against the disciples in a mob spirit sanctioned by the authorities.
It led directly to the magistrates commanding that the apostles be stripped, beaten and scourged, then cast into the inner prison with their feet in the stocks. Paul and Silas were themselves Romans, a fact Paul afterward used to challenge their beating and intended secret release. Rebuking Satan's sophistry even when it speaks good words brings persecution, and holding fast to the living principles of truth whatever the consequences may look like failure, but God turns it to salvation, as seen in the conversion and baptism of the jailer and all his house.
The words are the false accusation brought at Philippi that Paul and Silas were troubling the city by teaching customs that Romans could not lawfully receive or observe. The charge singled out that they were Jews and played upon Roman prejudice and civic standing to turn opposition against their preaching. The immediate occasion was Paul casting the spirit of divination out of the slave girl in the name of Jesus Christ, after which she became a follower of Christ.
Her masters, having lost their hope of gain and income from her divinations and soothsaying, used the charge as a pretext to stir the crowd and the city and to drag the apostles before the rulers and magistrates. They were joined by others in the city who made money by satanic delusions and feared a power able to stop their work. The accusation stirred an uproar, with the multitude rising against the disciples in a mob spirit sanctioned by the authorities.
It led directly to the magistrates commanding that the apostles be stripped, beaten and scourged, then cast into the inner prison with their feet in the stocks. Paul and Silas were themselves Romans, a fact Paul afterward used to challenge their beating and intended secret release. Rebuking Satan's sophistry even when it speaks good words brings persecution, and holding fast to the living principles of truth whatever the consequences may look like failure, but God turns it to salvation, as seen in the conversion and baptism of the jailer and all his house.