AT MIDNIGHT PAUL AND SILAS PRAYED, AND SANG PRAISES TO GOD

How ought Christians to respond to such dreadful sufferings as those experienced in Philippi by Paul and Silas? The dishonesty of the masters of the demon-possessed damsel, vv. 20, 21; the hostility of the multitude, v. 22; the injustice and violence of the magistrates, vv. 22, 23; and the cruelty of the jailor, v. 24; - these would have been sufficient to reduce lesser men to back-sliding and despair. How did Paul and Silas react? ‘At midnight [they] prayed’. Would we have done that?

Perhaps we would. Prayer is usually our first response to suffering, and our first request is likely to be that the suffering will be removed! If that is not granted, we will ask for the grace of endurance. David and Peter give us closely-related advice, ‘Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee’, Ps. 55. 22; ‘Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you’, 1 Pet. 5. 7. Our burdens and cares are no problem to the Lord. Rather, they are among the instruments He uses to fashion us increasingly into His likeness. We should neither resent nor despise them.

But our text goes on ‘. . . and sang praises to God’. Here is the measure of these men. They did not stoically resolve to put up with their sufferings. Instead, they found cause for praise in them. This must have pleased their Master, who, in His sermon on the mount had urged His followers, ‘Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you’, Matt. 5. 12. Paul taught that it was a privilege to suffer for Christ, ‘For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake’, Phil. 1. 29.

‘And the prisoners heard them’ - probably with mixed feelings! But lasting impressions must have been made on some of those men. When the earthquake came, Paul and Silas apparently persuaded them all to stay where they were, rather than to hazard their lives in the darkness of a damaged building. And Paul’s compassion in saving the jailor from suicide was surely the vital factor in his conversion. He had never encountered such love before.