Joy in suffering, like boldness in speaking, is another sure sign of Christianity in Acts.
Three miracles disturbed the citizens of Philippi during the day and night when they presumed to place the Christian preachers in their local jail:
The first miracle is in the realm of the human spirit, which, renewed and fortified by Christ, rises above the grim and painful experiences of the prisoners’ cell and the instrument of torture, and finds a song of praise to God (16:25). Paul and his companion took their adverse circumstances as a challenge to faith (Romans 8:28), a clarion call to victory (Romans 5:17; 2 Corinthians 2:14) and a springboard for witness (16:25b). Many a man would have cursed his luck, renounced his gods, and tried to bribe the jailer; Paul found a better outlet for his pent-up feelings (Philippians 4:6-7).
The earthquake came at the right time and for precisely the required purpose—to release the prisoners from their chains and to open the cell doors, but not to destroy life. Moreover, the supernatural disturbance struck terror into the jailer’s heart, giving him a salutary fear and anxious concern for “salvation” (16:30).
Terror betrays a bad conscience, which in turn stems from disharmony with God because of sin. Therefore, all need is comprehended in man’s first requirement—to know God as Savior, which stamps Christ’s gospel as uniquely suited to that need (16:31). Here is the miracle of grace, as the jailer passes from death to life (Colossians 1:13-14), with his family, from the solitude of alienation and fear into the joyous family of God (16:33-34).
The apostles’ “joy in suffering,” the phenomenon wholly from God, and the wonder of the simple gospel—these marked out the establishment of the Philippian church as God’s “good work” (Philippians 1:6). Is there anywhere a nobler work?
Notes 16:25: an Old Testament psalm or a Christian canticle. 16:26: the moorings of the prisoners’ fetters fixed to the wall became loose (Ramsay). 16:27: suicide would vindicate his military honor, and avoid the reproach of having failed in his duty. 16:30: perhaps he had heard the slave-girl’s cry (16:17). 16:33: note the two uses of water. Sacrament and service go together.
