New Testament: Acts 16.35–37

To read the Bible in a year, read Acts 16.17–40 on July 11, In the year of our Lord Christ 2022

By Don Ruhl 

Sometimes people need to be made to realize what they have done. With Paul, the Romans had beaten and imprisoned him and Silas in public, but when the Romans released Paul and Silas, they sought to do it secretly: 

And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, “Let those men go.” So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.” But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.”

– Acts 16.35–37 

They were beaten, although innocent, and Paul wanted them to own up to what they had done by releasing the two evangelists openly, showing that they were not guilty of any crimes, but were honest men. 

Questions: 

• Has someone done something similar to you, shaming you publicly, but then trying to undo what they did privately? 
• What did you do? 

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