How to Read - Part 2

Well...I offended a few with my last post. Let's see whether I can offend some more with this one.

OK. It really is NOT my intention to offend. It just comes naturally.

What bothers me is how much stuff masquerades as Biblical Christianity that is little more than the expression of our imaginations or the way we wish things were.

The Romans were in charge.

Rome was not a particularly civilized civilization.

Roman soldiers' orders were to be obeyed. Penalties were severe. They ranged from heavy flogging for minor offenses to death for major offenses.

Where prisoners were concerned, they did not escape from Roman custody. If they did, those guarding them paid with their lives. No excuses.

Not only were they put to death, but their families as well. Bad news!

Now let's go to everybody's favorite book, the Acts of the Apostles.

Let's go to chapter 16 versees 16 and following.

Paul and Silas were prisoners of Rome. They were being guarded by a jailer. The jailer had been commanded by Rome to guard them carefully.

They were in an inner cell, a cell within a cell. There were no windows. No way of excape.

And they were in stocks.

These guys were in jail big time. They could hardly move, certainly no farther than their arms and legs lengths.

I might have been screaming and crying.

They were singing and praying.

Then they experienced the first Jailhouse Rock.

An earthquake shook the prison and loosed their chains and broke open the prison door.

They were free! They could leave! And the jailer was in deep, deep trouble.

Remember, the penalty for allowing a prisoner to excape was death.

The jailer picked up his sword and was about to kill himself, because that would have been a more merciful death than he was about to suffer at the hands of the Romans.

Paul saw what was about to happen and shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"

Now here's where I believe EVERY sermon I have ever heard has taken a wrong turn, based on the context of the narrative.

The text requires that the jailer feard for his own physical life and that of his whole family. One way or the other, they were all going to die. At least if he killed himself, his family might have a chance.

Pick up the scripture in verse 29: "The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas (his prisoners, remember?). He then brought them out and asked, 'Men, what must I do to be saved?'"

Not for one nanosecond was he concerned about his soul. There has been no reference to his soul. There is no indication that he even knew what a soul was.

I have never heard it preached that the jailer was interested in anything BUT hs soul. The narrative dictates that he had NO interest in his soul, only his life and that of his family.

But Paul, ever diligent to sieze upon an opportunity for Christ, answered an unasked question.

Verse 31: "They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and your whole household.'"
Then (this is SO important) they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his household."

They all found an answer to a question they had not asked. They found salvation both physically and spiritually.

How bold of them was it for them to wash Paul and Silas' wounds? And be baptized? And feed them?

Right there in front of the world. And the Romans, too!

Surely they had been saved to the uttermost!

The scripture says, (vs 34) "...and the whole family was filled with joy, because they had come to believe in God."

This puts to rest the inane question I have heard a thousand times, "When the husband gets saved, does that mean the whole family is saved by the husband's salvation?"

(That's a synopsis of all of the questions surrounding that issue).

Of course not. They ALL heard the word of the Lord and then were saved, each responding to the gospel!

It is my humble, but correct, opinion that when understood in this way, this is the most remarkable of the post resurrection stories in the New Testament.

Its lessons are many: 1) When in dire straits, praise the Lord; 2) When in fear turn to the Lord. 3) When saved, rejoice in the Lord.

As Psalm 150 puts it, "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord."

Are YOU breathing today?