And leading them out said, Sirs, what must I do that I may be saved?
A few hours earlier, this man had locked Paul and Silas in the inner prison. An earthquake has now opened every door, and he asks them how to be saved — but saved from what, and why will the answer say nothing about doing?
So what did he want saving from? One writer weighs the dangers of that night and finds none of them big enough.
Salvation in any lesser sense is not to be thought of. The earthquake was soon over, the prisoners were all safe; what had he to fear from Roman justice? But God had awakened his soul, and his sins troubled him. He was not facing death from man, but divine judgment at the close of everything. God's servants were there to tell him the way of salvation — the men for whom He had just stepped in with a miracle. Learned men may think what they like. They have never felt the burden of their sins; they catch at words and waste time on doubtful questions. But the jailer's burning anxiety was about the salvation of his soul.
Something shook the building, and something else shook him. One writer separates the two.
I do not think it was the earthquake that converted the jailer. There were two great quakes that night. The earthquake woke the jailer from his sleep. The second one — I had better call it a soul-quake — woke him up to his state before God. It was not the physical danger that did that... That is a picture of what the gospel does. I tell you, it produces a moral earthquake in a man. When you come under the power of the gospel, you collapse. God lays hold of you and reduces you to nothing.
The title he uses is startling from a man who had shown these two no courtesy at all.
The Philippian jailer was awakened to a deeper sense than that of being undone in the eyes of men. He called out to the apostle Paul and his companions, "Sirs" (the word means "Lords"), "what must I do to be saved?" This once brutal ruffian, who had treated them shamefully, now approached them with the greatest respect.
So what finally broke this hard man? One writer says it was not the shaking walls.
This was irresistible. A hardened sinner could face an earthquake; he could face death itself; but he could not stand against the mighty melting power of love. The hardest heart must yield to the moral influence of love... Love can break the hardest heart. And surely there was love in those words, "Do not harm yourself," coming from the lips of a man he had harmed so much a few hours before.
Does the word do show a man still trying to earn his way? A reader put that question to one writer.
We would say, No. It is the cry of an awakened soul. He sees his danger. He has just seen the power of God displayed, and he knows he is exposed to it. He wants to be rescued from it. This is not a cool theological question, like the one the Pharisees asked in John 6:28. It is like the awakened cry of those convicted by the Spirit under Peter's preaching at Pentecost: "Brothers, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37). At the same time, the anxious man little dreams of the fulness of the precious answer... Nothing to do, for all has been done.
One writer turns the jailer's question into a question for the reader.
Are you recognising that you can bring nothing to God? That even the things which might be a gain to you among men are worthless before Him? That you are a sinner, and as such lost and undone? That you can therefore do nothing towards your salvation, and that if you are saved it must be by the work and grace of another? If you are, then we can unfold to you the blessed truth in these words: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."
Nothing else came out of him that night — no bargaining, no religious offer.
It was salvation that filled the jailer's whole soul, nothing less than salvation — not religious ceremonies, but salvation. This is also the anxious question of every truly enlightened soul. And we need not go to commentators or learned doctors for the right answer, for the Scriptures tell us plainly.
- Shaken — the earthquake opened doors; a second, inward shaking opened this man to his state before God.
- Awakened — every prisoner was safe, so Roman law was no threat. What troubled him was God's judgment at the end of everything.
- Melted — he could face an earthquake, but not the love in "Do not harm yourself," spoken by a man he had harmed.
- Asking — his cry is not cool theology but the cry of an awakened soul, the same cry heard at Pentecost.
- Answered — the honest question "what must I do" meets the answer nothing, for all has been done. Salvation comes to the one who can bring God nothing.
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house.
A jailer in Philippi, minutes from suicide, asks the one question that matters, and the answer asks nothing of him but faith. Everything hangs on what "believe" means, on Paul's three titles for the Saviour, and on how far the promise to his household reaches.
The jailer asked what he must do. The answer gave him nothing to do, and one writer shows how well that suits a man with no strength left:
But what is the jailer told to do? God's answer to man's query is beautiful in its simplicity. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house," falls on the ears of the awakened sinner. He had only to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he would be a saved man. There is no word of anything that he must do to get salvation. This gospel exactly meets helpless sinners who have no strength. No wonder the jailer believed at once.
Another writer names the reason: Christ had already done the work.
Nothing that he could do could secure God's salvation. The doing had all been done by Christ. All that is left for the sinner is taking hold of the results of His mighty work by simple faith.
Paul does not just say "believe on Jesus." Each name meets a different fear in an awakened conscience:
Why does he here repeat all these titles of the Saviour? Because he is presenting Him to this anxious soul as the Object of faith, and in such a way as to fully satisfy his awakened conscience... If the question of the troubled heart is, Is He willing to save me? The answer is, Yes; He is JESUS, and came into the world for the very purpose of saving sinners. If the question is, Is He able to save me? The answer is, Yes; He is "LORD of all," and has all power in heaven and on earth. And He is the CHRIST, the anointed One in heaven, following on His finished work on the cross. That is the unquestionable proof that everyone who has come as a sinner to Him the Saviour is forgiven and blessed.
The writers quoted here use an older translation, which reads "the Lord Jesus Christ." The ESV reads "the Lord Jesus."
The jailer's response shows what believing looks like. He took God at His word:
The Scripture says this, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." It is not enough to know that the Bible says so. The devils know that well enough, and so does the unbeliever. But do you know that God says so — that it is God speaking to us in the Bible? Now, if God says so, is it not true?... The jailer understood it to mean just what God said, and he was baptized at once. He raised no questions. "He rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." If he believed and rejoiced, why should you doubt?
The last words are the ones most often dropped. One writer treats that habit as a real loss:
We often quote Acts 16:31, but too often we leave out the last three words. God loves to identify a man's house with himself and include them in His offer of blessing. Why do we not more often take hold of this fact in our faith?... This is surely most encouraging for every head of a house whom the grace of God reaches. God shows no partiality: what He is to one He is to all.
Commentators differ on how far the promise carries. One writer separates what the jailer's faith gave his house from what each member must still do:
His being brought to God puts his whole house in a sanctified (set apart) position, as 1 Corinthians 7:14 plainly teaches. In this way the house is saved. Yet each person in the house must still personally receive the Lord Jesus to have eternal salvation.
Within the hour, the man who had bolted them into the stocks was washing their wounds:
There "only believe" was quite in place, and to have "demanded good works" would have been worse than useless. Yet within one short hour of conversion the jailer performed his first good work, the fruit and proof of his faith... He did it not to be saved, but as the result of the change that grace had worked within.
- Asked — the question assumed doing; the answer named believing, because Christ had already done it all.
- Answered — the titles carry the weight. Jesus means He is willing, Lord means He is able, Christ means the work is finished.
- Assured — the jailer raised no questions and rejoiced at once, because faith rests on what God says.
- Applied — the promise reaches past the man to his house and sets it apart, though each person in it must still believe personally.
- Attested — within one hour he did his first good work; works follow salvation, they never buy it.
And they spoke to him the word of the Lord, with all that were in his house.
The jailer asked how to be saved and got a one-sentence answer. Then the preaching kept going — at midnight, in the house of a man who had shown Paul and Silas no kindness. This verse shows what more they said, and how far the message reached.
Paul's reply to the jailer was one line. This verse shows it was not all he said. One writer notes that the man had no background for the words he had just heard.
But you might say to me: what did this man know about the Lord Jesus Christ? I do not think he knew anything at all about Him up to that moment. That is why the next verse is so important. They did not stop at merely saying, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." They unfolded the gospel to him. They brought out the glorious truth of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The same writer fills in what that preaching likely contained.
But this was not all the jailer heard. From the words "they spoke the word of the Lord to him," I have no doubt Paul brought out the account of the birth of Jesus, and of His holy, gracious life. He told the story of His death on the cross when men put Him there, and how at that moment He completed the work of redemption, which He alone could do. He told how God laid on Him the iniquity of us all, and how He who knew no sin was made sin for us. After His suffering ended in His atoning death and the shedding of His blood, He was laid in the grave for three days. After the third day He rose from the dead, and was received up into glory at the right hand of the Father.
The promise of verse 31 included the jailer's house. This verse shows how the word got there. One writer treats the wording as deliberate on the Holy Spirit's part.
Some assume that the jailer's house held only children, too young to be responsible. But Scripture lets us press the disproof to the very end. Verse 32 adds that they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house, as if the Holy Spirit had planned in advance to leave no possible excuse for such strange teaching. Only those who could hear the word were concerned at that moment. The call itself brought no one else within the terms of the blessing, whatever grace might do afterwards.
Commentators differ here. Some read the joy of the following verses as shared faith throughout the household.
So here the jailer rejoiced, but not as a stand-in for his family. They too rejoiced, as truly in their measure as he did. Only his joy, as one who had believed in God, is named. We are meant to understand the joy of faith in the case of all. It is a beautiful picture of how real and active God's grace is in this world, and this in the whole house of a hardened pagan.
Others point out that the verbs stay with one man, even while the whole house is in view.
Here the salvation of his house stands as the normal result of his own believing. In what follows we hear nothing of their faith, only of his — though we read that they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. It is "he" rejoiced, "he" believed.
One writer reads what the jailer did next as proof that the word had done its work.
They sang praises with their feet in the stocks. They had kept the jailer, who had shown them no kindness but the opposite, from the guilt of suicide. Now we learn how grace worked in him. He displayed the fruits of the divine nature. He took them that same hour of the night and washed their wounds. He confessed the Lord and was counted as His disciple, along with his household, for all of them were baptized at once. He set food before Paul and Silas, who no doubt needed it. He showed thought, love and concern for these two men — surely the fruit of that divine nature which he had just come to share.
The word came to the whole household. One writer draws out what that means for any believer's home.
The "house" of the believer also came inside the blessed circle of grace. So the households of God's people become spheres of light in the moral darkness of this world. But this only happens where they know the truth, and hold to the Lord's claims and authority.
- Word. Paul and Silas did not leave their one-line answer bare. They unfolded the Person and work of Christ to a man who knew nothing of Him.
- House. The word travelled as far as the promise did — spoken to the jailer and to everyone in his house together.
- Hearing. Only those who could hear the word were included by the call itself, whatever grace might do later.
- Faith. Commentators differ on whether the whole house believed or only the jailer. All agree the word reached them all.
- Fruit. Washed wounds, baptism and a shared meal show grace at work, turning that household into a place of light.
And he took them the same hour of the night and washed [them] from their stripes; and was baptised, he and all his straightway.
The night ends where it began — in the prison — but the roles are reversed. The man who locked Paul and Silas in the inner cell now kneels over their wounds with water, and this is his first act after believing.
One writer contrasts what the jailer was with what he has become, and weighs what would have been lost had Paul walked out of the open door.
What a marvellous change! The ruthless jailer has become the generous host! "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." How clearly we can now see that Paul was right in not being guided by circumstances! How much better and higher to be led by the "eye" of God! What an eternal loss it would have proved to him had he walked out at the open door! How much better to be led out by the very hand that had thrust him in — a hand once the instrument of cruelty and sin, now the instrument of righteousness and love!
One commentator weighs the exact wording. He argues it stresses how awkward the hour was, then follows the jailer's movements — from the cell, to the water, to the room above. (Where older translations say "stripes," the ESV says "wounds.")
The jailer took them "that hour" of the night, however awkward the hour might seem. That is the force of the words, rather than "the same," which the text does not say, though of course that was true as well. But we must give exactly what was written and meant. After washing their stripes he and all his were baptized without delay, it would seem within the prison grounds. Then he brought them "up" into his house, apparently above the prisoners' quarters, saw to their food and comfort, and rejoiced with all his house, having believed in God.
The urgency is itself part of the testimony. A preacher applying the scene notes that the man's confession came before daybreak:
The jailer heard the gospel: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." He believed, and he was saved. Clearly he believed with his heart and confessed with his mouth… He did not wait till the morning.
One writer treats the washing as the test of whether the jailer's faith was real.
He is born again by the word of truth, and his whole way of life is changed… A few hours before, he saw nothing more in Paul and Silas to call out affection and sympathy than in the other prisoners. But now he sees everything with new eyes… This was a fine example of the fruit of the Spirit, and it proved that his profession was sincere. His love was not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
The same verse moves straight from the washing to baptism. One writer explains why that step felt like a privilege and not a duty.
But more than this, he carried out the mind of the Lord: "he was baptized."… He knew that the Lord Jesus Christ had saved him. He knew that he had redemption in Christ through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. So it was not a burden but a sweet privilege to take part in an ordinance where he would feel for himself what it means to be buried with Christ. Faith does not argue; it believes and acts on God's word.
Commentators differ over how much this clause proves. Some take it as a settled pattern of God dealing with a man and those belonging to him:
"And was baptized, he and all his." What an expressive phrase: "HE AND ALL HIS." Here we have our warrant for household baptism. "He and all his" represents, as briefly as could be wished, the divine and gracious principle that runs all through God's dealings with His people.
Others reply that the text never says who was in the house, and that preaching always came first:
Thoughtful men on all sides admit that the households of Scripture decide nothing about this. There may have been no infants… We never hear of Peter or anyone else setting out first of all to baptize. They set out to preach. Then those who received the word were baptized.
- Believing — the jailer heard, believed, and acted; faith did not argue, it simply took God at His word.
- Washing — the first fruit of that faith was love shown in deed, to the very men he had wounded.
- Baptism — he confessed Christ openly and at once, picturing burial with Him.
- Household — his whole house rejoiced in believing God; commentators differ on whether "he and all his" settles who may be baptized.
- Change — the hand once used for cruelty became the instrument of righteousness and love, in a few hours of one night.
And having brought them into his house he laid the table [for them], and rejoiced with all his house, having believed in God.
The man who had bolted Paul and Silas into the inner prison now leads them upstairs into his own home and sets a meal in front of them. Two questions rise out of that night: why does the verse say he believed in God, and how far does "with all his house" reach?
The meal is not mere politeness. It is the first fruit of a converted man, and one writer traces the sequence step by step:
These prisoners had shown what spirit they were of. They sang praises with their feet in the stocks. ... Now we learn how grace worked in him. He showed the fruits of the divine nature. He showed that he was converted. Consideration for them came first. He took them that same hour of the night and washed their stripes... he set food before Paul and Silas, who no doubt needed it... and now, his heart full, he rejoiced greatly with all his house, having believed in God. How well he could now understand those two singing hymns to God at midnight, since he and they shared the same grace and the same joy.
The same reversal is read as proof that the change was real and not a fright that would pass with daylight:
And now everything is changed. The jailer takes the prisoners into his own house — his cruelty is turned into love, sympathy, and hospitality... What an eventful night! What a change in a few hours! And what a joyful morning dawned on that happy house!
Why does the verse name God, when the answer Paul gave named the Lord Jesus Christ? One writer replies:
He was told to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I read that he believed in God. Why was that? What he had heard led him to see that the blessed Man he had been told about, the Lord Jesus Christ, was really God. The blessed One who became Man to die for his sins and save him was the eternal, blessed Son of God. Accepting that truth and believing it with the simplicity of a little child, he believed in God "with all his house." Note that! Not only he himself, but his whole house was marked out for blessing. Paul had found his man, but he got a good many besides.
(The quotes follow an older translation: "rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.")
In verse 33 the baptism comes first; the rejoicing and the believing come after. Some read that order as proof that baptism came before faith. The grammar answers them:
The record is as plain as possible. The Philippian jailer asked in deep distress what he must do to be saved. He was not told to be baptized first and believe afterwards. He was told, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household" — without one word about baptism. No one doubts that he and all his were baptized that same hour. But the word of God is too wise and holy to hint at any such thing. It gives not the smallest support to the idea that he was baptized before he believed, just because it says later that he rejoiced, believing in God. On the contrary, look at the tenses. His joy stands in the aorist, the simple past. His faith stands in the form that implies a present, continuing result of something already past.
Commentators differ here, and the difference turns on one Greek word. Some hold the joy of faith belonged to every person under that roof:
The Greek phrase for "with all his house" is without doubt adverbial. But that makes no real difference to the sense... So here the jailer rejoiced. He did not rejoice as a representative standing in for his family. They rejoiced too, as truly as he did, in their measure, though his joy as believing in God is the one specified. We are meant to understand the joy of faith in the case of all. A beautiful picture of the reality and activity of God's grace in this world — and this with the whole house of a hardened pagan.
Others read the same word as limiting the statement:
We have to translate it this way, since any other rendering in English is awkward. Even so, "with all his house" is not used here as it is later with Crispus, where it says he "believed with all his house" (Acts 18:8). Here it is an adverb, and there should be a reason for the difference — the effect being to make the joy more simply his own. At least this is certain: although they had spoken the word to all who were in his house, faith is ascribed to him alone.
The joy of that night did not end with it. It turns up again in the letter Paul later sent to this city:
Paul and Silas were in dire circumstances, yet they made the praises of God ring through the prison at Philippi. What results followed, for the blessing of men and the glory of God! A whole household "rejoiced, believing in God." Do we wonder that Paul's later letter to the believers at Philippi is so full of rejoicing?
- Word. Salvation came by a message, not a ritual. He was told to believe, and the grammar keeps faith before baptism.
- God. Told to trust the Lord Jesus Christ, he believed in God — he had grasped who that Man is.
- Table. The washed wounds and the meal are the first fruit of the new nature; love to God's servants is how the change showed.
- House. Commentators differ: does the joy of faith cover everyone under that roof, or does faith belong to the jailer alone?
- Joy. Midnight singing in a prison ended in a whole household rejoicing. The letter to Philippi carried that joy on.