Wherefore I exhort you to partake of food, for this has to do with your safety; for not a hair from the head of any one of you shall perish.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And, having said these things and taken a loaf, he gave thanks to God before all, and having broken it began to eat.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And all taking courage, themselves also took food.
Paul eats on a ship that is about to break up. No one aboard has had a real meal for two weeks. The verse turns on one word: all. How could one man's thanksgiving over bread lift a whole doomed ship out of despair?
The hard part was not convincing people that food made sense. It was getting someone to start. Paul went first.
But who would begin? Who would set the example? Paul took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. When he had broken it, he began to eat. Encouraged by his example, all were of good cheer, and took some food, and were refreshed. They all ate of it together — prisoners, crew, centurion, and master. It was their last meal on board, but not just the prelude to death.
Paul had already spoken words of faith. What makes this verse the turning point is that his own behaviour matched them.
If, having spoken words of faith, he had stayed depressed and dejected like the rest, no one would have paid much attention to what he said. Instead, having announced words of good cheer, he was himself plainly of good cheer. He gave thanks to God, he ate, and he urged the others to do the same. Because his actions backed up the reality of his faith, everyone was impressed by it. They too were of good cheer and took food. The circumstances had not changed yet, but they had changed for them as the confidence of faith found a place in their hearts.
Because Luke writes that Paul "took bread" and "broke it," some have read this as a religious service. Commentators here reject that, and point instead to what an everyday meal can be.
There is no basis for another commentator's claim that this was, for the Christians, a celebration of the Lord's Supper or a love-feast. The words are the same ones used for that, but they are used just as clearly of an ordinary meal in Luke 24:30 and elsewhere. In fact there is a good deal of superstition in the meaning too often attached to them. It is the purpose of the Lord's Supper that gives it its character, and that was entirely out of place here. But even the most ordinary food should be sanctified by the word of God and prayer, and here the apostle acts on his own instructions to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:5-6). No wonder they all became cheerful and took food! They had been dejected for a long time, unwilling to eat, with death in front of their eyes.
Paul was still a prisoner, yet on that deck he acted as commander and teacher. One writer notes where his calm came from.
With perfect calm and confidence, he stands up and urges and encourages, corrects and instructs. Then, in front of everyone on board, he takes bread, gives thanks to God, breaks it and begins to eat. The prisoner turned commander and instructor — but all in dependence on his God.
The meal was not comfort for its own sake. Food put strength back into men who still had work to do.
He then gives thanks and eats himself, to encourage them. Then all take heart, and eat too. They were refreshed enough now. They ate with more courage, cheered by the courage of the one who walked with God and knew His secret. So they begin to lighten the ship by throwing the grain overboard. It was not wrong to do so. God can take up the means and the intelligence of men and use them; but these means did not do much good; the hand of God did everything.
Commentators also draw a lesson from the timing. The meal came while the danger was still at its worst.
Before the whole company, two hundred and seventy-six persons, Paul took bread and gave thanks to God. They all became encouraged by the words and action. It all has its lessons. The meal tells us in picture how necessary it is that we feed on the bread of life in days of danger, the times when everything breaks up.
- Cause — Paul did not argue people into courage. He was of good cheer himself, and his actions backed up his words. Only then did anyone copy him.
- Cheer — the storm had not changed, and neither had their circumstances. What changed was that confidence found a place in their hearts.
- Common — this was ordinary food, not the Lord's Supper. The word of God and prayer set apart even a plain meal.
- Crowd — prisoners, crew, centurion and master ate together. All of them followed one prisoner who leaned on his God.
- Consequence — refreshed men could work again. God used their effort, yet the hand of God did everything.