Paul

A Singing Prisoner

READ Acts 16:16–34

A butterfly emerging for the first time looks nothing like the caterpillar that built a chrysalis around itself. What was formerly a wormy, trundling leaf eater becomes a majestic, flying, nectar-drinking wonder—truly a “new creation.”

In a similar way, Paul wrote that anyone who finds new life in Christ becomes a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). He knew this firsthand. Perhaps no person in the Bible displayed this kind of dramatic change more clearly than Paul, and there is perhaps no clearer evidence of his new life than the joy he found in Christ even in the darkest circumstances. Encountering the love of Christ and being regenerated by the Holy Spirit transforms us. We leave behind the old life and enter the new.

Paul went from being a zealous persecutor of the church to a leading missionary, evangelist, and church planter. Once Christ took hold of Paul’s life, he never turned back. His entire purpose became glorifying Christ and spreading the gospel. Paul endured numerous trials and hardships because of this. He was imprisoned frequently, flogged severely, pelted with stones multiple times. He endured shipwrecks, hunger, sleep deprivation, and exposure to the elements. Yet he was able to write, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! . . . Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:4, 6). Paul was able to find joy even in his sufferings, knowing they would produce perseverance and hope (Romans 5:3–4). Certainly this attitude can only come from a changed spirit—one regenerated by the Holy Spirit!

Acts 16 gives a vivid example of Paul’s “rejoice in all situations” attitude. In Philippi, Paul encountered a female slave who had a spirit that enabled her to tell the future. Paul cast the spirit out of the woman, which made her owners furious—her fortune-telling had been a lucrative source of income for them. They stirred up a riot against Paul and Silas, who were stripped and beaten and then locked up in the inner cell of a prison with their feet bound in stocks.

How would you feel if you were Paul? You had done a good thing, delivering a woman from an oppressive spirit. But then you’d been stripped, beaten, and imprisoned without trial. Most of us would probably feel bitter, or at least deeply discouraged. But what did Paul and Silas do in that inner prison cell? They started praying and singing hymns to God. This certainly grabbed the attention of the other prisoners!

When an earthquake shook the prison doors open, and the prisoners were set free, the prison guard panicked. He thought the prisoners had surely escaped and that he would pay for it with his life. Paul assured him, however, that none of the prisoners had left. In a moment of conversion that can only be attributed to God’s Spirit, the guard fell before Paul and Silas and asked, “What must I do to be saved?” (16:30). Far from being bitter toward their captor, they encouraged the guard to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They shared the word of Christ with him and those in his household, and all of them were baptized. Their newfound faith filled them with the joy of Christ (vv. 33–34).

How can you give praise to God even in your bleakest moments, like Paul and Silas? It can only come from one place: a new identity in Christ. In Christ you learn to die to the old self and begin a new life in which you don’t think only of yourself. You begin to learn what it means for your whole mindset to be fixed on Jesus. When you learn this lesson, even suffering can’t sway you. Hardships become opportunities to identify with Christ in his own suffering.

We are called, like Paul, to face all moments in life—even the dark moments—with a view beyond the present. As Paul wrote, “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17). This does not mean dismissing the sufferings of our lives. But God’s glorious future can provide a different outlook than what is right now.

Paul’s ability to praise God even through sufferings should be an encouragement to every believer to expand our vision beyond the present. Our hope is not that God will deliver us from every trial. God does not show himself good because he prevents bad things from happening to us. Christians and non-Christians alike will experience suffering and sorrow. Instead, God shows himself good because he is with us even in our darkest moments, working even the worst we experience for good in the kingdom of Christ.