The missionaries are still in the jailer's custody. In the morning, however, in proper administrative fashion the magistrates send word by their lictors for the jailer to release Paul and Silas. Luke gives us no motive. Joyfully, the jailer brings the news and blesses them with the farewell Go in peace.

But Paul refuses the release. Providing a peaceful environment for the fledgling church is more important to him than pursuing personal peace (compare 9:31).

Paul announces his Roman citizenship and declares that two of his fundamental rights have been violated by the previous day's proceedings (16:22-23). The Lex Valeria (509 B.C.) and the Lex Porcia (248 B.C.), reaffirmed in the Lex Julia (23 B.C.), shielded Roman citizens from humiliating punishments in public, such as beating with rods (Cicero On Behalf of Rabirius Charged with High Treason 12; Bruce 1990:366). Further, a Roman citizen was always entitled to a trial before punishment was administered. Paul demands that the magistrates come and publicly escort them from prison. This will be a public admission that the magistrates were wrong and that Christians pose no threat to Roman law.

On hearing of the Roman citizenship of these traveling Jewish preachers, the magistrates are alarmed. A Roman citizen had a status in the Empire not unlike that of a British citizen in India in the days of the British Empire. "In theory he could travel anywhere without problems, being everywhere protected by the Roman law. He was not subjected to the local law unless he consented (though such consent would be usual in business), and he could take matters into his own courts when these were sitting. He owed allegiance to Rome and Rome would protect him" (Lyall 1976:10). Further, a magistrate risked losing his office or worse, being disqualified from ever serving in governmental administration again, if he mistreated a Roman citizen (Lake and Cadbury 1979:201; compare Acts 22:22-29).

The magistrates do as Paul demands. They came and "appealed to" (not appeased) them. Escorting them out, they request that Paul and Silas leave the city. Are they uncertain that they can provide for the missionaries' safety in a situation made even more volatile by their release?

Paul and Silas accede to their request, but only after they have met with the church and encouraged it (compare Acts 15:32). Persecution will not end with Paul and Silas's departure, for that is the Christian's lot (Acts 14:22; Phil 1:27-30). Since the "we" sections of Acts stop after the Philippi episode and do not pick up again until Acts 20:5, again at Philippi, many have conjectured that Paul leaves Luke here to strengthen the church.

This concluding scene yields some valuable principles for guiding Christians in their relations with the state (Talbert 1984:70). Paul's insistence that justice be done encourages Christians to appeal to their legal rights as protection against unjust treatment by non-Christians. The fact that Paul's request was granted gives us confidence that the state can be reasonable and correct its mistakes. Paul's innocence of the charges establishes the pattern that Christians are not to be troublemakers; when we do suffer at the hands of state power, it should be as innocent victims of those with questionable motives (compare 1 Pet 4:15-16). Only by such exemplary lives can we witness with integrity and, by the Spirit's power, answer the haunting question of that age or any age: What must I do to be saved?