Week 48 Philippians & Acts 16
Since I was ahead of schedule I decided to re-read Acts 16 before starting the Philippian letter (last year I made a reminder note to do that – if I had time).
Acts 16 is the backstory to the letter. I wondered if reading it would help me understand Philippians a bit better (unfortunately it didn’t).
Luke described three main events that happened with Paul & Silas:
First there’s Lydia. She already believed in God but when she heard the story of Jesus she came to faith.
Second is the story of a demon-possessed slave girl. She made money for her handlers by telling fortunes and they got angry when Paul exorcised the demon. So Paul & Silas were jailed.
Finally there’s the episode of Paul & Silas in jail:
a) the Lord intervened by sending an earthquake
b) the jailer came to faith in the Lord
c) Paul & Silas were released the next day (and soon after they left town).
So with that background I tried to track Lydia & the slave girl & the jailer in the letter. But I didn’t find any mention of them.
They might have been included in Paul’s final words – give my greetings to all the Christians there – but not by name.
Note: quote from Philippians 4:21 (NLT). The backstory is in Acts 16:11-40. End of the month reading report: 93% finished in 92% of the year (still ahead but cutting it a bit fine).