Wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer
As a malefactor, as if guilty of some capital crime; an enemy to
the law of Moses, a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition
everywhere, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, (
Acts 24:5 ) .
The Ethiopic version renders it, "as a thief". The "trouble" he
suffered were reproaches, persecutions, whipping, beating,
stoning, imprisonment: for he adds,
even unto bonds;
for he was now a prisoner, and in chains; nor was it the first
time, he was in prisons frequent; and all this for the sake of
the Gospel, which he preached, concerning the incarnation, death,
and resurrection of Christ:
but the word of God is not bound;
for the apostle, while a prisoner at Rome, had the liberty of
dwelling by himself, in his own hired house, though held in
chains, and guarded by a soldier, and of receiving his friends,
and of preaching the Gospel to as many as would come to hear him,
( Acts
28:16 Acts 28:17 Acts 28:23 Acts 28:30 Acts 28:31 ) as well as
of sending letters to the churches; for several of his epistles
were written by him when a prisoner, as those to the Ephesians,
Philippians, and Colossians; and this to Timothy, and also that
to Philemon: so that the Gospel was not restrained, or the
apostle restrained from publishing it, both by word of mouth, and
by writing; which was a great support to him under his troubles.
Moreover, the Gospel was the more spread through the bonds of the
apostle, and met with great success; it became known in Caesar's
palace, and was the means of the conversion of some of his
household; and many of the brethren, through his bonds, became
bolder to preach the Gospel of Christ; so that it had a free
course, and was glorified: and sometimes so it is, that
persecution is a means of the greater spread of the Gospel; which
was an effect that followed upon the persecution raised against
the church at Jerusalem, upon the death of Stephen, ( Acts
8:1-4 ) . And indeed, when God opens an effectual door, none
can shut it, though there be many adversaries; and when he gives
the word a commission, there is no stopping it; when it comes in
power, it bears down all before it; it cannot be fettered and
bound by men, though men may be fettered and bound for the sake
of it.