What must I do to be saved?

"Sirs, What must I do to be saved?"

ACTS 16 COMMENTARY ◄
Acts 16:19-29 Paul and Silas

Acts 16:30-34 What Must I Do To Be Saved?

Acts 16:35-40 Magistrates

ACTS 16:30-31 30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

What did the jailer ask Paul and Silas?
"What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30)

Was the jailer asking what he must do to be saved from physical death?
Had that been the case, he wouldn't have "brought them out" (Acts 16:30) of their prison cell and risk their escape, which would have meant his own execution.

Then what was the jailer asking by "What must I do to be saved"?
He was asking about being saved from something worse than physical death. God had opened his eyes to see that he needed to be saved from his sins, which would damn him to the everlasting fire of hell. He recognized that Paul and Silas could tell him about the antidote to his everlasting problem, and was willing to risk physical death for it.

Are you?

According to Paul and Silas, what did the jailer have to do to be saved?
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 16:31).

How is that different today?
It isn't.

Believe what about Jesus?
That "... God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him" (Romans 5:8-9). God, who is Holy and hates sin, ordained the death penalty as the punishment for sin: "For the wages of sin is death... " (Romans 6:23). Since sinners cannot pay the death penalty for other sinners, God, who loves us, came to earth Himself (see Birth of Jesus), lived a sinless life, and then voluntarily died on the cross (see Crucify Him) to pay the death penalty due for our sins, before rising from the dead (see John 20 and Resurrection of Jesus) to prove that He is God. Also see John 3:16 meaning.

ACTS 16:32-34 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

Did the jailer then lock Paul and Silas back in their prison cell?
No, he risked their escape and his own death even more by taking them out of the prison to "his house" (Acts 16:32).

Why did he do that?
He wanted "his family" (Acts 16:33) to hear "the word of the Lord" (Acts 16:32) with him.

Would you risk being killed to share the Gospel with your family?

What about being disowned, disliked or disrespected?