Acts 16:5

16:1-5 Well may the church look for much service from youthful ministers who set out in the same spirit as Timothy. But when men will submit in nothing, and oblige in nothing, the first elements of the Christian temper seem to be wanting; and there is great reason to believe that the doctrines and precepts of the gospel will not be successfully taught. The design of the decree being to set aside the ceremonial law, and its carnal ordinances, believers were confirmed in the Christian faith, because it set up a spiritual way of serving God, as suited to the nature both of God and man. Thus the church increased in numbers daily.

And so were the churches established in the faith,.... Of Christ, both in the grace and doctrine of faith; and that both by the preaching of the Gospel by the apostle and his companions, and by the decrees of the elders delivered by him: and increased in number daily; as well as in gifts and grace.

Established in the faith; being rightly persuaded in the nature and use of things indifferent; and, in general, of things necessary to be believed. And increased in number daily; so that this visitation of the churches had a double benefit. First, it strengthened them that were already converted. Secondly, it added more unto their number.

4, 5. And as they went through the cities, they delivered … the decrees … And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily—not the churches, but the number of their members, by this visit and the written evidence laid before them of the triumph of Christian liberty at Jerusalem, and the wise measures there taken to preserve the unity of the Jewish and Gentile converts.

Verse 5. - So for and so , A.V.; the Churches were strengthened for were the Churches established , A.V. In number; i.e. in the number of their members (comp. Acts 2:47 ; Acts 5:14 ; Acts 6:7 ; Acts 11:21 ). For the phrase, Ἐστερεοῦντο τῇ πίστει , "They were made firm in the faith," comp. Colossians 2:5 , Τὸ στερέωμα τῆς εἰς Ξριστὸν πίστεως ὑμῶν , "The steadfastness of your faith." The word is used in its physical sense in Acts 3:7 , Ἐστερεώθησαν αὐτοῦ αἱ βάσεις κ.τ.λ ., " His feet and anklebones received strength," became fast and firm instead of being loose and vacillating. Acts 16:5

5 . established in the faith ] The verb is peculiar to the Acts, and is used ( Acts 3:7 ; Acts 3:16 ) of the strengthening of the limbs of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. So its employment here indicates that thus the church was now prepared to make great progress. The barrier to Gentile admission was removed, and so the number of Christians multiplied daily.

Acts 16:5 . αἱ μὲν οὖν ἐκκ .: the last time ἐκκλησία is used by St. Luke, except of the Jerusalem Church, and in the peculiar case of the elders at Ephesus, Hort, Ecclesia , p. 95. Rendall, Appendix , μὲν οὖν , p. 165, connects this verse with the following paragraph, cf. Acts 9:31 , so apparently Blass in β .— ἐστερεοῦντο : only used in N.T. in Acts, cf. Acts 3:7 ; Acts 3:16 , and only here in this figurative sense, and it is very possible that St. Luke as a medical man might thus employ the verb which he had twice used in its literal sense, cf. similar instances in Hobart’s Introd. , p. xxxii.; here as in Acts 6:7 , Acts 9:31 , we have the outward growth of numbers and the inward in the steadfast holding of the faith, extensive and intensive.