Acts 12:5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church to God for him. He was imprisoned unjustly, and therefore it was no prison to him, but a sanctuary with God's light irradiating it. Peter saw and heard more here than others do in palaces. There are a thousand prisons in life. He is in prison who is in trouble, in fear, in conscious penitence without having received the complete assurance of pardon; he is in prison who has sold his liberty, who is lying under condemnation, who has lost his first love. But whatever our prison is God knows it, can find us, can make us forget our outward circumstances in inward content, can send His angel to deliver us. Peter had been in prison before, and had been miraculously delivered. Fools never learn wisdom; for the people who had shut him up before had seen that you cannot really imprison a good man. His influence increases by the opposition that is hurled against him; goodness turns hostility into nutrition. Who can put an apostle into such a position as Jeremiah was thought to be occupying? You can put his body there, but his soul is swinging around the horizon, and his heart is among the singing angels. You cannot imprison the soul. But a man may lose the liberty of his spirit, and when he gives up the key of his soul he is already in perdition. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.WEB: Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but constant prayer was made by the assembly to God for him. |
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