Commentary - Acts 9:31

Bird's-eye view

This single verse is a remarkable summary statement, a deep breath of fresh air taken by the early church after a period of intense persecution. Following the conversion of their chief antagonist, Saul of Tarsus, a great calm descends upon the churches. But this is not the quiet of inactivity or slumber. Luke shows us a church that is dynamic and growing, and he gives us the essential ingredients for this healthy growth. The peace they experienced was not a result of a political truce, but a gift from the sovereign God who had just turned the wolf into a sheepdog. This peace provided the environment for the church to be "built up," a term that implies both numerical increase and spiritual strengthening. The engine of this growth was twofold: they walked in the "fear of the Lord" and in the "encouragement of the Holy Spirit." This is the divine recipe for a thriving church: a profound reverence for God's majesty coupled with the intimate comfort and empowerment of His Spirit. The result was not stagnation, but multiplication.

This verse, therefore, serves as a crucial pivot in the book of Acts. It closes the chapter on the initial wave of persecution that followed Stephen's martyrdom and Saul's rampage, and it sets the stage for the gospel's next great leap into the Gentile world through the ministry of Peter in the very next section. It is a model of what the church should be in any era: grounded in godly fear, filled with spiritual comfort, and consequently, always expanding.

Outline

Context In Acts

Acts 9:31 is a summary statement that concludes a major section of Luke's narrative. The preceding chapters detailed the first great persecution of the church, beginning with the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7) and the subsequent scattering of the believers from Jerusalem (Acts 8:1). The chief agent of this persecution was Saul of Tarsus, who was "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" (Acts 9:1). The first part of Acts 9 dramatically recounts the conversion of this man on the road to Damascus. This was a world-altering event. God did not just stop the persecution; He commandeered the persecutor. The immediate result of this divine intervention is the peace described in our verse. The church's most zealous enemy had been transformed into its most zealous advocate. This newfound peace allows Luke to pause the action, give a status report on the health of the church, and prepare the reader for the next phase of expansion, which will involve Peter's ministry to the Gentiles, beginning with Cornelius in Acts 10.

Key Issues

The Paradox of Healthy Growth

Modern evangelicals, when they think about church growth, tend to think in terms of programs, marketing strategies, and making potential visitors feel comfortable and non-threatened. But the Holy Spirit gives us a different set of metrics here. The early church grew, and grew explosively, because of two central realities: the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. This sounds like a paradox to our modern ears. Fear and comfort seem like opposites. How can a people be characterized by both simultaneously?

But this is not a contradiction; it is the secret to spiritual vitality. The fear of the Lord is not a craven, servile terror of a cosmic tyrant. It is a glad and holy reverence for a God who is a consuming fire, but who is also our Father. It is the beginning of wisdom. It is the proper orientation of the creature before the Creator, the sinner before the Savior. This kind of fear, a fear born of forgiveness, is what keeps the church pure. And the comfort of the Holy Spirit is not a sentimental, squishy feeling. The Greek word is paraklesis, which means encouragement, exhortation, and help. It is the strengthening presence of God Himself, dwelling within His people. The fear of God keeps us from trifling with sin, and the comfort of the Spirit keeps us from being crushed by our failures. The fear of God gives us the backbone of conviction, and the comfort of the Spirit gives us the courage to advance. A church that has lost the fear of God will become a worldly social club. A church that has lost the comfort of the Spirit will become a brittle and legalistic sect. But a church that walks in both will multiply.

Verse by Verse Commentary

31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria was having peace, being built up.

Luke begins with a wide-angle shot. The "church" is spoken of in the singular, though it existed in multiple locations throughout these three regions. This points to the essential unity of Christ's body. The gospel had already pushed beyond its initial confines in Jerusalem, reaching into the Jewish heartland (Judea), the northern territories (Galilee), and even across ethnic lines into Samaria (as seen in Acts 8). The peace they were "having" was a direct result of the Lord's dramatic intervention in Saul's life. God did not just arrange a ceasefire; He disarmed the enemy's top general. This peace was a divine gift, creating a season for the church to be "built up." This word, oikodomeo, is the standard term for constructing a building. It means the church was being edified, strengthened, and enlarged. It refers to both qualitative and quantitative growth. The church was getting stronger and bigger, like a well-built house having another story added to it.

And going on in the fear of the Lord and in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it continued to multiply.

Here Luke zooms in to show us the internal engine driving this external growth. Their daily conduct, their "going on" or walking, was defined by two things. First, the fear of the Lord. This is not the cowering dread of a slave, but the respectful, loving, and awesome reverence of a child for his mighty and holy Father. It is a profound awareness that God is God, and we are not. This fear banishes the fear of man. Because they feared God, they no longer had to fear the Sanhedrin, or any other human authority. This holy fear is the foundation of all true worship and obedience.

Second, they walked in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit. The word here is paraklesis, which is related to the name Jesus gives the Spirit, the Paraclete, or Comforter. It means comfort, yes, but it is a robust comfort. It is the encouragement, exhortation, and strengthening that comes from the personal presence of the third person of the Trinity. He is the one who applies the work of Christ to our hearts, assuring us of our pardon and animating our service. So, the fear of God provided the structure and discipline, while the comfort of the Spirit provided the power and motivation. The result of this potent combination was that the church "continued to multiply." The growth was not a one-time event but a continuous, ongoing reality. Healthy things grow, and this was a supremely healthy church.

Application

This verse is a diagnostic tool for the modern church. If our churches are not multiplying, if they are stagnant or shrinking, this verse forces us to ask some hard questions. Are we, as a body, walking in the fear of the Lord? Do our worship services reflect a profound sense of awe and reverence for the holy God we serve? Or have we domesticated Him, treating Him as our cosmic buddy and our worship as little more than sanctified entertainment? Does the fear of God chasten our speech, purify our motives, and stiffen our spines against the pressures of a godless culture?

And are we walking in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit? Do we actually believe that the Spirit of God dwells in us, empowering us, gifting us, and knitting us together in love? Or is the Holy Spirit for us a vague theological abstraction? Do we seek His filling, rely on His power, and extend His comfort to one another? A church that has reduced the fear of the Lord to a set of moralistic rules, and the comfort of the Spirit to a sentimental feeling, is a church that is running on empty. It will not be built up, and it will not multiply.

The path to renewed vitality is the path described here. It begins with repentance, asking God to restore to us a right fear of His name. It continues in prayer, begging God to fill us afresh with the strengthening comfort of His Spirit. When God's people begin to take God as seriously as He is, and when they begin to experience the joy and power of His indwelling presence, then peace, edification, and multiplication will follow as surely as day follows night.