Acts 16:31,32 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And they said, Believe, &c.— "Humbly trust in, and fully commit thyself to the protection of that great and only Saviour whom we preach, and thou and thine house will be brought into the sure way to eternal salvation." The meaning cannot be, that the eternal salvation of his family could be secured by his faith, but that his believing in Christ would be the best securityof his family from present danger; and that if they also themselves believed, they would be entitled to the same spiritual and everlasting blessings with himself; which St. Paul might the rather add, as it is probable that many, if not all of them, under this terrible alarm, might have attended the master of the family in the dungeon. When St. Paul exhorts the gaoler, as the way to salvation, to believe in Christ, and commit himself to him, it obviously and immediately implies a submission to the further instructions of these his special ambassadors and authorized messengers,concerning the whole wonderful scheme of this salvation, the full import whereof Paul and Silas would not fail to open to their new convert as soon as possible; and accordingly it is added by the sacred writer, that they spake unto him the word of the Lord. They taught him and all his family the Christian doctrine, laying before them the proofs, evidences, and nature of it, as far as the time and circumstances would permit; the result of all which was, that the gaoler was convinced, embraced Christianity, and was converted.