The Maltese people honored them with many honors, and when they departed, they laded them with such things as were necessary. Not as slaves or prisoners. As honored guests. These islanders didn't know Paul. They had no theological investment in his mission. But they saw people in need and they responded with generosity and honor.
I work with refugee resettlement, and I've seen this dynamic repeatedly. People who have nothing offering hospitality. People who've experienced displacement offering radical welcome. The Maltese didn't owe Paul anything. He was a foreigner, a prisoner technically, on their island because his ship sank. But they offered supplies and honor for the journey ahead.
There's something in good people that responds to need and responds with generosity. It's not distinctly Christian. It's human. But it matters. These supplies that the Maltese provided, they sustained Paul and his companions through the final leg to Rome. Sometimes we think of the gospel advancing through proclamation and miracles. It also advances through strangers offering supplies and honor to people they'll never see again.
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