Earthquakes are terrifying but the prison guard in Philippi was probably more afraid of what the Roman authorities would do to him if his prisoners escaped in the earthquake rubble. Suicide may have been on his mind.

When he saw Paul and Silas he blurted out an emotional question to anyone who would listen—“What do I need to do to be saved?” He never says whether he is asking how to be saved from the earthquake or the Romans. Paul skips the shaking earth and Roman threat and spins the question around to the more important concern of the guard’s eternal destiny. He tells him how to save his soul not his skin. “Believe in Jesus!”

What happened? His skin and his soul were both saved.

Paul’s words apply equally to all of us. Whether asking for salvation of skin or soul, “believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”