Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 5:41

"They therefore departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name." — Acts 5:41 (ASV)

Luke stresses the fact that just as the apostles performed miracles through the power of the name of Jesus (cf. 3:6) and proclaimed that name before the people and the council (cf. 3:16; 4:10, 12), so they rejoiced when “counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” 42 Furthermore, Luke tells us that “they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.” In this somewhat formal statement, which comes close to concluding our author’s whole first panel of material, there is both a correlation with the thesis paragraph of Acts (2:42–47)—explicitly in the phrases “in the temple courts and from house to house” (cf. 2:46), though also inferentially in the note of continuance that is sounded—and an anticipation of the final words of Luke’s sixth panel at the very end of Acts: “boldly and without hindrance” (28:31).