<p>16:34 <em>And he brought them into his house</em>- Therefore the teaching of the Gospel to his family in :32,33 was done outside the house; presumably in the ruins of their house and yard. The house they entered would have been severely damaged.</p><p><i>Set food before them, and rejoiced greatly with all his family<em>- </em></i>Whole households were converted (Acts 10:2; 16:34; 18:8; Col. 4:15), and the earliest Christian meeting places unearthed were rooms in the homes of rich believers. And with us too, the success of our community depends upon God&rsquo;s Truth first and foremost being the centre of family life, with the joy of faith permeating it. Household conversions were a major feature of the first century spread of the Gospel (e.g. Lydia- Acts 16:15; Crispus- Acts 18:8; Priscilla and Aquila- Rom. 16:3-5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Nymphas- Col. 4:15; Onesiphorus- 2 Tim. 1:16; 4:19; Philemon- Philemon 2; &ldquo;the elect lady&rdquo;, 2 Jn. 10; the home at Troas- Acts 20:6-8). Clearly &lsquo;house&rsquo; was used in the first century as a kind of shorthand for &lsquo;house church&rsquo;. They knew no other pattern of gathering. There was almost an assumption that if a man converted to Christ, his &lsquo;house&rsquo; also would. Hence we read that Cornelius would be told words &ldquo;whereby thou and thy house shalt be saved&rdquo; (Acts 11:14). The same phrase was repeated to the jailor at Philippi (Acts 16:31). It&rsquo;s emphasized four times in three verses that the Gospel was preached to his house, and his whole house responded (Acts 16:31-34). The Lord likewise rejoiced in Zacchaeus&rsquo; conversion, that salvation had come to that man&rsquo;s house (Lk. 19:9). He assumed that Zacchaeus would quite naturally persuade his &lsquo;house&rsquo;.</p><p><em>Having believed in God</em>- He was unlikely to have been an atheist atheism wasn't very common in the 1st century. But he grasped for the first time the real import of a real and relevant faith in the one true God as a personal being. See on Jn. 14:1. We probably need to read in an ellipsis here: He believed in God's grace and salvation, which is in His Son Jesus.</p>