Paul was no dummy! His "smarts" are truly on display in these chapters. The first thing is that after being falsely accused, his Roman captors are preparing to beat him, and Paul nonchalantly brings up the fact of his Roman citizenship to get himself out of an unnecessary beating (22:25). A belief in the sovereignty of God does not preclude the use of our brains! Just because God had allowed this travesty that was taking place didn't mean, in Paul's mind, that he needed just to sit back and let the thing play out. The second demonstration came when Paul realized that his Jewish accusers were made up of both Pharisees and Sadducees. Knowing that these two groups of people had differing opinions about the idea of "resurrection," Paul capitalized on that fact and used it to bring this "circus" court to gridlock (23:6-10). The third instance is Paul's securing a hearing for his nephew with the tribune (23:16-22) in order to expose the plot to kill Paul. There is a reason that God gave us brains and the gift of His wisdom. The challenge always comes in balancing the proper use of those alongside faith and submission to the sovereign will of God that He is working in our lives. This is another area where wisdom is necessary!
In Paul's initial address to Felix, he makes the statement that he "always take(s) pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man" (24:16). It was this very reason that he was able to stand with confidence against his accusers. The only thing of which they could rightly accuse him was belief in Jesus as the Christ and calling others to come to Him. This is the result of living a life of integrity. May our accusers come to the same fate! May they only be able to accuse us rightly of being followers of Jesus Christ and encouraging others to join us!
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