Acts 23:1-11 And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brothers, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.… It was a scene of strange contrasts and apparently unequal conflict — one man, face to face with the representative body of a whole people, hot for merciless judgment. And yet he does not seem to be disconcerted. He rises to the occasion, and, "looking steadfastly on the council," begins his defence. I. PAUL SPOKE OUT OF AN HONEST CONVICTION. 1. "I have lived before God in all good conscience." The apostle refers not so much to character as to purpose. The "chief of sinners," as he calls himself, would hardly make boast of his faultlessness; he simply asserts that he is actuated by a supreme desire to do right in the sight of God. It is true he has broken with the religion of his fathers, but he is not a fanatical extremist and destructive. His only anxiety is to honour God. 2. Hearty conviction is ever a prerequisite of power. It is not the truth which we touch with our fingertips, but the truth which we grasp firmly, that is made "mighty through God." Mere speculation or half faith are worth little. The men of mark in history have been men of strong convictions. Napoleon devoutly believed in what he called his "star," and his faith in it made him the great soldier of Europe. More especially is it true that, in advancing the gospel, its defenders need definite convictions II. PAUL FRANKLY ADMITTED HIS ERRORS OF JUDGMENT. 1. The apostle had spoken without knowing whom he addressed, and he was in haste to state that his fault was one of ignorance, and not of intent. He stood for truth, and had no wish for anything but legitimate methods of defence. 2. It is never judicious for the advocates of truth to assume that they are infallible, and their opponents always wrong. In the conflict between science and revelation, and between Church and Church, assumption on the one side and the other is altogether too prominent. The true spirit of teachableness is always ready to admit its fallibility. III. PAUL MADE USE OF THE THINGS IN WHICH HE AND HIS HEARERS WERE AGREED, TO LEAD THEM TO CONSIDER THE THINGS IN WHICH THEY DISAGREED. 1. It was a shrewd stroke, but it was not the trick of a demagogue. It was in the line of Paul's uniform policy. To the Jew he became as a Jew. His business was to win men to Christ, and any expedient that helped to that end was legitimate. Especially was it fitting that he should enlist the sympathy of some of his hearers by assuring them that, in common with them, he had faith in immortality, and that the doctrine he taught was vitally related to that grandest of truths. 2. There is instruction here for those who endeavour to induce men to accept the gospel. How can we best get a leverage upon men? Certainly not by assault, but by advancing from the admitted to the unknown. Christian believers and the irreligious world hold some truths in common — the existence of God, the fact of sin, the need of pardon, the endless hereafter; and the efficient Christian worker puts himself on a level with the mass, owns a common frailty, emphasises common needs, and shows the way to a common salvation. To lead men, not to drive them into the kingdom — is the ideal of Christian work. (E. S. Attwood, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. |
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