What if?

Chapter 24

v. 16 - Paul says that he strives to keep a clear conscience before God and men. That is radically simple and incredibly difficult. What if we did this every day? What if I did this everyday? What if I could do this everyday for a month (or a year!)? What if everyone in my church did this for a month? What would marriages look like a month from now? What would families look like at the end of that month? How would small groups be different? How would offices operate differently? What effect would this have on people who are "stressed out" (in light of the fact that alot of stress comes from broken/failed relationships)? What if every time I said something hurtful to someone, I sought their forgiveness because I was striving to keep a clear conscience before God and them? It would be an interesting experiment.

v. 27 - 2 years? Wow! This verse says Felix left Paul in prison for 2 years. At first, this sounds like men were in control of the situation and/or that God kinda forgot about Paul. Certainly, this was a blow to the advance of Christianity, right? God should pull one of those numbers where he busts a guy out of jail with some strong-armed angels, right? Apparently not. There's a couple of things to glean here:

• God's character doesn't change, but how He accomplishes His will can. Just because God came through in a certain way in the past, does not bind Him to do it again. Some people are miraculously healed from disease, while others waste away to death - all under the watchful eye of a Sovereign God. It's not that He's merciful sometimes and not at others - He's merciful - it's part of His character. We just don't/can't understand howHe works all the time.


• Timing is everything - we would look at this and say it was a waste of time for Paul to sit there in jail for 2 years. Not exactly. Much of the New Testament was written by Paul and some of those letters were written while Paul was in jail. Because Paul was in jail, he was allowed the time to really think through and articulate many truths of the faith that we know today. Being in jail also afforded him the time to codify those theological thoughts and Christian-living instructions - time he may not have had if he were still on the church-planting circuit. All this to say, there was a method and purpose behind slowing Paul down for 2 years in jail that benefited Christianity for the next 2000 years (again, see the NT). Another reason to allow Paul to sit in jail for 2 years is that the ruler over this whole scene (Felix) was replaced by Festus (also kind of an idiot), who then entertained an even bigger political figure (Agrippa - see chapters 25 & 26), who was much more well-acquainted with Jewish issues. Now his case (and appeal) would be heard by a Roman politician who actually understood the issues and could better understand that Paul had not done anything illegal and certainly not anything deserving death (26:31). Paul would be sent to Rome after this and have an impact in the most important city in the world (at the time). Again, none of this happens if Felix rules on Paul 2 years prior.