But this I confess to you, that after the Way, which they call a sect, so I serve the God of our fathers, believing all things which are according to the law, and which are written in the prophets; having hope toward God, which these also themselves look for, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. In this I also practice always having a conscience void of offense toward God and men. Now after some years, I came to bring gifts for the needy to my nation, and offerings; amid which certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, not with a mob, nor with turmoil. They ought to have been here before you, and to make accusation, if they had anything against me. Or else let these men themselves say what injustice they found in me when I stood before the council, unless it is for this one thing that I cried standing among them, ‘Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged before you today!’ ”
But Felix, having more exact knowledge concerning the Way, deferred them, saying, “When Lysias, the commanding officer, comes down, I will decide your case.” He ordered the centurion that Paul should be kept in custody, and should have some privileges, and not to forbid any of his friends to serve him or to visit him. But after some days, Felix came with Drusilla, his wife, who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ Jesus. As he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified, and answered, “Go your way for this time, and when it is convenient for me, I will summon you.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25 14. But I confess. Because they had laid to…
14. But I confess. Because they had laid to Paul’s charge impiety and the polluting of the temple, he purgeth himself of both now, that Felix may understand that his adversaries were moved with evil will. For though the religion, which is pretended, be false and preposterous, yet the study thereof did oftentimes find favor with men, who took no great heed. Wherefore it was to be feared lest Felix, if he had conceived any sinister suspicion of Paul, should not only have pardoned the zeal of the priests, but also have granted their requests. Wherefore Paul doth also refute this point of the accusation; and that so, that he doth not touch the faith of the gospel, because (as we have said) that was no fit place for making confession thereof. But what is this that he saith, that he worshippeth God according to the way which they call heresy? Some think that this is added like to a concession; because the enemies take that in evil part which ought to be attributed to judgment and right election; as if Paul had said, that that form of religion which he had followed is, indeed, called heresy, but unworthily. But seeing that name was not infamous either among the Jews or Gentiles, it is unlikely that he maketh answer before a profane man, touching that which they counted everywhere rather a commendation than any vice. When Christians have conference together, the Spirit of God commandeth that heretics be counted detestable; and he teacheth us to beware of heresies, because they bring upon the Church plague, dissension, and wasteness. Therefore, it is a thing not to be suffered among the people of God, whose safety consisteth in the unity of faith. But because the Jews did then openly boast of their sects, that excuse, whereof we spake of late, was superfluous. Therefore, it remaineth that he do either mean that he is a Pharisee, or that he call the Jewish religion or the profession of the gospel (without infamy) heresy; because they were distinguished from the use and custom of all nations. Seeing he did before confess himself to be a Pharisee, there shall no inconvenience ensue, if we say that he doth repeat the same now; especially seeing he speaketh shortly after of the resurrection of the dead. But because this first point doth only contain a confession concerning the worship of the God of the fathers, I think that he doth rather speak generally of the Jewish religion, or of the Christian faith which did flow thence. Paul was a citizen of Rome, notwithstanding as he came of the Jews by his ancestry, he confesseth that he continueth in the religion which he had learned of the fathers. And to this end doth the adverb of likeness tend; for it showeth a known thing, namely, the manner of worship whereunto the Jews were addicted. He maketh express mention of the God of his fathers, because it was not lawful for a man that was a Roman to receive the doctrine of the law unless he had come of the Jews. Also he toucheth his adversaries, which handle him so cruelly; whereas, notwithstanding, they both worship one God. I (saith he) worship the same God (according to the manner delivered by mine ancestors) which they themselves worship, and even as they worship him. Neither doth that hinder because he was fallen from the ceremonies of the law, and was content with the spiritual worship of God. For Paul thinketh it sufficient for him to wipe away that blot of impiety which his adversaries had falsely cast upon him. Therefore the Papists are ridiculous, who feign that Paul alloweth [approveth] all manner [of] antiquity. We, say they, worship the God of our fathers with Paul, as the custom was delivered to us from hand to hand; as if (even they themselves being judges) it were sufficient for the Jews or Turks to hold up the same buckler against the faith of Christ. But the apostle meant nothing less than simply to ground religion in the authority of ancestors, and to defend his godliness with that defense, which might have been common to all the superstitions of the Gentiles; he meant only to stop the mouth of his adversaries. Nevertheless, he taketh this for a plain matter, that the fathers, from whom the Jewish religion came, were good and sincere worshippers of God; so that the Jews, which were not degenerate, might well boast, that the God of their fathers whom they worshipped was the only Creator of heaven and earth; and that the country gods of all the rest of the world were mere and vain inventions.
Believing all things. A short exposition of the sentence next going before. For, because he had not simply affirmed that he worshipped God, but did add this word ουτως, or so: he doth now set down how he worshippeth God. Whereby it appeareth what great heed he taketh for fear he entangle himself in those accidental superstitions which reigned among the Jews. As if any of us do at this day answer the Papists, that he worshippeth the God whom they profess, as we be taught out of the law and out of the gospel. By this let us learn that God is not rightly worshipped, so that our obedience can please him, unless it be of faith, which is the only ground-work of godliness. For he (to the end he may prove himself to be the servant of God) doth not thrust upon them bare ceremonies; but he saith flatly that he believeth. Furthermore, this place containeth a profitable doctrine, that this is the only foundation of right and true faith, for a man to submit himself to the Scripture, and reverently to embrace the doctrine thereof. Furthermore, Paul doth in this place divide the Scripture into the law and the prophets, that he may the more plainly prove that he doth not dissent from the universal consent of the Church.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24 Paul goeth in the cause of Religion from a…
Paul goeth in the cause of Religion from a state conjectural to a state of quality not only not denying that objected against him, but also proving it to be true, to be heavenly and from God, and to be the oldest of all religions.
Here this word, Heresy, or sect, is taken in good part.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14–25 14 But this I confess unto thee, that after…
14 But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:
Ver. 14. Which they call heresy] Haeresis est vex Eccleslae peculiaris. Antiquitus enim dicebatur, In hac haeresi sum, id est in hac sum sententia vel sic sentio. (Tull. Paradox.) Ecclesiastical writers take it for an error in religion, for an opinion repugnant to the word of God. There must be in it, Error in ratione, et pertinacia in voluntate. Fevardentius, that fiery friar, feigns 1400 errors and heresies, all which he fathers and fastens on the Calvinists. Genebrard imputes to Calvin as an error, that he taught Christ to be αυτοθεος, God of himself. It is not so long since, whosoever among us was not an Arminian, was eo nomine a doctrinal Puritan, as he was then termed; and now, he that was the old English Puritan, cried out upon as the worst of men, and greatest Heteroclite. {a}
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{a} -pudet haec opprobria noble et dici potuisse et non potuisse refelli.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv14–25 But this I confess; he makes here a good…
But this I confess; he makes here a good confession, and is indeed a follower of Christ, who before Pontius Pilate is said to have witnessed a good confession, 1Ti 6:13.
Heresy: this word is of a middle signification, being sometimes taken in a good sense, as Act 26:5, and thus the Greeks did use it sometimes when they spake of their philosophers; though the Jews called the doctrine of Christ so in the worst acceptation of the word; which doctrine this blessed apostle is not ashamed to own. Yet he does withal truly assert, that he worshipped no other God than the God of his fathers, but worshipped him whom Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (whom they so much gloried in) had worshipped; and that he had no other religion than what was taught in the law and the prophets, from whom they themselves had received theirs.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 17, 22, 24 Here the apostle answers the second part of the…
Here the apostle answers the second part of the charge brought against him; namely, the charge of heresy, and being the ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.
Where note, That although the apostle would not, out of his great modesty, take upon himself to be one of the heads or chiefs among them, a ringleader, as they styled him; yet as to the owning of that way, notwithstanding all the imputations they had cast upon it, he doth it with the greatest freedom and courage, in the presence of his judge and accusers; This I confess, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I, &c.
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Here observe, 1. The false imputation which Christianity suffered under in its first appearance; After the way which they call heresy. It is no new thing to nickname the worshippers of the true God, to call them heretics, and their way to worship heresy.
Observe, 2. The way taken by St. Paul to remove this false imputation; namely, by an appeal to scripture and antiquity: So worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things that are written in the law and the prophets.
Where note, How he appeals to scripture as the ground and rule of his faith, the law and the prophets; and then he appeals to the best and purest antiquity for the object of his worship; So worship I the God of my Fathers.
Observe, 3. The freedom and courage of the apostle in owning his religion, notwithstanding these false imputations, even in the presence of his greatest enemies, and when they were in hopes to destroy him for it; This I confess unto thee. The apostle abhorred that mean and base-spirited principle, which makes it lawful for men to deny their religion when it brings them into danger: no, he valued his above, and preferred it before, his personal safety.
God Almighty inspire us with the same courage and holy resolution, that when our adversaries of the church at Rome pronounce us heretics, and call our religion heresy, we may answer them as our apostle answered their forefathers, the subtle Pharisee, After the way which you call heresy, so worship we the God of our fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v22 We have here the result of Paul's trial before…
We have here the result of Paul's trial before Felix, and what was the consequence of it.
I. Felix adjourned the cause, and took further time to consider of it (Act 24:22): He had a more perfect knowledge of that way which the Jews called heresy than the high priest and the elders thought he had. He understood something of the Christian religion; for, living at Caesarea, where Cornelius, a Roman centurion, was, who was a Christian, from him and others he had got a notion of Christianity, that it was not such an evil thing as it was represented. He himself knew some of that way to be honest good men, and very conscientious, and therefore he put off the prosecutors with an excuse: "When the chief captain shall come down hither, I will know the uttermost of your matter, or I shall know the truth, whether this Paul did go about to raise sedition or no; you are parties, he is an indifferent person. Either Paul deserves to be punished for raising the tumult, or you do for doing it yourselves and then charging it upon him; and I will hear what he says, and determine accordingly between you." Now, 1. It was a disappointment to the high priest and the elders that Paul was not condemned, or remitted to their judgment, which they wished for and expected. But thus sometimes God restrains the wrath of his people's enemies by the agency, not of their friends, but of such as are strangers to them. And though they be so, if they have but some knowledge of their way, they cannot but appear for their protection. 2. It was an injury to Paul that he was not released. Felix ought to have avenged him of his adversaries, when he so plainly saw there was nothing but malice in the prosecution, and to have delivered him out of the hand of the wicked, according to the duty of a judge, Psa 82:4. But he was a judge that neither feared God nor regarded man, and what good could be expected from him? It is a wrong not only to deny justice, but to delay it.
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II. He detained the prisoner in custody, and would not take bail for him; else here at Caesarea Paul had friends enough that would gladly have been his security. Felix thought a man of such a public character as Paul was had many friends, as well as many enemies, and he might have an opportunity of obliging them, or making a hand of them, if he did not presently release him, and yet did show him countenance; and therefore, 1. He continued him a prisoner, commanded a centurion or captain to keep him, Act 24:23. He did not commit him to the common jail, but, being first made an army-prisoner, he shall still be so. 2. Yet he took care he should be a prisoner at large - in libera custodia; his keeper must let him have liberty, not bind him nor lock him up, but make his confinement as easy to him as possible; let him have the liberty of the castle, and, perhaps, he means liberty to take the air, or go abroad upon his parole: and Paul was such an honest man that they might take his word for his return. The high priest and the elders grudged him his life, but Felix generously allows him a sort of liberty; for he had not those prejudices against him and his way that they had. He also gave orders that none of his friends should be hindered from coming to him; the centurion must not forbid any of his acquaintances from ministering to him; and a man's prison is as it were his own house if he has but his friends about him.
III. He had frequent conversation with him afterwards in private, once particularly, not long after his public trial, Act 24:24, Act 24:25. Observe,
1. With what design Felix sent for Paul. He had a mind to have some talk with him concerning the faith in Christ, the Christian religion; he had some knowledge of that way, but he desired to have an account of it from Paul, who was so celebrated a preacher of that faith, above the rest. Those that would enlarge their knowledge must discourse with men of their own profession, and those that would be acquainted with any profession should consult those that excel in the knowledge of it; and therefore Felix had a mind to talk with Paul more freely than he could in open court, where he observed Paul upon his guard, concerning the faith of Christ; and this only to satisfy his curiosity, or rather the curiosity of his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess, daughter of Herod Agrippa, that was eaten of worms. Being educated in the Jewish religion, she was more inquisitive concerning the Christian religion, which pretended to be the perfection of that, and desired to hear Paul discourse of it. But it was no great matter what religion she was of; for, whatever it was, she was a reproach and scandal to it - a Jewess, but an adulteress; she was another man's wife when Felix took her to be his wife, and she lived with him in whoredom and was noted for an impudent woman, yet she desires to hear concerning the faith of Christ. Many are fond of new notions and speculations in religion, and can hear and speak of them with pleasure, who yet hate to come under the power and influence of religion, can be content to have their judgments informed but not their lives reformed.
2. What the account was which Paul gave him of the Christian religion; by the idea he had of it, he expected to be amused with a mystical divinity, but, as Paul represents it to him, he is alarmed with a practical divinity. Paul, being asked concerning the faith in Christ, reasoned (for Paul was always a rational preacher) concerning righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. It is probable that he mentioned the peculiar doctrines of Christianity concerning the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and his being the Mediator between God and man; but he hastened to his application, in which he designed to come home to the consciences of his hearers.
(1.) He discoursed with clearness and warmth of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come; and here he showed, [1.] That the faith in Christ is designed to enforce upon the children of men the great laws of justice and temperance. The grace of God teacheth us to live soberly and righteously, Tit 2:12. Justice and temperance were celebrated virtues among the heathen moralists; if the doctrine Paul preaches, which Felix has heard of as proclaiming liberty, will but free him from an obligation to these, he will readily embrace it: "No," says Paul, "it is so far from doing so that it strengthens the obligations of those sacred laws; it binds all under the highest penalties to be honest in all their dealings, and to render to all their due; to deny themselves, and to keep under the body, and bring it into subjection." The world and the flesh being in our baptism renounced, all our pursuits of the world and all our gratifications of the desires of the body are to be under the regulations of religion. Paul reasoned of righteousness and temperance, to convince Felix of his unrighteousness and intemperance, of which he had been notoriously guilty, that, seeing the odiousness of them, and his obnoxiousness to the wrath of God for them (Eph 5:6), he might enquire concerning the faith of Christ, with a resolution to embrace it. [2.] That by the doctrine of Christ is discovered to us the judgment to come, by the sentence of which the everlasting state of all the children of men will be finally and irreversibly determined. Men have their day now, Felix hath his; but God's day is coming, when everyone shall give account of himself to God, the Judge of all. Paul reasoned concerning this; that is, he showed what reason we have to believe that there is a judgment to come, and what reason we have, in consideration thereof, to be religious.
(2.) From this account of the heads of Paul's discourse we may gather, [1.] That Paul in his preaching had no respect to persons, for the word of God, which he preached, has not: he urged the same convictions and instructions upon the Roman governor that he did upon other people. [2.] That Paul in his preaching aimed at the consciences of men, and came close to them, sought not to please their fancy nor to gratify their curiosity, but led them to a sight of their sins and a sense of their duty and interest. [3.] That Paul preferred the serving of Christ, and the saving of souls, before his own safety. He lay at the mercy of Felix, who had power (as Pilate said) to crucify him (or, which was as bad, to deliver him back to the Jews), and he had power to release him. Now when Paul had his ear, and had him in a good humour, he had a fair opportunity of ingratiating himself with him, and obtaining a release, nay, and of incensing him against his prosecutors: and, on the contrary, if he disobliged him, and put him out of humour, he might do himself a great diskindness by it; but he is wholly negligent of these considerations, and is intent upon doing good, at least discharging his duty. [4.] That Paul was willing to take pains, and run hazards, in his work, even where there was little probability of doing good. Felix and Drusilla were such hardened sinners that it was not at all likely they should be brought to repentance by Paul's preaching, especially under such disadvantages; and yet Paul deals with them as one that did not despair of them. Let the watchman give fair warning, and then they have delivered their own souls, though they should not prevail to deliver the souls they watch for.
3. What impressions Paul's discourse made upon this great but wicked man: Felix trembled, emphobos genomenos - being put into a fright, or made a terror to himself, a magor-missabib, as Pashur, Jer 20:3, Jer 20:4. Paul never trembled before him, but he was made to tremble before Paul. "If this be so, as Paul says, what will become of me in another world? If the unrighteous and intemperate will be condemned in the judgment to come, I am undone, for ever undone, unless I lead a new course of life." We do not find that Drusilla trembled, though she was equally guilty, for she was a Jewess, and depended upon the ceremonial law, which she adhered to the observance of, to justify her; but Felix for the present could fasten upon nothing to pacify his conscience, and therefore trembled. See here, (1.) The power of the word of God, when it comes with commission; it is searching, it is startling, it can strike a terror into the heart of the most proud and daring sinner, by setting his sins in order before him, and showing him the terrors of the Lord. (2.) The workings of natural conscience; when it is startled and awakened, it fills the soul with horror and amazement at its own deformity and danger. Those that are themselves the terror of the mighty in the land of the living have hereby been made a terror to themselves. A prospect of the judgment to come is enough to make the stoutest heart to tremble, as when it comes indeed it will make the mighty men and the chief captains to call in vain to rocks and mountains to shelter them.
4. How Felix struggled to get clear of these impressions, and to shake off the terror of his convictions; he did by them as he did by Paul's prosecutors (Act 24:25), he deferred them; he said, Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will call for thee. (1.) He trembled and that was all. Paul's trembling (Act 9:6), and the jailer's (Act 16:29), ended in their conversion, but this of Felix did not. Many are startled by the word of God who are not effectually changed by it. Many are in fear of the consequences of sin, and yet continue in love and league with sin. (2.) He did not fight against his convictions, nor fly in the face of the word or of the preacher of it, to be revenged on them for making his conscience fly in his face; he did not say to Paul, as Amaziah to the prophet, Forbear, why shouldst thou be smitten? He did not threaten him with a closer confinement, or with death, for touching him (as John Baptist did Herod) in the sore place. But, (3.) He artfully shifted off his convictions by putting off the prosecution of them to another time. He has nothing to object against what Paul has said; it is weighty and worth considering. But, like a sorry debtor, he begs a day; Paul has spent himself, and has tired him and his lady, and therefore, "Go thy way for this time - break off here, business calls me away; but when I have a convenient season, and have nothing else to do, I will call for thee, and hear what thou hast further to say." Note, [1.] Many lose all the benefit of their convictions for want of striking while the iron is hot. If Felix, now that he trembled, had but asked, as Paul and the jailer did when they trembled, What shall I do? he might have been brought to the faith of Christ, and have been a Felix indeed, happy for ever; but, by dropping his convictions now, he lost them for ever, and himself with them. [2.] In the affairs of our souls, delays are dangerous; nothing is of more fatal consequence than men's putting off their conversion from time to time. They will repent, and turn to God, but not yet; the matter is adjourned to some more convenient season, when such a business or affair is compassed, when they are so much older; and then convictions cool and wear off, good purposes prove to no purpose, and they are more hardened than ever in their evil way. Felix put off this matter to a more convenient season, but we do not find that this more convenient season ever came; for the devil cozens us of all our time by cozening us of the present time. The present season is, without doubt, the most convenient season. Behold, now is the accepted time. Today if you will hear his voice.
IV. After all, he detained him a prisoner, and left him so, when two years after he was removed from the government, Act 24:26, Act 24:27. He was convinced in his conscience that Paul had done nothing worthy of death or of bonds, and yet had not the honesty to release him. To little purpose had Paul reasoned with him about righteousness, though he then trembled at the thought of his own iniquity, who could thus persist in such a palpable piece of injustice. But here we are told what principles he was governed by herein; and they were such as make the matter yet much worse. 1. The love of money. He would not release Paul because he hoped to make his market of him, and that at length his friends would make a purse to purchase his liberty, and then he would satisfy his conscience by releasing him when he could withal satisfy his covetousness by it; but he cannot find in his heart to do his duty as a judge, unless he can get money by it: He hoped that money would have been given him of Paul, or somebody for him, and then he would have loosed him, and set him at liberty. In hopes of this, he detains him a prisoner, and sends for him the oftener, and communes with him; not any more about the faith of Christ (he had had enough of that, and of the judgment to come; Paul must not return to those subjects, nor go on with them), but about his discharge, or ransom rather, out of his present captivity. He cannot for shame ask Paul what he will give him to release him, but he sends for him to feel his pulse, and gives him an opportunity to ask why he would take to release him. And now we see what became of his promise both to Paul and to himself, that he would hear more of Christ at some other convenient season. Here were many seasons convenient enough to have talked that matter through, but nothing is done in it; all his business now is to get money by Paul, not to get the knowledge of Christ by him. Note, It is just with God to say concerning those who trifle with their convictions, and think they can have the grace of God at command when they please, My Spirit shall no more strive with them. When men will not hear God's voice today, while it is called today, the heart is commonly hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Paul was but a poor man himself, silver and gold he had none to give, to purchase his liberty; but Felix knew there were those who wished well to him who were able to assist him. He having lately collected a great deal of money for the poor saints to relieve them, it might also be expected that the rich saints should contribute some to release him, and I wonder it was not done. Though Paul is to be commended that he would not offer money to Felix, nor beg money of the churches (his great and generous soul disdained both), yet I know not whether his friends are to be commended, nay, whether they can be justified, in not doing it for him. They ought to have solicited the governor as pressingly for him as his enemies did against him: and if a gift was necessary to make room for them (as Solomon speaks) and to bring them before great men, they might lawfully have done it. I ought not to bribe a man to do an unjust thing, but, if he will not do me justice without a fee, it is but doing myself justice to give it to him; and, if they might do it, it was a shame they did not do it. I blush for them, that they would let such an eminent and useful man as Paul lie in the jail, when a little money would have fetched him out, and restored him to his usefulness again. The Christians here at Caesarea, where he now was, had parted with their tears to prevent his going to the prison (Act 21:13), and could they not find in their hearts to part with their money to help him out? Yet there might be a providence of God in it; Paul's bonds must be for the furtherance of the gospel of Christ, and therefore he must continue in bonds. However, this will not excuse Felix, who ought to have released an innocent man, without demanding or accepting any thing for it: the judge that will not do right without a bribe will no doubt do wrong for a bribe. 2. Men-pleasing. Felix was recalled from his government about two years after this, and Porcius Festus was put in his place, and one should have expected he would have at least concluded his government with this act of justice, the release of Paul, but he did not; he left Paul bound, and the reason here given is because he was willing to do the Jews a pleasure. Though he would not deliver him to death, to please them, yet he would continue him a prisoner rather than offend them; and he did it in hope hereby to atone for the many offences he had done against them. He did not think Paul had either interest or inclination to complain of him at court, for detaining him so long in custody, against all law and equity; but he was jealous of the high priest and elders, that they would be his accusers to the emperor for the wrongs he had done them, and therefore hopes by gratifying them in this matter to stop their mouths. Thus those who do some base things are tempted to do more to screen themselves and bear them out. If Felix had not injured the Jews, he needed not to have done this to please them; but, when he had done it, it seems he did not gain his point. The Jews, notwithstanding this, accused him to the emperor, and some historians say he was sent bound to Rome by Festus; and, if so, surely his remembering how light he had made of Paul's bonds would help to make his own chain heavy. Those that aim to please God by doing good will have what they aim at; but so will not those that seek to please men by doing evil.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–25 And have hope towards God,.... Of an interest in…
And have hope towards God,.... Of an interest in him, and of enjoying eternal life and happiness with him in a future state:
which they themselves also allow; that is, some of the Jews, not the Sadducees, for they denied what is afterwards asserted; but the Pharisees, who believed the immortality of the soul, and its existence in a future state:
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and that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust; agreeably to the doctrine of Christ in Joh 5:28. In this article the Pharisees of those times were sounder than the modern Jews; for though the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is one of their thirteen articles of faith, and is a fundamental one, which he that does not believe, cannot be said to be of the Jewish religion; yet they limit it entirely to the righteous (s), and will not allow that the wicked shall rise again: and this notion obtained also very early; for in their Talmud (t) it is reported, as the saying of R. Abhu, that
"the day of rain is greater than the resurrection of the dead; the resurrection of the dead is for the righteous, but the rain is both for the righteous, and the wicked.''
Though Abarbinel (u) says, that the sense of this expression is not, that they that are not just shall have no part in the resurrection, but that hereby is declared the benefit and reward to be enjoyed at the resurrection; that that is not like rain, from whence both just and unjust equally receive advantage; whereas only the reward is for the righteous, but not for the ungodly: moreover, he observes, that this saying was not received and approved of by all the wise men, particularly that R. Joseph dissented, and others agreed with him; and as for himself, he openly declares, that that assertion, that the just among the Israelites only shall rise again, is foreign from truth, since the Scripture affirms, Dan 12:2 "that many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake"; but if there should be no other than the righteous in the resurrection, they would without doubt be very few; besides it is said, "some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting contempt"; and Isaiah says, Isa 66:24 "and they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me"; which shows, that the ungodly shall rise again, to receive their due punishment: and Manasseh ben Israel (w), in the last century, argued for the resurrection of both the godly and ungodly, from the same passages of Scripture; and yet he was not of opinion, that the resurrection would be general and common to all men, only that some of all sorts, good, and bad, and middling, would rise again, and which he supposed was the sense of the ancients. It is certain the Jews are divided in their sentiments about this matter; some of them utterly deny that any other shall rise but the just; yea, they affirm (x), that only the just among the Israelites, and not any of the nations of the world shall rise; others say that all shall rise at the resurrection of the dead, excepting the generation of the flood (y); and others (z) think, that only they that have been very bad, or very good, shall rise, but not those that are between both; but certain it is, as the apostle affirms, that all shall rise, both just and unjust: the just are they who are made so by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, and who being created anew unto righteousness and true holiness, live soberly, righteously, and godly; the unjust are they who are destitute of righteousness, and are filled with all unrighteousness; and these latter, as well as the former, will rise again from the dead; which is clear, not only from the words of Christ, and the writings of the apostles, but from the Scriptures of the Old Testament, particularly Dan 12:2 and also from the justice of God, which requires that they who have sinned in the body, should be punished in the body; wherefore it is necessary on this account, that the bodies of the wicked should be raised, that they with their souls may receive the full and just recompense of reward; and likewise from the general judgment, which will include the righteous and the wicked, and who must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to receive for the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil; in order to which there must be a resurrection of them; to which add, the account the Scripture gives of the punishment of the wicked in hell, which supposes the resurrection of the body, and in which the body and soul will be both destroyed. Indeed there will be a difference between the resurrection of the just and of the unjust, both in the time of their rising, the dead in Christ will rise first at the beginning of the thousand years, the wicked not until they are ended; and in the means and manner of their rising; they will be both raised by Christ, but the one by virtue of union to him, the other merely by his power; the just will rise in bodies not only immortal, and incorruptible, but powerful, spiritual, and glorious, even like to the glorious body of Christ; the wicked will rise with bodies immortal, but not free from sin, nor glorious: yea, their resurrection will differ in the end of it; the one will rise to everlasting life and glory, the other to everlasting shame and damnation.
(s) Maimon. in Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 11. sect. 1. Kimchi in Isa. xxvi 19. Aben Ezra & Saadiah Gaon in Dan. xii. 2. (t) T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 7. 1. (u) Prefat. in Isa. fol. 3. 1. (w) De Resurrectione Mortuorum, l. 2. c. 8. (x) Vid. Pocock, Not. Miscel. in port. Mosis, p. 183. (y) Pirke Eliezer, c. 34. (z) Vid. Menassah ben Israel, ut supra.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 After the way which they call heresy - This…
After the way which they call heresy - This appellation St. Paul corrects. Not that it was then an odious word; but it was not honourable enough. A party or sect (so that word signifies) is formed by men. This way was prescribed by God. The apostle had now said what was sufficient for his defense; but having a fair occasion, he makes an ingenuous confession of his faith in this verse, his hope in the next, his love in the 17th. verse.So worship I the God of my fathers - This was a very proper plea before a Roman magistrate; as it proved that he was under the protection of the Roman laws, since the Jews were so: whereas had he introduced the worship of new gods he would have forfeited that protection. Believing all things which are written - Concerning the Messiah.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 Verse 14. That after the way which they call…
Verse 14. That after the way which they call heresy] See the explanation of this word in Clarke's note on "Ac 5:17", and see before, Ac 24:5, where what is here translated heresy, is there rendered sect. At this time the word had no bad acceptation, in reference to religious opinions. The Pharisees themselves, the most respectable body among the Jews, are called a sect; for Paul, defending himself before Agrippa, says that he lived a Pharisee according to the strictest αιρεσιν, sect, or heresy of their religion. And Josephus, who was a Pharisee, speaks, της των Φαρισαιων αἱρεσεως, of the heresy or sect of the Pharisees. LIFE, chap. xxxviii. Therefore it is evident that the word heresy had no bad meaning among the Jews; it meant simply a religious sect. Why then did they use it by way of degradation to St. Paul? This seems to have been the cause. They had already two accredited sects in the land, the Pharisees and Sadducees: the interests of each of these were pretty well balanced, and each had a part in the government, for the council, or Sanhedrin, was composed both of Sadducees and Pharisees: see Ac 23:6. They were afraid that the Christians, whom they called Nazarenes, should form a new sect, and divide the interests of both the preceding; and what they feared, that they charged them with; and, on this account, the Christians had both the Pharisees and the Sadducees for their enemies. They had charged Jesus Christ with plotting against the state, and endeavouring to raise seditions; and they charged his followers with the same. This they deemed a proper engine to bring a jealous government into action.
So worship I the God of my fathers] I bring in no new object of worship; no new religious creed. I believe all things as they profess to believe; and acknowledge the Law and the Prophets as divinely inspired books; and have never, in the smallest measure, detracted from the authority or authenticity of either.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv14, 17, 22, 24 Act 24:14-16. But — As to what they have…
Act 24:14-16. But — As to what they have alleged against me with regard to the Nazarenes; this I confess unto thee — And am not ashamed publicly to avow it in the presence of the greatest personages upon earth; that after the way which they call αιρεσιν, a sect; (so the same word is properly rendered, Act 24:5;) so worship I the God of my fathers — And am authorized by our sacred writings so to do; believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets — On which every part of the religion which I profess is founded, and which I should not either understand or believe if I worshipped or served the God of my fathers any other way, or did not believe in and receive Jesus Christ as the true Messiah, to whom both the law and the prophets bear witness. And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow — All the Pharisees allowed it; that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust — In a public court, this was peculiarly proper to be observed. The pious Jews expected a resurrection, as Paul did, on the foundation of the promises of God, delivered by Moses and the prophets. This was a very proper defence before a Roman magistrate, who, by the laws of the empire, was bound to allow every man to worship God according to the religion of his country. And herein — Εν τουτω, on this account, because I believe all things written in the law and the prophets, and expect a future resurrection and an eternal state; I exercise myself — And make it the continual care and study of my life; to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward man — That so, whatever accusations are brought against me, my own heart may not condemn me, but I may always find internal support amidst all the external injuries I may receive from mankind.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv14–25 But this I confess ... - The next specification…
But this I confess ... - The next specification in the charge of Tertullus was Act 24:5 that he was “a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.” To this, Paul replies in this and the two following verses. Of this reply we may observe:
(1) That he does not stoop to notice the contempt implied in the use of the word “Nazarenes.” He was engaged in a more important business than to contend about the name which they chose to give to Christians.
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(2) He admits that he belonged to that sect or class of people. That he was a Christian he neither denied, nor was disposed to deny.
(3) He maintains that in this way he was still worshipping the God of his fathers. Of this, the fact that he was engaged in worship in the temple was sufficient proof.
(4) He shows them that he believed only what was written in the Law and the prophets; that this involved the main doctrine of their religion the hope of the resurrection of the dead, Act 24:15; and that it was his constant and earnest desire to keep a pure conscience in all things, Act 24:16. These are the points of his defense to the second charge, and we shall see that they fully meet and dispose of the accusation.
After the way - After the manner or mode of worship.
Which they call heresy - This translation does not express to us the force of the original. We have attached to the word “heresy” an idea which is not conveyed by the Greek word, since we now commonly understand by it error of doctrine. In Paul’s answer here, there is an explicit reference to their charge which does not appear in our version. The charge of Tertullus was, that he was the ringleader of the sect (τἦς αἱρέσεως tēs haireseōs) of the Nazarenes, Act 24:5. To this Paul replies, “After the way which they call “sect” ἁιρεσιν hairesin, not error of doctrine, but after a way which they affirm is producing division or schism), so worship I the God of my fathers.” Paul was hot ashamed to be called a follower of that sect or party among the Jewish people. Nor should we be ashamed to worship God in a mode that is called heresy or schism, if we do it in obedience to conscience and to God.
So worship I - I continue to worship. I have not departed from the characteristic of the Jewish people, the proper and public acknowledgment of the God of the Jews.
The God of my fathers - My father’s God, Yahweh; the God whom my Jewish ancestors adored. There is something very touching in this, and suited to find its way to the heart of a Jew. He had introduced no new object of worship (compare Deu 13:1-5); he had not become a follower of a false or foreign God; and this fact was really a reply to their charge that he was setting up a new sect in religion. The same thing Paul affirms of himself in 2Ti 1:3; “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience.”
Believing all things ... - Particularly respecting the Messiah. So he more fully explains his meaning in his speech before King Agrippa, Act 26:23.
In the law and in the prophets - Commanded in the Law of Moses, and foretold by the prophets. That Paul had ever disbelieved any of these things they could not prove; and his whole course had shown that he fully credited the sacred records. Most of his arguments in defending Christianity had been drawn from the Jewish writings.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv14, 22, 25 The Father,[3] and my God. In the Greek, the…
The Father,[3] and my God. In the Greek, the Lord of our fathers. (Witham) --- According to the way. The Protestant version has sect for way; but in the, as well as in many other points, the original is not attended to, in which we read Greek: kata ten odon, as in our translation.
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Patri & Deo. Greek: to patroo theo.
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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v24 24And [But] after certain [some] days, when Felix came…
C.—A SECOND HEARING BEFORE THE PROCURATOR IS ALSO WITHOUT RESULT; AND FELIX LEAVES PAUL AS A PRISONER TO HIS SUCCESSOR
Act_24:24-27
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24And [But] after certain [some] days, when Felix came with his13 wife Drusilla, which [who] was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ14. 25And as [But when] he reasoned of [discoursed concerning] righteousness [justice], temperance [continence], and judgment to come [the future judgment]15, Felix trembled [became afraid], and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have aconvenient season [when I find a convenient time], I will call for thee. 26He hoped also [He also hoped, at the same time, ἅμα δὲ καὶ,16] that money should have been given him of [money would be given to him by] Paul, that he might loose him [om. that he might loose him17]: wherefore he [also, χαὶ] sent for him the oftener, and communed [conversed] with him. 27But after two years [had elapsed, πληρωθείσης] Porcius Festus came into Felix’ room [Felix received a successor in Porcius Festus]: and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure [wishing to place the Jews under obligations18], left Paul bound [Paul in confinement].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Act_24:24 a. Felix came with his wife, i.e., to the apartment in which he intended to hear Paul [“probably the ἀκροατήριον mentioned below Act_25:23.” [Conyb. and H. II. 294. n. 5.—Tr.]; or the sense may be: he came back to Cesarea, after having been engaged elsewhere, in the province, during the interval.
b. Drusilla.—She was a daughter of Herod Agrippa I., who had commanded that James should be executed, and who afterwards died in Cesarea. Act_12:1 ff.; Act_24:21 ff. She was distinguished for her beauty, and had been married to Azizus, the king of Emesa. Felix became acquainted with her, and, with the assistance of a Jewish sorcerer, named Simon of Cyprus, induced her to forsake her husband and marry him (Jos. Antiq. 20:7. 1, 2.). The summons which Paul received, was no doubt suggested by her; as a Jewess and a member of the Herodian family, she had unquestionably heard the Christian religion mentioned on many occasions, and may have been desirous of seeing and hearing for herself one of the principal representatives of the Church. It is obvious that the questions addressed to Paul, did not specially refer to the accusations which had been brought against him.
Act_24:25-26. a. And as he reasoned of. etc.—When Paul received liberty to speak, he did not confine himself to those points on which Felix or his wife wished to hear him; he also introduced certain subjects of which Felix did not wish to hear, but on which the apostle’s conscience, precisely for that reason, constrained him to discourse. He spoke of justice to a judge, of continence to a prefect, whose recklessness and licentiousness had made him notorious [per omnem sævitiam et libidinem, Tac. Hist. V. 9.—Tr.], and of the future judgment to a man who needed that he should be reminded of his future account. The word διαλεγομένου is here employed, as the proceedings were not, strictly speaking, official and public, but rather assumed the character of a private interview between Paul and the procurator, together with the wife of the latter.
b. Felix trembled [became afraid].—[“Trembled is merely Tyndale’s loose translation of a phrase denoting inward feeling, not its outward indications.” (Alex.)—Tr.]. He was alarmed, as he had not for a long time heard such language from any one, and least of all from the mouth of a prisoner of whom he was the acknowledged judge. But he abruptly terminated the interview, and sent Paul back to his prison. Τὸ νῦν ἔχον, i.e., for the present; this expression occurs very frequently in the later Greek writers, as Lucian, Diodorus, Chrysostom, etc. The participle ἐλπίζων is connected with ἀπεκρίθη, although other words intervene. There can be no doubt that Felix was aware of the deep interest which the Christians took in the fate of Paul, and knew that they would make the most costly sacrifice in order to aid him. [But his hopes of receiving money from Paul, furnished by the Christians, were unfulfilled; for while the apostle was ever ready to claim the protection of the law, he never resorted to dishonorable means. (Conyb. and H. II. 295).—Tr.]. Felix would, indeed, have gladly received a bribe from Paul, although it was expressly forbidden by the Lex Julia, De repetundis, that any person should receive pay in any form for the arrest, the condemnation, or the acquittal of any individual. [“It is remarkable that Tacitus uses of Felix [Ann. XII. 54) the expression: ‘cuncta malefacta sibi impune ratus.’ (Alf.).—Tr.]
Act_24:27. But after two years [had elapsed].—These two years are naturally to be reckoned from the beginning of Paul’s imprisonment, and not from the time of the appointment of Felix to office, the latter being here of no importance whatever. [“The events of these two years of the life of the apostle are so entirely unknown, that the assertion cannot be made with confidence (Ewald), that none of his epistles, written during this period, can be extant.” (Meyer).—“Many messages, and even letters—may have been sent from Cesarea to brethren at a distance. And a plausible conjecture fixes this period and place for the writing of St. Luke’s Gospel, under the superintendence of the Apostle of the Gentiles.” [Conyb. and H. II. 295).—Tr.]. Felix was recalled by Nero, without any agency of his own, probably in the summer of the year 60. He left Paul behind him, a prisoner, and in chains; he adopted this course in order to confer a favor on the Jews, and thus induce them, in view of the obligation, to treat him with forbearance, and withhold complaints. Χάριτα [χάριν] κατατίθεσθαι is a classical expression, equivalent to beneficium conferre, literally, to deposit thanks (lay up favor) with any one. But this object was not attained, for Felix had scarcely departed, before the Jews sent a deputation commissioned to accuse him before the emperor. [See Exeg. note on Act_23:25-30. a.—Tr.]. Porcius Festus, who was now invested with the procuratorship, fulfilled his duties with integrity, but retained the office at most only two years, when he died. Albinus succeeded him in the autumn of the year 62.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It contributes to the honor of Christ, that the apostle cannot speak of Him, without alarming the conscience of Felix. Persons may sometimes be found, who are very willing to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, although we might not previously have supposed that they entertained such a wish; thus Herod Antipas desired to see Jesus [Luk_9:9; Luk_23:8]. But they are governed by a carnal feeling, and expect to find in Christianity a religion suited to their own particular views. The word of Christ, however, is essentially of such a nature, that it takes hold of the conscience.
2. Felix is alarmed. He accordingly felt one edge of the word of God, but not the other edge, which, in its turn, heals through the power of God, through reconciliation, forgiveness, and renewing grace; for he withdrew himself from the powerful and penetrating influences of the word, and sought to evade the whole subject, rather than to acquire a knowledge of his sins, and to repent. A single sin, of which an individual is the willing servant, places him under a secret ban, which renders his conversion and deliverance impossible.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Act_24:24. After certain days Felix … sent for Paul.—As men are fond of change, they are occasionally willing to hear the Gospel in its turn; sometimes they simply wish to gratify their curiosity, even as Herod had for a long time desired to see Jesus; but sometimes, too, they hope that the Gospel will furnish them with a cooling application for an uneasy conscience. Thus many in our day listen to one witness of the truth after the other, while they fully obey none; their only object is to obtain from every one of these witnesses some principle or point of doctrine, which, when all are combined, will render religion endurable to the flesh. (Rieger).—Paul again appears before Felix, not, however, at a public trial, but at a confidential and private interview. Hence the apostle does not on this occasion speak in his own defence, but seeks to win the heart of his judge for Christ through repentance and faith. He stands before Felix at this moment, not as a man accused of offences, but as a herald of the Gospel. (Leonh. and Sp.).
Act_24:25. And as he reasoned of righteousness [justice], temperance [continence], and [the] judgment to come.—Paul gave such a turn to his discourse on faith in Christ, that it ultimately referred to those truths respecting justice, chastity and the future judgment, which are so deeply seated in the conscience. A conversation on these topics would, no doubt, exercise a direct influence on such a judge, and such a couple as Paul saw before him. [“His audience consisted of a Roman libertine and a profligate Jewish princess.” (Conyb. and H. II. 295).—Tr.]. Such was a natural and necessary result; for when divine truth is properly set forth, it discerns and judges the inmost thoughts and intents of the heart. [Heb_4:12]. (Rieger).—Paul here preaches before his judge, a man of high rank, on whose favor much depended. Nevertheless, he proclaims to him the whole counsel of God, and holds nothing back. He does not represent to him the way to heaven as broader than it really is; he neither attempts to charm his ears, nor connives at his lusts. He preaches the Gospel, but does not observe silence respecting the law. He even attacks the favorite sins of Felix, and does not fear that he will give offence by his preaching. What a noble example of a faithful witness of the truth! (Ap. Past.).—The text and the theme are admirably suited to these hearers. He preaches on justice to a venal officer, on chastity to an adulterous pair, and on the future judgment to an unrighteous judge, who was afterwards cited in a menacing manner before the imperial tribunal at Rome.—However, Paul did not speak with a special reference to the sins of the governor, but discoursed in general terms on those solemn subjects. It was not necessary that he should make a direct and personal application; the Holy Spirit himself applied the words to the heart of Felix. Sermons that are intended to rebuke, should not seem to be personally offensive; if they are of the right description, they will consist of such expositions of the command: “Repent,” as may penetrate the heart; those to whom the words apply, will then become fully conscious that it is not the preacher, but the Lord, who has reached them. (Williger).—Felix trembled.—Behold the power and majesty of the word of God! Here the judge is alarmed in the presence of the accused; the ruler of the country, in the presence of a tent-maker; the master, whom many servants surround, in the presence of a prisoner. Such an effect was not produced by the bold speech of Paul, but by the word of God, Psa_119:120; Heb_4:12-13. (Starke).—Felix was alarmed—a proof that he was not a thoroughly bad, a wholly depraved man; there must have been still something good in him, which was conscious of an affinity with that which was good; he still retained a sense of shame, and could be moved by the truth. How happy it would have been for him, if he had made a proper use of this salutary alarm—if he had allowed himself to be penetrated by the piercing word of the truth, to be illuminated by its light, and to be purified in its fire! (Menken).—Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.—Great lords, great sinners! It is not safe to preach to them; for when their conscience is touched, they either dismiss the preacher in disgrace, or even proceed so far as to deprive him of life, Mat_14:10. (Starke).—He wished to wait for “a convenient season,” and yet it was precisely now that the time accepted and the day of salvation [2Co_6:2] dawned upon him. How often the word meets with a similar reception among us! We are willing to use it as the means for amusing an idle imagination, or for drawing forth carnal tears. Men are willing to hear discourses on God’s paternal love, and listen with delighted ears to fanciful descriptions of a joyful recognition in the world to come. But when we hear the loud call: “Repent,” when the sermon refers to the strait gate of self-denial, to the narrow way of sanctification, and to the terrors of the judgment—when the sword of the word smites our favorite sins, and demands an entire change, a new birth of the whole man, the exclamation is at once uttered: ‘This is a hard saying: who can hear it? [Joh_6:60]. Such severe preaching does not at present suit me; when I am old, when I have enjoyed the pleasures of life, when death is near, I will crucify the flesh, be converted, and prepare for eternity.’ But woe unto us, if it then be too late, and if God’s response to our foolish words: ‘Go thy way for this time,’ is: ‘Depart from me!’ (Mat_25:41). “When I have a convenient season!” But when do we suppose that this convenient season will come? Our secret thoughts reply: ‘Never,’ and yet that season is always now here. O that we had but eyes to recognize it, and the courage to avail ourselves of it! But it is precisely here that we fail, and that thou, too, Felix, failest! The hour of thy salvation had arrived, but thou didst allow it to pass by, and didst wait for a more convenient season. But did it ever come? After two years, thou wast commanded to appear in Rome and give an account to the emperor; thou wast accused by the people. It occurred, according to the wonderful counsel of God, that thou wast once more in the same city in which Paul was. Didst thou then avail thyself of that ‘convenient season?’ Or didst thou again neglect it? And did death at length carry thee off at an inconvenient season? Let the case of Felix be a warning to us. Let us never, like him, say: ‘Go thy way for this time,’ that the lot of Capernaum, of Chorazin, and of Bethsaida [Mat_11:21; Mat_11:23], may not be our own! Let us not wait for a convenient season, lest our end be like that of Pharaoh and Saul! Let us never be governed by impure motives, when we listen to the word of God, lest we share the fate of Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8.)! When it comes to us, let us answer with Abraham: ‘Here I am,’ [Gen_22:1], or with Samuel: ‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth’ [1Sa_3:9], or with Cornelius: ‘Now are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God [ch. Act_10:33].’ (Fr. Strauss.).
Act_24:26. He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul.—When avarice has taken deep root in the hearts of men invested with authority, justice is sold by them for money, and the innocent receive no aid unless they pay for it, while the guilty, who have bribed the judge, escape punishment, Deu_16:19. (Starke).—Wherefore he sent for him the oftener.—It was really Paul who was flattered by Felix. His liberty was placed within his reach, provided that he was disposed to purchase it with money. But he chose rather to abide by the will of God, than effect his release by employing carnal means. (Ap. Past.).
Act_24:27. But after two years.—Not only is the cross laid, in many cases, on the children of God, but many weary days also pass by, before it is removed, Gen_39:20; Gen_41:1-14; Psa_13:1. (Starke).—The years of leisure passed by the man who labored more abundantly than all others [1Co_15:10], enriched his own soul with treasures of divine grace, and produced their appropriate fruit for the benefit of the church. But the condition of that man is awful indeed, to whom the grace of God has drawn near for two years, and who, at their close, resembles a barren landmark on which the rain has fallen. Unhappy Felix! (Besser).
ON THE WHOLE SECTION, Act_24:24-27.—The causes which lead many to listen willingly to the Gospel, but not to the law: the cause may be, I. An error of the judgment; they suppose that the Gospel has rendered the preaching of the law superfluous. II. An error of the conscience—that our spiritual state no longer needs the law. III. A mistake of the feelings—they were wounded by every solemn admonition. IV. The dominion of the flesh, which holds the will in bondage. (Langbein).
Why is it that so many persons are found, who take no deep interest in religion? I. Because they cannot entirely break the ties which bind them to the past; II. Because they will not seize the present moment, but wait for a more convenient season: III. Because they refuse to entertain the thought of the future judgment, (id.)
“When I have a convenient season:” this is the language, I. Of all those who know indeed the vanity of the world, but are too slothful to break loose from the lust of the world; II. Of those who are conscious indeed of the shame and the bondage of sin, but are too feeble earnestly to repent; III. Of those who have indeed experienced in some degree, the power of the divine word, but whose thoughtlessness prevents them from entirely yielding to it. (Leonh. and Sp.).
Felix, a mournful image of many hearers of the word: I. He was alarmed, Act_24:24-25; II. No change in him occurred, Act_24:25-27 (Lisco).
The power of the divine word: I. It calls forth bold preachers (the fearless apostle); II. It awakens the sleeping conscience (the trembling Felix); III. It decides, and divides asunder [Hebr.] Act_4:12], (Paulis dismissed with the words: “Go thy way;” Felix remains unconverted), (id.).
Two common excuses by which men attempt to evade the serious duty of repentance: I. ‘Everything—save one!’
Felix desired to hear Paul on every subject except the one that specially concerned him, justice, chastity, and the judgment. He was willing to do every thing except the one thing needful—to renounce his favorite sins. II. ‘Tomorrow—not to-day!’ Felix tells Paul to go his way for the present; he will call again for the apostle, when he shall find it convenient to himself. He delays his repentance—he never repented!
When is it a convenient season for repentance? I. At all times, for him who is willing to repent; for (a) God is calling us to re pentance at all times and in divers ways—by internal emotions and external experiences, by the law and the Gospel, by joys and sorrows; (b) man can find time to listen to the word of God, at all times, in every occupation and situation of life. II. Never, for him who is unwilling to repent; for (a) whenever God calls, he finds it in convenient to obey; (b) when he shall call on God with a fainting soul, in his extremity, or when, in eternity, he appears before the judgment-seat, God’s season will have already passed away; it will then be too late. The words will then be fulfilled: “Ye shall [will] seek me, and shall [will] die in your sins.” Joh_8:21.
Paul’s text, intended to call Felix to repentance, a text suited to our times: it refers to the fruits of a genuine repentance, namely, I. Righteousness in dealing with our neighbor. Is not this text suited to an age in which unrighteousness prevails far and wide, in every condition of life—an age in which the fidelity and honesty of an earlier period, are more and more rarely found, both among the high and low? II. Chastity—the duty of controlling our own flesh. Is not this text suited to an age in which the lust of the flesh, and corruption of morals, prevail far and wide—an age in which the modesty and decorum of an earlier period are less and less valued, both in the village and in the city—an age, too, in which many a pair enters the church, and appears before the altar of marriage, united by sinful bonds, like Felix and Drusilla? III. The future judgment, before the eternal God. Is not this text suited to an age of shameless infidelity, which mocks at God and eternity, at a future judgment and retribution, at heaven and hell—an age which belies and deceives itself with the Sadducean motto: “Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die !” ? [1Co_15:32; Isa_22:13].
Paul before Felix, or, The judicial power of the divine word; I. Paul stands before Felix, (a) as the inferior before his superior; (b) as the prisoner before the free man; (c) as the accused before his judge; nevertheless, all is reversed by the power of the divine word, of which the apostle is a minister. II. It is now Felix who stands before Paul, (a) as one accused by God’s word and his own conscience before an incorruptible judge; (b) as one bound by the cords of unrighteousness and the lust of the flesh, before the Lord’s freeman [1Co_7:22]; (c) as the inferior, alarmed, and irresolute man before the mighty hero of God, who, even in bonds, says, both in word and in deed: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth! me.” [Php_4:13].
Paul’s imprisonment in Cesarea during two years, or, The painful and yet blessed seasons of repose and expectation, of the servants of God. (Compare the cases of Joseph in the prison, Moses in the wilderness, David in the mountains, Elijah at the brook Cherith, John the Baptist in the prison, John the Evangelist in Patmos, Luther in the Wartburg, faithful pastors on sick-beds, etc.). I. Painful (a) for the servant of God, when his hands are thus bound; (b) painful for the church of the Lord, when its pastors are thus withdrawn; and yet, II. Blessed, (a) for the servant of God, when he thus finds a season suited for quiet meditation and more thorough purification; (b) blessed for the church of the Lord, when it thus increases in its own strength, and learns alike to acknowledge with gratitude the value of the grace conferred by God through faithful teachers, and also to pray without ceasing both for the shepherd and the flock.
Footnotes:
[13]Act_24:24. a. [αὑτοῦ after γυναικὶ, of text. rec., with A. E., is omitted in B. C. G. H., and is dropped by recent editors generally. Lach. inserts ιδίᾳ before γυν., from A. B., but this word is not found in C. E. G. H., and is not adopted by others. Vulg. uxore sua.—Cod. Sin. read originally τῆ γυν. αυτοῦ; a later hand, A, prefixed ιδια to γυν., but Tisch. remarks here that this word was subsequently erased, apparently by C.—Tr.]
[14]Act_24:24. b. Ἰησοῦν after Χριστόν is found in three uncial manuscripts, it is true, [in B. E. G. and also Vulg.], but as it is wanting in three others [in A. C. H.], it ought to be regarded as spurious. [It is inserted by Lach., Scholz., Tisch., and Born., but not by Alf., who, with Meyer, regards it as a later addition. Ιησ. is found in Cod. Sin. (original), but Tisch. Says of it: “bis (ab A et C?) punctis notatum.”—Tr.]
[15]Act_24:25. ἔσεσθαι after μέλλοντος, has been adopted, it is true, by Tischendorf [in the edition of 1849], as genuine; nevertheless it is found only in the two latest manuscripts [G. H.], while it is wanting in the four oldest [A. B. C. E. and also Cod. Sin.]; the word should therefore be rejected as a later addition. [Omitted by Lach., Scholz., Born., and Alf.; the latter say that it is “apparently a correction after Act_24:15.”—Vulg. simply: futuro.—De Wette says: “ἔσεσθαι is, according to Act_11:28, and Act_23:30, probably genuine.”—Tr.]
[16]Act_24:26. a. [δὲ after ἅμα, of text. rec., with some minuscules, is omitted in A. B. C. E. G. H. and Cod. Sin.; Vulg. simul et. It is dropped by recent editors generally.—Tr.]
[17]Act_24:26. b. The words ὅπως λύσῃ αὐτόν are undoubtedly an explanatory interpolation; they are wanting in the majority of the uncial manuscripts. [They occur in G. H., but not in A. B. C. E., nor in Cod. Sin., nor in the Vulg.; they are either dropped by recent editors, or are inserted in brackets. Alf., adopting Meyer’s views, says: “a gloss from the margin.”—Tr.)
[18]Act_24:27. The plural χάριτας [text. rec.] is found only in one uncial manuscript it is true [in H., and “in some fathers, but in no versions” (Meyer).—Tr.], but it occurs in by far the largest number of the minuscules. Of the other uncial manuscripts, three [A. B. C] exhibit χάρῖτα, and two [E. G.] χάριν. The singular is, however, obviously a correction, as the plural did not seem [to copyists] to be appropriate [“one favor only here being spoken of; see Act_25:9.” (Alf.).—Tr.]. The more difficult reading here claims the preference. [De Wette regards the plural as referring to other attempts to gain favor, and Alf. retains it, while Lach., Tisch., and Born. read χάριτα.—Cod. Sin. originally read τε χάριτα, which was altered by a later hand, C, to δὲ χάριν.—Vulg. gratiam præstare. “The reading χάριτα, which is the best attested, should be the more readily received, as this form of the accusative was regarded with suspicion, since it does not usually occur in the New Test., although it is found in Jude, Act_24:4.” (Meyer). In this passage of Jude, the text. rec. exhibits χάριν, with C. G. J., for which Lach. and Tisch. substitute χάριτα from A. B.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25 But this I confess to thee--in which Felix would…
But this I confess to thee--in which Felix would see no crime.
that after the way they call heresy--literally, and better, "a sect."
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so worship I the God of my fathers--the ancestral God. Two arguments are contained here: (1) Our nation is divided into what they call sects--the sect of the Pharisees, and that of the Sadducees--all the difference between them and me is, that I belong to neither of these, but to another sect, or religious section of the nation, which from its Head they call Nazarenes: for this reason, and this alone, am I hated. (2) The Roman law allows every nation to worship its own deities; I claim protection under that law, worshipping the God of my ancestors, even as they, only of a different sect of the common religion.
believing all, &c.--Here, disowning all opinions at variance with the Old Testament Scriptures, he challenges for the Gospel which he preached the authority of the God of their fathers. So much for the charge of heresy.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 14. Heresy—On the second charge of HERESY he now…
14. Heresy—On the second charge of HERESY he now replies (14-16) by professing his faith in the essentials of Judaism and avowal of conscientious life.
They call—But I do not admit to be so.
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God of my fathers—My ancestral God, and, therefore, I am guiltless of breaking Roman law by deserting my ancestral religion.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv14–25 14. after the way which they call heresy] Better…
14. after the way which they call heresy] Better (with Rev. Ver.) “after the Way which they call a sect.” The word is the same which is used in Act_24:5 for the “sect” of the Nazarenes. St Paul employs the expression “the Way,” in that sense in which it soon became well known, to signify “the Christian religion.” See note on Act_9:2.
so worship I the God of my fathers] Better, as Rev. Ver., “so serve I the God of our fathers.” The verb is not the same as in Act_24:11. Here the notion is of service which a man is bound to pay. The Apostle means that he has cast off no morsel of his old allegiance. The adjective can equally be rendered by “my fathers” or “our fathers,” but St Paul’s aim is to shew that he has not severed himself from the ancestral faith of the whole nation, and so his thought would include himself with them.
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believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets] The Rev. Ver. gives very literally “all things which are according to the Law, and which are written in the Prophets.” The Apostle thus testifies to his complete acceptance of all the Jewish Scriptures. Sometimes the division is given as “the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms” (Luk_24:44), but more frequently, as in the text, only two sections are named (cp. Mat_7:12; Mat_11:13; Mat_22:40; Luk_16:16; Joh_1:45).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25 (14) After the way which they call heresy.—Better, which…
(14) After the way which they call heresy.—Better, which they call a sect. The Greek noun is the same as in Act_24:5, and ought, therefore, to be translated by the same English word. As it is, the reader does not see that the “way” had been called a heresy. In using the term “the way,” St. Paul adopts that which the disciples used of themselves (see Note on Act_9:2), and enters an implied protest against the use of any less respectful and more invidious epithet.
So worship I the God of my fathers.—Better, perhaps, so serve I, the word being different from that in Act_24:11, and often translated by “serve” elsewhere (Act_7:7; Heb_8:5). The “service” includes worship, but is wider in its range of meaning.
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Believing all things which are written . . .—This was a denial of the second charge, of being a ring leader of a sect. His faith in all the authoritative standards of Judaism was as firm and full as that of any Pharisee. The question whether that belief did or did not lead to the conviction that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, was one of interpretation, with which Felix, at all events, had nothing to do, and which St. Paul, when making a formal apologia before a Roman ruler, declines to answer.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv14–25 A sect for heresy, A.V.; serve for worship, A.V.;…
A sect for heresy, A.V.; serve for worship, A.V.; our for my, A.V. (my is better, as following "I serve," and addressed to a Roman judge); which are according to the Law, and which are written in the prophets for which are written in the Law and in the prophets, A.V. A sect, This, of course, refers to this expression of Tertullus in verse 5, Prwtostathv thv twn Nazwraiwn aiJresewv, "Ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." The word airesiv, which means primarily "choice," has not necessarily or even ordinarily a bad sense. In classical Greek its secondary sense was a "sect" or "school" of philosophy, Academics, Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans, etc. The Jews applied it to their own different schools of thought. So in Act_5:17 we read, Airesiv twn Saddoukai. The sect of the Sadducees;" in Act_15:5, Airesiv twn Farisai) The sect of the Pharisees;" in Act_26:5. St. Paul speaks of himself as having been a Pharisee, Kata ththn airesin thv hJmete qrhskeiav, "After the straitest sect of our religion". (see too Act_28:22) It begins to have a bad sense in St. Paul"s Epistles 1Co_11:19; Gal_5:20; and seiv 2Pe_2:1, aiJre ajpwleiav, where, however, it gets its bad sense from the ajpwleiav joined to it. In ecclesiastical writers it came to have its worst sense of "heresy" as something worse even than schism. " In this reference to Tertullus"s phrase, St. Paul seems hardly to admit that Christianity was properly called "a sect" by the Jews, but gives it the milder term of "the Way". (see Act_9:2, note) The God of our my father (tw patrw Qew); comp. Gal_1:14; and noiv Act_22:3 Act_28:17. Observe how St. Paul throughout insists that, in becoming a Christian, he had not been disloyal to Moses, or the Law, or the prophets, or to the religion of his fathers, but quite the contrary. According to the Law. Kata tomon may mean either, as in the R.V., "according to the Law," or, as Meyer takes it, "throughout the Law," and then is better coupled, as in the A.V., with toiv gegramme. The Law, and...the prophets. (as Mat_5:17; Luk_24:27, Luk_24:44)
The confession of a coherent worship and faith.
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Paul is, of course, at no loss to account for the enmity of the Jews manifested toward him. And it is his intention that his judge shall overhear, if not hear, the true state of the case. He has vindicated himself and will still vindicate himself against the ostensible accusations laid to his charge. But now he pierces beneath all pretences and appearances, and touches firm ground. And the concisest way of conveying his view of the state of things to his judge lies in a very simple confession of his religion. To which we may consider (as suggested by Paul"s language here) two things to be essential. They are
I WORSHIP. And Paul is able to say these three things all distinctly germane to the confession.
1. That he worships.
2. That he worships God.
3. That he worships the God of his fathers, i.e. the very same God whom his accusers profess to worship.
II A DEFINITE FAITH. An intelligible faith makes an informed instead of a superstitious worship. There are ways and ways, of worship. And these follow very consistently the faith that is held. Notice:
1. That Paul very decidedly pronounces tot himself that his faith embraces "all things written in the Law and the prophets.
2. He implies that the faith of his enemies failed of this. It felt short, perhaps, partly in its very character, but probably much more seriously in its compass. The typical Jew of the days of Jesus prided himself in reading the Law literally and fully, though with many a corrupt addition. His "way" of interpreting the prophets was of a far more eclectic character. He couldn"t see, because he wouldnt believe, the humble and the humbling prophecies of the Messiah. Paul"s "heresy" was, in fact, that he believed all. " The Jews" ruining sin was that they would not believe "all." This quietly spoken sentence of Paul gave the key to all. And it is another comment upon the Jews in harmony with that uttered by Jesus himself, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me," etc.. B. (Joh_5:46)
The way called heresy.
The Revised Version reads, "After the Way which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers." St. Paul"s teachings the Jewish party certainly regarded as heresy, and did not hesitate to call heresy. St. Paul urges that he did no more than belong to a sect, or section, of the Jews, who, while worshipping according to the Mosaic system, had received, as they believed, some further light by the direct revelation of God. To some Jews St. Paul"s doctrine of resurrection, based upon the fact of the resurrection of Christ, was a heresy. To others his free announcement of gospel blessings to the Gentiles was a heresy. But his chief offence in the eyes of the more bigoted Jews lay in this, that he freed his Jewish converts from the characteristic demands of the Jewish ritual. This was, in their eyes, heresy indeed. As indicating a wider use of the term sect than that with which we are familiar, it may be noticed that it was used of Jewish sects by Josephus, of schools of philosophy by Greek writers generally, and of schools of medicine by Galen. There are four sides from which heresy, as a misrepresentation or perversion of accepted truth, may be viewed.
I HERESY AS IMPERILLING THE TRUTH. The apostle speaks distinctly of false doctrine, which puts the Christian truth in peril. There are great first principles, great foundation truths, and for these we do well to be jealous. But we must clearly see that while heresy on these points is dangerous to the Christian faith and life, heresy on points which men have been pleased to elaborate on mere details and accepted formulae have never shaken the rock-built house of truth, and never will. God has given us two all-sufficient tests of moral and religious truth. No heresy ever vet has stood the application of these two tests.
1. Is the statement in harmony with God"s revealed Word?
2. Does it practically work out into that which is good morally pure and good? We need never fear any presentation of so-called truth that is in accord with God"s Word, and is manifestly "unto holiness." It is God"s truth, whatever some may call it, if it helps to make men holy.
II HERESY AS A SYNONYM FOR INDIVIDUALITY. This it very often is. A man expresses a well-established truth in some new form or new phraseology, and, without waiting to examine it, and see if it was only new clothing on the old body of truth, his fellow-men raise the heresy shout, and create prejudice against him. St. Paul"s heresy was only individuality, and God gave him that individuality in order that it might make him a holy power. Jews called it heresy, but we have learned to glory in the gospel with the Pauline stamp upon it. The lesson taught by the Christian records of nearly two thousand years, hut which we are strangely unwilling to learn to-day, is that we must never crush individuality by the shout of heresy, but thank God for sending men who can clothe his old truth in adaptation to the thought and life of each succeeding age.
III HERESY AS REQUIRING JUDICIAL INTERFERENCE. This men think it does. This it never does. God"s truth never wants the bolstering of any human courts or judges. God"s truth asks only one thing from the world"s powers and potentates to be let alone. Truth wants the open air and the sunshine, that is all. It can win its own way. It can carry its own conviction. It can take care of its own purity. It can cast off all unworthy additions. We greatly need an absolute and unquestioning confidence that God"s truth is in no danger. It smiles at unbelief and over self-reliant science, much as the granite rocks seem to do at the wild careering waves.
IV HERESY AS THE HEALTHY ASSERTION OF NEGLECTED SIDES OF TRUTH. Truth revealed truth is a great whole, but no one age seems able to take in the whole; some parts are always prominent and some are always in the background; and there is this constant peril, that the truths in the foreground are treated as if they were the whole, and any one who brings up to view the neglected aspects is liable to the charge of heresy. Many a so-called heresy is only a missed truth or a half-truth; and then, after men have done "calling names," they are glad to accept the teaching. One rule is set before us, Prove all things, hold fast that which is good," whatever may be the name by which men call it. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 24, 25 But this I confess unto thee, that after the…
Act_24:14-16
But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers.
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What is heresy
I. Here is the case of men holding high office in the Church of God, yet mistaking truth for error, and branding as heresy that which is Divine. These men have had many successors, who at various points in the Churchs history have, in the name of religion, inflicted the most inhuman cruelties on the noblest saints of God. Nor can these foul deeds be declared the sole heritage of any one Church. Nor can we look calmly into history without seeing that the barbarities inflicted in the name of orthodoxy have arisen largely from a mistaken estimate of heresy. What is heresy? Judging from history, heresy might be defined as the faith of the minority. The word heretical has been loosely held to the opposite of orthodox. Orthodoxy has been held to mean the commonly received opinions. But this is an abuse of words. Orthodoxy means right opinions, whether held by the few or the many. Again, heresy is not confined in its application to opinions, but includes anything that takes from the truth; and truth is not only formulated in opinion, it is also revealed in feeling and embodied in life. By blindness to this truth, the Church has sinned grievously. Let me emphasise this important truth by showing--
1. That heresies of heart and life are unspeakably the more vital. Doctrine is important only as it points to duty and fruits out in life. Of necessity, therefore, it holds a second place. Heresy of creed may be the result of many influences acting on the mind from childhood, and may exist along with entire loyalty of heart to Christ. But heresy of spirit and life can only be the offspring of a depraved heart. The honour of our Master and the interests of His kingdom are far more seriously imperilled by that which is un-Christly in the behaviour of His followers, than by what may be defective in their doctrines.
2. Heresies of heart and life are unspeakably the more prevalent. In what land is membership in a Christian Church accepted as any guarantee of integrity? Where is the line of demarcation in society, which separates the Christian and non-Christian? Is it not a fact that even among prominent Christian professors there are found features of conduct which can only be regarded as grievous heresies of life. And Churches have shared this grievous guilt. How often have they dealt a grievous blow to vital religion, by manifesting a burning concern for orthodoxy in the order of worship, or creed, and yet a loose indifference as to heresies of spirit and of life?
II. Here is the case of a single man, strong in his own conviction, daring the many who brand him a heretic. This persecuted apostle reveals a grand manliness here. Though a prisoner before the magnates of the Church, and the potentates of the state, yet does he stand boldly forward, and without halt or hesitation declare, This I confess unto thee, etc. Why? Because the heresy had become the voice of God in his soul. It had been burned into his being and become part of himself. Now this daring the public authorities and the popular voice in obedience to conscience--
1. Is seldom met with in our time. And this not because persecution, open and in public courts, is rare in our day, but chiefly because so few think for themselves. It is the custom to go with the crowd. The vast multitude have never made their own those truths which they profess to hold. They are content to use language which they have never examined--to sing songs which they do not feel, and to give their adhesion to declarations which so far as they know may be the very truth of God or the merest drivel.
2. Requires noble and heroic elements of manhood.
(1) Great courage.
(2) Fidelity to conscience.
(3) Readiness of self-sacrifice.
Lessons: Let us--
1. Cultivate more definite personal convictions.
2. Not fear to avow our convictions whoever may gainsay.
3. Guard heart and life as the chief exponents of the truth.
4. Cultivate charity towards all men. (J. B. Wylie.)
Paul before Felix
Two things are of prime importance in this scripture;
1. Pauls answer to the charge of heresy; and--
2. Pauls preaching to the Roman governor and his lady.
I. Pauls answer to the charge of heresy or of being the ringleader of a sect. A heresy is an opinion which someone chooses to hold, and which becomes conspicuous because it is not the commonly held opinion. Paul freely acknowledges that his way is the way which they call a sect or a heresy. He does not accept the popular and prevailing views. He confesses the sin, if it be a sin, of being in the minority. But having made that acknowledgment, he proceeds to defend that heretical way as the way of the old faith and hope. Pauls trouble was not that he did not believe enough, but that he believed too much. That is the sum of my offence--he says--that I believe in all things which are according to law and which are written in the prophets. I belong to a sect! he indignantly cries, much more a leader of it! Nay; but I serve the God of our fathers, and I accept the revelation which He gave them in all its fulness. That is a noble defence to make against such a charge, if it be a true defence, That has been virtually or actually the defence of the whole line of prophets and reformers from the days of Elijah down. The Church of God has from time to time settled down to a half belief in both His law and His love. A few earnest souls accept the message and apply it to their consciences and lives. Soon the cry of heresy and a sect is raised. But it is only the forgotten truth which was always in the Book, and which has been overlaid by the rubbish of neglect or overgrown by the weeds of sinful indulgence and its consequence, which has been brought to light. It is so easy to disbelieve some of the contents of the law and the prophets. Here was one party in this Jewish Church who had given up all belief in the supernatural, and another party who, putting it all in their creed, allowed it no weight in the conduct of their lives. Paul says, I keep to the old faith, and the whole of it; and that is my offence. Paul also defends his way as that of the old hope. He believes in the resurrection both of the just and the unjust. There is glory in being a heretic when the common faith is lifeless and the common hope is dumb. But no one can be called a leader of a sect who in the decay of faith goes back to a vital faith. He represents the old faith and the old hope, and not a new. Paul also defends his way as that of the old righteousness. With this belief in the totality of revelation and this hope based on it, the apostle was striving to live a truly righteous life. He does not say that he has fully attained it, but he is seeking after it. He exercises himself to have a conscience void of offence toward God and man alway. He is following the light of conscience enlightened by Gods Word, and he follows it without fear or faltering. His heresy is too great moral earnestness; too large a receptivity for the whole truth of God.
II. Pauls preaching to the Roman governor (George M. Boynton.)
The charge of sectarianism
To be charged with schism and sectarianism is not the worst thing for a Christian believer. Paul was not afraid of that reputation; nor was John Huss, nor John Wycliffe, nor Martin Luther, nor Hugh Latimer, nor Nicholas Ridley, nor John Calvin, nor John Knox, nor John Wesley. Calling a man a sectarian is no proof that he holds any error in religious doctrine. The real question is, What is the truth? not, Does this man agree with the majority of Christians in the statement of truth? (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)
Believing all things that are written in the law and the prophets.
Pauls apology
Here is Pauls apology; faith at the bottom, hope as the immediate effect and product of it, and an holy conversation as the fruit and consequent. The same method is observed in 1Ti_1:5, and 2Pe_1:5-6. Note.--
I. The expressions here used.
1. Concerning faith.
(1) The object, Things written in the law and the prophets--all the Scriptures then extant (Mat_11:13; Luk_16:29). The object of our faith, who have received the rule of faith more enlarged (Eph_2:20), is prophets and apostles. The object of faith may be considered--materially, such things as God hath revealed; formally, because God hath revealed them.
(2) The extent, All things. A believer receiveth all truths which are of Divine revelation, whether precepts, promises, threatenings, doctrines, or histories.
(3) The act, Believing. It is not enough not to deny or not to contradict, but we must actually and positively believe. The reason why people feel so little force of their faith is because they leap into the Christian faith by the advantage of their birth, but do not consider what nor why they believe. But true faith is a positive, firm assent, excited in us by the Spirit of God. To a sound belief there is necessary--
(a) A knowledge or full instruction in the things which we believe (1Jn_4:16); first known and then believed.
(b) A due conviction of the certainty of them (Luk_1:4; Joh_6:69; Joh_17:8).
(c) Practical trust and affiance; for Christianity doth not only propound bare truths to be assented unto, but joyful, comfortable truths suitable to our necessity and desires (Heb_3:6).
(d) Application, that we may know for our good (Job_5:27).
2. Concerning hope.
(1) Mark that he propoundeth his hope as the immediate product of faith. What good will it do me to believe the doctrines of the prophets and apostles, if I expect no good from thence? Faith would be vain, and religion vain. Only note here that hope is two fold.
(a) The fruit of regeneration (1Pe_1:3).
(b) Built upon experience (Rom_5:4-5).
(2) Observe that he pitcheth upon the resurrection as the great thing hoped for, because then is our full and final happiness (1Ti_1:16; Joh_20:31). This is the great thing which we hope, wait, and labour for.
3. Concerning his manners and conversation (verse 16). Observe--
(1) His encouragement, Herein.
(a) Interpreters expound this, in the meantime, till faith be turned into vision, hope into fruition (Heb_6:12).
(b) Again, by virtue of this faith and hope. Faith and a good conscience are often coupled (1Ti_1:5). We cannot keep the one without the other.
(2) The integrity of his obedience, set forth in all the necessary requisites.
(a) Sincerity. For his conscience was in it, and a good conscience; and the goodness of conscience consisteth in its ability to do its office, in its clearness, purity, tenderness, quietness, peaceableness.
(b) Strictness and exactness.
He would keep this good conscience void of offence. It may be understood--
(a) Passively, that conscience be not offended, or receive wrong by any miscarriage of ours, for it is a tender thing. The least dust in the eye hindereth its use, so doth sin offend and trouble the conscience.
(b) Actively, that we offend not, nor offer wrong to others.
(3) Impartiality, Both towards God and towards men. There are two tables, and we are to take care we do not give offence to God or men, by neglecting our duty either.
(4) Constancy, Always. A conscience brought forth for certain turns is not a good conscience.
4. The laborious diligence wherewith he carried it on: I exercise myself. We must make it our constant labour and endeavour--
(1) By a diligent search into the mind of God (Rom_12:2; Eph_5:10; Eph_5:17).
(2) By a serious inquiry into the state of our own hearts and ways (Psa_4:4; Jer_8:6).
(3) By a constant watchfulness (Psa_39:1).
(a) By a serious resistance and mortification of sin (Mat_5:29-30; Gal_5:24).
(4) By the use of means which God hath appointed.
II. The reasons why this is true Christianity.
1. The necessity of it. It is a great question how far obedience belongeth to faith, whether as a part or as an end, fruit and consequent. I answer--Both ways. Consent of subjection is a part of faith, actual obedience a fruit of it.
2. The comfort of obedience to us. We cannot make out our evidence and plea but by a uniform, constant, and impartial obedience.
3. It is for the honour of Christ (2Th_1:11-12; Joh_15:8; Php_1:1). (T. Manton, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv22, 24 22, 23. Felix heard these things. The speeches on…
22, 23. Felix heard these things. The speeches on each side. Having more perfect knowledge. Understanding the real animus of the charges. He was well acquainted with the Jewish hatred of Christians, and understood something of that way, the Christian doctrine.
He commanded a centurion to keep Paul. Two reasons caused him to keep a prisoner that had done no wrong: (1) He did not like to offend the Jews; (2) he hoped to be bribed by the Christians to let Paul go. Paul was not put in confinement, but under the charge of an officer who was responsible for him. Usually in this kind of imprisonment the prisoner was bound to a soldier.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v24 Act_24:24. When Felix came, or Felix having come, not…
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act_24:24. When Felix came, or Felix having come, not to Cæsarea, after a temporary absence, but into the place of audience (Hackett), rather than into the prison (Holtzmann). Drusilla.—Sea “Homiletical Hints.” As a daughter of the first and sister of second Herod Agrippa she could hardly have been unacquainted with the main facts of the history of the new society of Christians. “She must have known of the death of James and of the imprisonment of Peter
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(12), and may have connected her father’s tragic end at Cæsarea with the part he had taken in persecuting the preachers of the faith of which one of the chief preachers was now brought before her” (Plumptre).
Act_24:25. Righteousness.—Including the duties man owes to man, as well as those man owes to God—i.e., the obligations of both tables of the law. Temperance.—In its widest sense of self-control.
Act_24:26. That money should have been given him.—Possibly he had an eye to some of the gold referred to by Paul in Act_24:17. Greed of gain in the very act of administering justice was the root of evil in his weak and wicked character.
Act_24:27. After two years.—Lit., when two years were fulfilled, Felix received as successor Porcius Festus (A.D. 60 or 61), who suppressed the outrages of the bandits or robbers, and restored tranquillity to the province, but died in the second year of his office (Jos., Wars, II. xiv. 1). To him Felix, with characteristic baseness, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, or desiring to gain favour—lit., to deposit a favour with the Jews, which should not be without return; “an investment in iniquity” (Plumptre) which did not turn out well (see on Act_24:2)—handed over Paul as a prisoner. How these two years in Cæsarea were spent by the apostle can only be conjectured (see “Hints” on Act_24:27).
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_24:24-27
Paul’s Interview with Felix and Drusilla; or, a Great Discourse and What Came of It
I. The magnificent auditorium.—Herod’s palace at Cæsarea, which the great Idumean had constructed for himself as a residence when at the height of his glory, but which was now occupied by the Roman procurator as a mansion for himself and a barracks for his troops. “A wonderful building, with bloody recollections. ‘Many phantoms glided through the empty rooms.’ Here had Herod uttered the death-sentence upon his sons. Here was their betrayer, the ruthless Antipater, imprisoned. Before these gates, for five days and five nights, had the complaining Jews lain and besought Pilate not to desecrate their temple. Here had Herod Agrippa breathed out his hypocritical soul, and before his windows had the crowd, howling and weeping and kneeling, lain in the dust and prayed for the soul of the pious (!) king. So adhered numerous historical images to this place, and from the days of Herod downward blood stuck to every stone.” (Hausrath, Der Apostel Paulus, p. 458). In a marble hall attached to this palace was a sermon about to be preached such as seldom is poured into the ears of men, and least of all into those of powerful state dignitaries. No doubt the eloquence of the preacher was stimulated by the aforesaid terrible reminiscences, of which he was not entirely ignorant—rather of which he was fully cognisant.
II. The distinguished hearers.—
1. Felix. The Roman governor, whose character on its worst side was also perfectly understood by Paul (see on Act_23:24). Its hideous cruelty and rapacity, which caused him to be pronounced by Josephus the worst ruler that ever swayed the destinies of Judæa, and even after his deposition to be followed by his quondam subjects to Rome with bitter complaints against his administration, were so notorious that Tertullus was obliged to hide their loathsomeness by fulsome flattery (Act_24:2). Its shamefaced profligacy had intruded into the palace hall, and stared on the apostle with unblushing countenance.
2. Drusilla. Felix’s wife, whose evil reputation was hardly less than his own. The daughter of the first Herod and the sister of the second, Drusilla—diminutive of Drusus—had been married at an early age to Azizus, King of Emesa, who, in order to obtain her hand, had become a Jewish proselyte and accepted circumcision; but her fascinating beauty having inflamed the libidinous desires of the Roman procurator, he employed the services of a Jewish magician named Simon, to proceed to Emesa and seduce her from her husband. In this unholy errand the magician, whom some have endeavoured to identify with the sorcerer of Samaria (Act_8:9), proved lamentably successful; and “the daughter of Herod Agrippa, who had much to endure at the hands of her sister Bernice on account of her beauty” (Hausrath, Der Apostel Paulus, p. 459), having deserted her lawful husband, became the third wife of Felix, who had formerly been a slave, but was then the governor of Palestine.
III. The fearless preacher.—Paul, who at the request of Drusilla had been fetched up from his place of confinement into the judgment hall. As a Jewess she could not have been entirely ignorant of the new sect of Christians that had arisen in the land. As a daughter of Agrippa I. she may have been desirous of hearing one of the chief preachers of those Christians whom her father had persecuted, and with whom, in some way, she may have connected her father’s death. But from whatever motive summoned, Paul, when he appeared, evinced no timidity. Having the Lord upon his right hand (Psa_16:8), he presented as valiant a front as David did to his enemies, or as Daniel did before Nebuchadnezzar (Dan_4:19-27) and Belshazzar (Dan_5:22-28), or as afterwards John Knox of Edinburgh did in the presence of Queen Mary of Scotland. The man who had fought with wild beasts at Ephesus (1Co_15:32), who had confronted the mob from the castle stairs in Jerusalem (Act_22:1), who had bearded the Sanhedrists in their Star-Chamber (Act_23:1), and who had already appeared before the representative of Roman law and majesty (Act_24:10), was not likely to quake at the sight of a beautiful adulteress.
IV. The alarming sermon.—
1. The theme of it was generally “the faith in Christ Jesus,” which would doubtless lead Paul to dilate upon the main facts and doctrines of the gospel, and in particular upon the death and resurrection of Christ, pointing out how in both the truth of His Messiahship was confirmed. In this the apostle furnished a noble example to all preachers who, whatever the rank or character of their hearers, should resolutely determine to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1Co_2:2). The faith in Jesus Christ is the highest need of the human soul, in whatever sort of body that soul may be enshrined.
2. The application of it brought the noble Christian orator to closer quarters with the consciences of his hearers.
(1) He spoke to them of righteousness—that awful demand for upright and holy living, both toward God and toward man, which the Divine law, familiar at all events to Drusilla, demanded, which the consciences of both proclaimed to be just, and which the faith of Jesus Christ declared to be indispensable to all who would partake of the Messianic salvation Christ had come to introduce among men; perhaps pointing them to the gracious provision in the gospel, by and through Jesus Christ, for first bestowing upon men and then reproducing within men that righteousness of the law which no man could furnish of himself (Rom_3:24-25; Rom_8:1-4).
(2) Next he reminded them of temperance or self-control, that sacred chastity or mastery of the lower appetites and passions which religion in general, but especially the faith that is in Christ, requires of its devotees (Tit_2:11), but of which the illustrious pair before him were sadly wanting. That the apostle had a powerful ally in the bosoms of his bearers need not be questioned.
(3) And finally, he lifted up his hearers and himself to the judgment to come, that overwhelmingly awful tribunal before which all men—kings and princes no less than common men, judges and prisoners alike—must one day stand (Rev_20:12-13)—a tribunal over which that Jesus of whom he spoke should preside (Mat_25:32; Act_17:31; 2Co_5:10), at which the secrets of all hearts should be laid bare (Rom_2:16), and from which impartial awards should be made to every man according as his works should have been (Rom_2:6).
3. The effect of it. What impression this weird sermon from a weirder preacher had on those who heard it, and for whom specially it was intended, is only recorded in part. What Drusilla thought of it the pen of inspiration has not revealed. Did the remembrance of her first husband recur to her? or the revolting character of her present wickedness disturb her? Did the gleaming fires of the impending judgment-day startle her half-dead conscience within her, fast-bound in the cords of lustful sleep? Or, did she hear as though she heard not? Did she steel her bosom against the soul-piercing words of the Lord’s servant? Did she drown the still small voice that whispered within her bosom and wooed her to better things? These are questions to which no reply can be given. So far as Drusilla is concerned an unbroken silence will encompass her until the trumpet of the great day shall sound. But for Felix no such doom has been reserved. How he felt, as the weary, weather-beaten missionary of the Cross, becoming animated as he warmed to his theme, and fixing on his listener that intense look which was so characteristic of the apostle (Act_23:1); how Felix felt, as the unearthly words echoed through his spirit, and raised up before his imagination ideas that were awe-inspiring in their ghostly grandeur;—how he felt, and what he said, has been set down in burning letters that he who runs may read. Felix trembled at the picture which this strange man—with a solemn eloquence which held him spellbound—had painted on the canvas of his soul. He could see the great white throne, with the Judge whose eyes were like a flame of fire (Rev_1:14); he could see the assembled multitudes, and himself among them, undistinguished by any earthly greatness, in all the hideous nakedness of his guilty soul; he could hear the booming of the thunders and the glancing of the lightnings which proclaimed the commencement of the business of that awful assize; and as he realised the wickedness of his past and present life—its utter lack of righteousness, and horrible defilement through lust—he grew terrified with that terror which ever seizes on the guilty when their wickedness is on the eve of detection, and said “Go thy way, for this time; and when I have a convenient season I will call thee unto me.”
V. The pitiful conclusion.—It ended in three sad things.
1. Delay. Felix had some shadow of excuse for procrastination in the preceding instance, when Paul defended himself before his, bar—this, namely that he had been unexpectedly summoned in Providence to decide between Paul and his accusers, and might naturally plead that he wished to be better informed before delivering judgment. In this case no such ground for putting off existed. Felix was called to decide in a matter which affected himself alone, and for which the materials lay at hand. For him the clear duty of the moment was to repent and humble himself before God, to separate himself from the beautiful but wicked woman at his side, to break off his flagitious courses in life, and turn to God in righteousness and holy obedience. But, alas! he deferred again, as he had deferred before—he put off giving judgment between himself and God, as he had previously delayed pronouncing a verdict between Paul and his prosecutors. He would settle his own case, as he had promised to settle Paul’s—at a more convenient season. In Paul’s that more convenient season would arrive when Lysias should come down; in his own, when he should have more inclination or leisure to turn from dalliance with the fair creature by his side and think of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. Let it be noted that, as in Paul’s case no reason remains for believing that Lysias ever came down to Cæsarea, so is there good ground for holding that for Felix’s own case the convenient moment never arrived.
2. Resistance. Felix, it appears, had frequent interviews with his prisoner, but never again allowed his peace of mind to be disturbed, or his better nature to be aroused. Rather, he strenuously fought his convictions down. He fell back upon the evil demon of cupidity within his breast, called up into the field the spirit of avarice to do battle against the spirit of repentance and righteousness that had been temporarily awakened in him. “He hoped withal that money would be given him of Paul.” He never proposed to Paul the question of the Philippian gaoler—“What must I do to be saved?”
3. Rejection. Whatever promise of good may have been in Felix’s soul, when he trembled under Paul’s preaching, it ultimately died away. Felix decided neither Paul’s case nor his own, but left the brave apostle, whom he knew to be innocent, to languish in prison for two whole years; and when at length, his own reign of iniquity coming to an end, he was recalled by his imperial master, he still delayed doing justice to the servant of Jesus. Thinking to ingratiate himself with his much-abused subjects, and hoping to shut their mouths against him at the bar of Cæsar—in which, however, he was deceived—he left Paul in bonds.
Learn—
1. The possibility of hearing the gospel without being saved.
2. The danger of trifling with one’s convictions of sin.
3. The wisdom of deciding for God and Christ at the earliest moment.
4. The probability that opportunities for being saved, once neglected, will not return.
5. The almost certainty that he who deliberately turns from the light will stumble on and down into deeper darkness.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act_24:24. The Character of Felix.
I. An unjust ruler.
II. A licentious voluptuary.
III. An inveterate procrastinator.
IV. An avaricious money-hunter.
V. A crafty promoter of his own interests.
VI. An unprincipled trampler on the rights of others.
Drusilla, the Wife of Felix.—A woman—
I. Of highly exalted birth.—The daughter of kings. Noble parentage, when good, is an incalculable blessing, and entails great responsibilities. Noblesse oblige.
II. Of ripe personal beauty.—Her loveliness the ruin of both herself and Felix. Physical grace and elegance—a precious gift of Heaven—not always prized as such, but often bought and sold, like meat upon the shambles.
III. Of deeply depraved character.—At the moment when she heard Paul living in open sin, being the runaway wife of one man and the adulterous paramour of another.
IV. Of manifestly trifling disposition.—No reason to think she was in earnest, either in sending for or listening to Paul; probably actuated by no higher motive than to see the distinguished preacher (compare Luk_23:8), or to gratify her curiosity about the new faith, or to while away a few leisure moments in her frivolous and wicked life.
V. Of palpably seared conscience.—Sitting beside her husband, whose innermost soul quaked beneath the searching words that spake of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, she heard unmoved. At least, she evinced no sign that the arrow of conviction had reached her womanly breast. Fast asleep in the depths of sin, her soul heard not the awakening voice of truth.
Paul before Felix.—The scene introduces us to four things:—
I. A celebrated preacher.—Paul. After Jesus Christ, who “spake as never man spake” (Joh_7:47), no nobler representative of the Christian ministry has ever appeared in the world or the Church. When he stood before Felix, three virtues shone forth conspicuously in him.
1. Unwearied zeal in embracing every opportunity to advance the cause of his Master. Seldom have circumstances been less favourable for the exercise of the preacher’s gift than were his that day in Cæsarea—hardly even when confounding the Jews who dwelt at Damascus (Act_9:22), fighting with wild beasts at Ephesus (Act_19:31; 1Co_15:32), or addressing his countrymen from the castle stairs in Jerusalem (Act_22:1); and yet, no sooner was he invited than he began to pour forth the wondrous story of his crucified and risen Lord.
2. Unflinching courage in shaping his discourse to suit his hearers. Not to please, but to profit; not to flatter, but to rebuke; not to lull into drowsy stupor, but to awaken from the trance of spiritual death. And yet he flinched not an instant in his task. Not a quaver of fear, though possibly more than one of affection, was heard in his oration. Like Daniel before Nebuchadnezzar (Dan_4:27), he told out his message without trepidation.
3. Irrepressible hopefulness in despairing of no man. Paul not ignorant of the characters of Felix and Drusilla, yet, when invited to discourse to them about the faith of Christ he declined not, on the plea that such sinners were beyond the reach of mercy or inaccessible to the power of grace.
II. A pattern discourse.—
1. A sermon on the right theme—the faith that is in Christ Jesus. This held the place of honour in all Paul’s preaching, whose unvarying subject was Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
2. Intensely practical in its contents. With such topics did it deal as “righteousness, temperance, judgment to come”—topics too often absent from modern ministrations.
3. Directly personal. Shaped so as to meet the characters, rebuke the sins, and arouse the torpid spirits, of his hearers.
4. Eminently rational. Paul reasoned, declaimed not, but pressed home upon his listeners arguments which flooded their intellects with light, touched their hearts with emotion, and stirred within their conscience the voice of truth and right.
III. Illustrious hearers.—
1. Persons of high rank. No better or more valuable in God’s sight than people of obscure position. Equally with these in need of salvation. Often more so.
2. Notorious sinners. Less heinous offenders are still transgressors in the sight of Heaven and such as require to be called to repentance and faith.
3. Deplorably indifferent. So are multitudes of those to whom preachers are called to present the gospel. The number of those who truly long for salvation, and thirst after righteousness, is few.
IV. Disappointing results.—
1. Only one of Paul’s hearers impressed. Only Felix—not Drusilla; and yet she, having been a Jewess, ought to have possessed a better understanding of Paul’s message than her husband had, while, having been as wicked as her husband, she had as much cause for trembling as he. So it often happens under the ministry of the gospel. One is taken, the other left; one touched, the other unmoved.
2. That one only impressed, not improved. Felix convicted, not converted; merely trembled, did not turn. This also a not unusual phenomenon under a faithful ministry. Souls are alarmed who do not eventually prove to be saved.
3. The impressed one trifled with, but did not embrace, the gracious opportunity which came before him. Felix, had he fostered the convictions awakened in his soul, might have been recovered from his sinful condition; but he procrastinated, allowed his better impulses to subside, and was lost. So thousands permit their day of merciful visitation to pass, to their everlasting hurt. “The Holy Ghost saith, To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart” (Heb_4:7).
The Faith in Christ Jesus.—Is—
I. Heavenly in its object.—Directing its look, not to the historical, but to the crucified and risen Christ—the Christ whom Paul preached.
II. Reasonable in its character.—Capable of being set forth in such terms as to command the assent of the understanding and judgment. So Paul presented it to Felix.
III. Holy in its demands.—Though not requiring righteousness and temperance as grounds of justification, insisting upon these as indispensable to salvation.
IV. Alarming in its operation.—Awaking in the souls of them to whom it is presented conviction of sin and fear of judgment.
V. Saving in its results.—When accepted in humility and penitence, trustfulness and obedience, it issues in the blessing of complete redemption from the curse and power of sin.
Act_24:24-25. A Preacher such as Paul (before Felix) should be—
I. Ready for every call to preach that presents itself in providence.—Paul interposed no objection when Felix sent for him, declined not the invitation preferred him to expound the principles of the gospel, but heartily embraced the opportunity to advance his Master’s cause. Semper paratus should be the minister’s motto.
II. Courageous in facing every audience on whom he looks.—This he will be if he preserves a lowly estimate of himself, conjoined with an exalted idea of the Master he serves and of the message he bears, as well as a lively sense of that Master’s presence.
III. Evangelical in the truths he proclaims.—The proper business of the pulpit is neither to teach science or philosophy, nor to disseminate the elements of ordinary knowledge, but to publish the everlasting gospel.
IV. Direct in the manner of his teaching.—A good sermon, besides having a good text and good matter, should be appropriate and personal—not in an offensive and impertinent, but in a heart-searching and conscience-touching, sense. Preaching that lacks point in front, and has no push from behind, is not likely to result in conversions.
Paul, Felix, and Drusilla; or, Three Phases of Conscience.
I. The courage of a good conscience.—Exemplified in Paul, who reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, before the adulterous pair. Compare John the Baptist before Herod (Mat_14:4).
II. The alarm of a guilty conscience.—Illustrated in Felix, who trembled as the vision of a judgment-day arose upon his mind’s horizon. Compare Herod, the Baptist’s murderer (Mat_16:2).
III. The insensibility of a hardened conscience.—Exhibited in Drusilla, who heard, unmoved, the heart-searching words of Paul. Compare the behaviour of her sister Bernice (Act_26:30). Both instances of that most awful psychological phenomenon—a conscience past feeling (Eph_4:19).
Act_24:25. Convenient Seasons—
I. Are always present to those in earnest about religion.—To such as are
(1) convinced of their own guilt and sin;
(2) alive to the necessity and importance of salvation;
(3) aware of the uncertainty and shortness of life.
II. Never come to those indifferent about religion.—To those who are
(1) in love with sin and its pleasures (Tit_3:3);
(2) blinded by the god of this world (2Co_4:4);
(3) unconscious of their perilous condition.
Act_24:26. The Love of Money, as Exemplified in Felix.
I. Rooted, presumably, in his corrupt and unprincipled heart.—Mammon, the god of this world (Mat_6:24).
II. Fostered by his wicked life.—For his personal extravagance and licentious indulgence he needed money, and this need kept the demon of avarice awake.
III. Obstructive of higher impulses.—It stifled his conscience, hardened his heart, destroyed his soul. It prevented the entrance into his soul of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
IV. Productive of other sins.—In Felix’s case it led to procrastination or trifling with his own highest interests; to the infliction of injustice on Paul, by continued imprisonment; to the practice of hypocrisy, in pretending to commune often with Paul about the faith, when secretly “he hoped that money would be given him of Paul.” “The love of money is the root of every kind of evil” (1Ti_6:10).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 22, 24, 25 14. “I confess this unto thee, that after the…
14. “I confess this unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy serve I the God of my fathers, believing all things which have been written according to the law and in the prophets,
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v25
Acts
PAUL BEFORE FELIX
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FELIX BEFORE PAUL
A Sermon to the Young
Act 24:25.
Felix and his brother had been favourite slaves of the Emperor, and so had won great power at court. At the date of this incident he had been for some five or six years the procurator of the Roman province of Judaea; and how he used his power the historian Tacitus tells us in one of his bitter sentences, in which he says, ‘He wielded his kingly authority with the spirit of a slave, in all cruelty and lust.’
He had tempted from her husband, Drusilla, the daughter of that Herod whose dreadful death is familiar to us all; and his court reeked with blood and debauchery. He is here face to face with Paul for the second time. On a former interview he had seen good reason to conclude that the Roman Empire was not in much danger from this one Jew whom his countrymen, with suspicious loyalty, were charging with sedition; and so he had allowed him a very large margin of liberty.
On this second occasion he had sent for him evidently not as a judge, but partly with a view to try to get a bribe out of him, and partly because he had some kind of languid interest, as most Romans then had, in Oriental thought-some languid interest perhaps too in this strange man. Or he and Drusilla were possibly longing for a new sensation, and not indisposed to give a moment’s glance at Paul with his singular ideas.
So they called for the Apostle, and the guilty couple found a judge in their prisoner. Paul does not speak to them as a Greek philosopher, anxious to please high personages, might have done, but he goes straight at their sins: he reasons ‘of righteousness’ with the unjust judge, ‘of temperance’ with the self-indulgent, sinful pair, ‘of the judgment to come’ with these two who thought that they could do anything they liked with impunity. Christianity has sometimes to be exceedingly rude in reference to the sins of the upper classes.
As Paul went on, a strange fear began to creep about the heart of Felix. It is the watershed of his life that he has come to, the crisis of his fate. Everything depends on the next five minutes. Will he yield? Will he resist? The tongue of the balance trembles and hesitates for a moment, and then, but slowly, the wrong scale goes down; ‘Go thy way for this time.’ Ah! if he had said, ‘Come and help me to get rid of this strange fear,’ how different all might have been! The metal was at the very point of melting. What shape would it take? It ran into the wrong mould, and, as far as we know, it was hardened there. ‘It might have been once, and he missed it, lost it for ever. No sign marked out that moment from the common uneventful moments, though it saw the death of a soul.’
Now, my dear young friends, I do not intend to say anything more to you of this man and his character, but I wish to take this incident and its lessons and urge them on your hearts and consciences.
I. Let me say a word or two about the fact, of which this incident is an example, and of which I am afraid the lives of many of you would furnish other examples, that men lull awakened consciences to sleep and excuse delay in deciding for Christ by half-honest promises to attend to religion at some future time.
‘Go thy way for this time’ is what Felix is really anxious about. His one thought is to get rid of Paul and his disturbing message for the present. But he does not wish to shut the door altogether. He gives a sop to his conscience to stop its barking, and he probably deceives himself as to the gravity of his present decision by the lightly given promise and its well-guarded indefiniteness, ‘When I have a convenient season I will send for thee.’ The thing he really means is-Not now, at all events; the thing he hoodwinks himself with is- By and by. Now that is what I know that some of you are doing; and my purpose and earnest prayer are to bring you now to the decision which, by one vigorous act of your wills, will settle the question for the future as to which God you are going to follow.
So then I have just one or two things to say about this first part of my subject. Let me remind you that however beautiful, however gracious, however tender and full of love and mercy and good tidings the message of God’s love in Jesus Christ is, there is another side to it, a side which is meant to rouse men’s consciences and to awaken men’s fears.
If you bring a man like the man in the story, Felix, or a very much better man than he-any of you who hear me now-into contact with these three thoughts, ‘Righteousness, temperance, judgment to come,’ the effect of such a direct appeal to moral convictions will always be more or less to awaken a sense of failure, insufficiency, defect, sin, and to create a certain creeping dread that if I set myself against the great law of God, that law of God will have a way of crushing me. The fear is well founded, and not only does the contemplation of God’s law excite it. God’s gospel comes to us, and just because it is a gospel, and is intended to lead you and me to love and trust Jesus Christ, and give our whole hearts and souls to Him-just because it is the best ‘good news’ that ever came into the world, it begins often {not always, perhaps} by making a man feel what a sinful man he is, and how he has gone against God’s law, and how there hang over him, by the very necessities of the case and the constitution of the universe, consequences bitter and painful. Now I believe that there are very few people who, like you, come occasionally into contact with the preaching of the truth, who have not had their moments when they felt-’Yes, it is all true-it is all true. I am bad, and I have broken God’s law, and there is a dark lookout before me!’ I believe that most of us know what that feeling is.
And now my next step is-that the awakened conscience is just like the sense of pain in the physical world, it has a work to do and a mission to perform. It is meant to warn you off dangerous ground. Thank God for pain! It keeps off death many a time. And in like manner thank God for a swift conscience that speaks! It is meant to ring an alarm-bell to us, to make us, as the Bible has it, ‘flee for refuge to the hope that is set before us.’ My imploring question to my young friends now is: ‘Have you used that sense of evil and wrongdoing, when it has been aroused in your consciences, to lead you to Jesus Christ, or what have you done with it?’
There are two persons in this Book of the Acts of the Apostles who pass through the same stages of feeling up to a certain point, and then they diverge. And the two men’s outline history is the best sermon that I can preach upon this point. Felix becoming afraid, recoils, shuts himself up, puts away the message that disturbs him, and settles himself back into his evil. The Philippian jailer becoming afraid {the phrases in the original being almost identical}, like a sensible man tries to find out the reason of his fear and how to get rid of it; and falls down at the Apostles’ feet and says, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’
The fear is not meant to last; it is of no use in itself. It is only an impelling motive that leads us to look to the Saviour, and the man that uses it so has used it rightly. Yet there rises in many a heart that transparent self-deception of delay. ‘They all with one consent began to make excuse’; that is as true to-day as it was true then. My experience tells me that it will be true in regard to a sad number of you who will go away feeling that my poor word has gone a little way into their hardened hide, but settling themselves back into their carelessness, and forgetting all impressions that have been made. O dear young friend, do not do that, I beseech you! Do not stifle the wholesome alarm and cheat yourself with the notion of a little delay!
II. And now I wish next to pass very swiftly in review before you some of the reasons why we fall into this habit of self-deceiving, indecision, and delay-
‘Go thy way’ would be too sharp and unmistakable if it were left alone, so it is fined off. ‘I will not commit myself beyond to-day,’ ‘for this time go thy way, and when I have a convenient season I will call for thee.’
What are the reasons for such an attitude as that? Let me enumerate one or two of them as they strike me. First, there is the instinctive, natural wish to get rid of a disagreeable subject-much as a man, without knowing what he is doing, twitches his hand away from the surgeon’s lancet. So a great many of us do not like-and no wonder that we do not like-these thoughts of the old Book about ‘righteousness and temperance and judgment to come,’ and make a natural effort to turn our minds away from the contemplation of the subject, because it is painful and unpleasant. Do you think it would be a wise thing for a man, if he began to suspect that he was insolvent, to refuse to look into his books or to take stock, and let things drift, till there was not a halfpenny in the pound for anybody? What do you suppose his creditors would call him? They would not compliment him on either his honesty or his prudence, would they? And is it not the part of a wise man, if he begins to see that something is wrong, to get to the bottom of it and, as quickly as possible, to set it right? And what do you call people who, suspecting that there may be a great hole in the bottom of the ship, never man the pumps or do any caulking, but say, ‘Oh, she will very likely keep afloat until we get into harbour’?
Do you not think that it would be a wiser thing for you if, because the subject is disagreeable, you would force yourself to think about it until it became agreeable to you? You can change it if you will, and make it not at all a shadow or a cloud or a darkness over you. And you can scarcely expect to claim the designation of wise and prudent orderers of your lives until you do. Certainly it is not wise to shuffle a thing out of sight because it is not pleasing to think about.
Then there is another reason. A number of our young people say, ‘Go thy way for this time,’ because you have a notion that it is time enough for you to begin to think about serious things and be religious when you grow a bit older. And some of you even, I dare say, have an idea that religion is all very well for people that are turned sixty and are going down the hill, but that it is quite unnecessary for you. Shakespeare puts a grim word into the mouth of one of his characters, which sets the theory of many of us in its true light, when, describing a dying man calling on God, he makes the narrator say: ‘I, to comfort him, bid him he should not think of God. I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet.’
Some of my hearers practically live on that principle, and are tempted to regard thoughts of God as in place only among medicine bottles, or when the shadows of the grave begin to fall cold and damp on our path. ‘Young men will be young men,’ ‘We must sow our wild oats,’ ‘You can’t put old heads on young shoulders’-and such like sayings, often practically mean that vice and godlessness belong to youth, and virtue and religion to old age, just as flowers do to spring and fruit to autumn. Let me beseech you not to be deceived by such a notion; and to search your own thoughts and see whether it be one of the reasons which leads you to say, ‘Go thy way for this time.’
Then again some of us fall into this habit of putting off the decision for Christ, not consciously, not by any distinct act of saying, ‘No, I will not,’ but simply by letting the impressions made on our hearts and consciences be crowded out of them by cares and enjoyments and pleasures and duties of this world. If you had not so much to study at College, you would have time to think about religion. If you had not so many parties and balls to go to, you would have time to nourish and foster these impressions. If you had not your place to make in the warehouse, if you had not this, that, and the other thing to do; if you had not love and pleasure and ambition and advancement and mental culture to attend to, you would have time for religion; but as soon as the seed is sown and the sower’s back is turned, hovering flocks of light-winged thoughts and vanities pounce down upon it and carry it away, seed by seed. And if some stray seed here and there remains and begins to sprout, the ill weeds which grow apace spring up with ranker stems and choke it. ‘The cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and efface the impression made upon your hearts.
Here as I speak some serious thought is roused; by to-morrow at midday it has all gone. You did not intend it to go, you did not set yourself to banish it, you simply opened the door to the flocking in of the whole crowd of the world’s cares and occupations, and away went the shy, solitary thought that, if it had been cared for and tended, might have led you at last to the Cross of Jesus Christ. Do not allow yourselves to be drifted, by the rushing current of earthly cares, from the impressions that are made upon your consciences and from the duty that you know you ought to do!
And then some of you fall into this attitude of delay, and say to the messenger of God’s love, ‘Go thy way for this time,’ because you do not like to give up something that you know is inconsistent with His love and service. Felix would not part with Drusilla nor disgorge the ill-gotten gains of his province. Felix therefore was obliged to put away from him the thoughts that looked in that direction. I wonder if there is any young man listening to me now who feels that if he lets my words carry him where they seek to carry him, he will have to give up ‘fleshly lusts which war against the soul’? I wonder if there is any young woman listening to me now who feels that if she lets my words carry her where they would carry her, she will have to live a different life from that which she has been living, to have more of a high and a noble aim in it, to live for something else than pleasure? I wonder if there are any of you who are saying, ‘I cannot give up that’? My dear young friend, ‘If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life blind than with both eyes to be cast into hell-fire.’
Reasons for delay, then, are these: first, getting rid of an unpleasant subject; second, thinking that there is time enough; third, letting the world obliterate the impressions that have been made; and fourth, shrinking from the surrender of something that you know you will have to give up.
III. And now let me very briefly, as my last point, put before you one or two of the reasons which I would fain might be conclusive with you for present decision to take Christ for your Saviour and your Master.
And I say, Do not delay, but now choose Him for your Redeemer, your Friend, your Helper, your Commander, your All; because delay is really decision in the wrong way. Do not delay, but take Jesus Christ as the Saviour of your sinful souls, and rest your hearts upon Him to-night before you sleep; because there is no real reason for delay. No season will be more convenient than the present season. Every time is the right time to do the right thing, every time is the right time to begin following Him. There is nothing to wait for. There is no reason at all, except their own disinclination, why every man and woman listening to me should not now grasp the Cross of Christ as their only hope for forgiveness and acceptance, and yield themselves to that Lord, to live in His service for ever. Let not this day pass without your giving yourselves to Jesus Christ, because every time that you have this message brought to you, and you refuse to accept it, or delay to accept it, you make yourselves less capable of receiving it another time.
If you take a bit of phosphorus and put it upon a slip of wood and ignite the phosphorus, bright as the blaze is, there drops from it a white ash that coats the wood and makes it almost incombustible. And so when the flaming conviction laid upon your hearts has burnt itself out, it has coated the heart, and it will be very difficult to kindle the light there again. Felix said, ‘Go thy way, when I have a more convenient season I will send for thee.’ Yes, and he did send for Paul, and he talked with him often-he repeated the conversation, but we do not know that he repeated the trembling. He often communed with Paul, but it was only once that he was alarmed. You are less likely to be touched by the Gospel message for every time that you have heard it and put it away. That is what makes my place here so terribly responsible, and makes me feel that my words are so very feeble in comparison with what they ought to be. I know that I may be doing harm to men just because they listen and are not persuaded, and so go away less and less likely to be touched.
Ah, dear friends! you will perhaps never again have as deep impressions as you have now; or at least they are not to be reckoned upon as probable, for the tendency of all truth is to lose its power by repetition, and the tendency of all emotion which is not acted upon is to become fainter and fainter. And so I beseech you that now you would cherish any faint impression that is being made upon your hearts and consciences. Let it lead you to Christ; and take Him for your Lord and Saviour now.
I say to you: Do that now because delay robs you of large blessing. You will never want Jesus Christ more than you do to-day. You need Him in your early hours. Why should it be that a portion of your lives should be left unfilled by that rich mercy? Why should you postpone possessing the purest joy, the highest blessing, the divinest strength? Why should you put off welcoming your best Friend into your heart? Why should you?
I say to you again, Take Christ for your Lord, because delay inevitably lays up for you bitter memories and involves dreadful losses. There are good Christian men and women, I have no doubt, in this world now, who would give all they have, if they could blot out of the tablets of their memories some past hours of their lives, before they gave their hearts to Jesus Christ. I would have you ignorant of such transgression. O young men and women! if you grow up into middle life not Christians, then should you ever become so, you will have habits to fight with, and remembrances that will smart and sting; and some of you, perhaps, remembrances that will pollute, even though you are conscious that you are forgiven. It is a better thing not to know the depths of evil than to know them and to have been raised from them. You will escape infinite sorrows by an early cleaving to Christ your Lord.
And last of all I say to you, give yourselves now to Jesus Christ, because no to-morrow may be yours. Delay is gambling, very irrationally, with a very uncertain thing-your life and your future opportunities. ‘You know not what shall be on the morrow.’
For a generation I have preached in Manchester these annual sermons to the young. Ah, how many of those that heard the early ones are laid in their graves; and how many of them were laid in early graves; and how many of them said, as some of you are saying, ‘When I get older I will turn religious’! And they never got older. It is a commonplace word that, but I leave it on your hearts. You have no time to lose.
Do not delay, because delay is decision in the wrong way; do not delay, because there is no reason for delay; do not delay, because delay robs you of a large blessing; do not delay, because delay lays up for you, if ever you come back, bitter memories; do not delay, because delay may end in death. And for all these reasons, come as a sinful soul to Christ the Saviour; and ask Him to forgive you, and follow in His footsteps, and do it now! ‘To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv14–25 See notes on verse 10
See notes on verse 10
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv22, 25 of that way
of that way
concerning the Way. See, Joh 14:6.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv14, 17, 23 The charge of being a Nazarene:
The charge of being a Nazarene:
v. 14. But this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the prophets;
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v. 15, and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.
v. 16. And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.
Paul here took up the next charge, that of being a ringleader of the Nazarenes. Without referring to the title bestowed upon him, he proudly confesses to the truth of that charge, if that be a crime, incidentally including, however, a rebuke to the Jews themselves. After the way which they were pleased to call a sect, a schismatic party, he served the God of the fathers. The thought underlying Paul’s words was that Christianity was not a separation, but rather a fulfilling of the Jewish religion and belief. There is no difference in kind, but only in degree between the Old and New Testament religion; the Jewish patriarchs were saved by their faith in the coming Messiah, while the Christians are Saved by their faith in the Christ that has come and fulfilled the chief prophecies of old. In this way Paul’s faith was placed in all the things that were written throughout the Law and in the prophets; only Paul knew that the Messianic hopes had been realized in Jesus of Nazareth, while his accusers were still groping about in the darkness and blindness of a hope that would never be fulfilled. And he cherished the same hope toward God as these men also accepted, namely, that a resurrection of the just as well as of the unjust would surely take place. Note that Paul here makes no distinction between the high priest, a Sadducee, and the representatives of the Sanhedrin that were Pharisees, preferring to regard them as simply Jews that held the hope of their entire nation. For that reason, since he was firm in this belief, Paul exercised himself, he earnestly endeavored also, as they did, to have a clear conscience toward God and toward all men everywhere. The strongest motive and impelling power in a Christian is his faith in the Word of God and his hope of the resurrection of the dead. Note: The defense of Paul, in this section especially, is a fine apology of Christianity and the Christian faith. Thus the opponents of the true faith are silenced, when they cannot prove their assertions against the Christians, and when, in addition, the faith and the life of the Christians can truthfully be urged in their defense. The Christians do not constitute a new sect; their religion is the true religion, as it was in the world from the beginning; they believe in the Word of God and have the hope of the resurrection of the body and of eternal life.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 17, 20, 22, 24 I admit this to you
I admit this to you
"I acknowledge this to you" or "I confess this to you"
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that according to the Way
The phrase "the Way" was a title used for Christianity during Paul's time.
they call a sect
This is a smaller group of people within a larger group group. Tertullus considers the Christians to be a small group within Judaism. See how you translated "sect" in Acts 24:5.
in that same way I serve the God of our fathers
Paul uses the phrase "in that same way" to mean that he, as a believer in Jesus, serves God the same way as their Jewish ancestors did. He is not leading a "sect" or teaching something new that is opposed to their ancient religion.
as these men
"as these men have." Here "these men" refers to the Jews who are accusing Paul in court.
that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked
The abstract noun "resurrection" can be stated with the verb "resurrect." AT: "that God will resurrect all who have died, both the righteous and the unrighteous" (See: Abstract Nouns)
the righteous and the wicked
These nominal adjectives refer to righteous people and wicked people. AT "righteous people and wicked people" or "those who have done what is right and those who have done what is evil" (See: Nominal Adjectives)
I always strive
"I always work hard" or "I do my best"
to have a clear conscience before God
Here "conscience" refers to a person's inner morality that chooses between right and wrong. AT: "to be blameless" or "to always do what is right" (See: Metonymy)
before God
"in the presence of God"
translationWords
God
ancestor
faithful
law
prophet
confidence
resurrection
die
righteous
righteous
conscience
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25 24:14 the Way: See study note on 9:2. •…
24:14 the Way: See study note on 9:2. • Paul emphasized his common ground with his Jewish audience, including his worship, belief in the Jewish law, acceptance of the prophets, and hope in the resurrection (24:14, 15; see 24:21).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.