Acts 24:1-8: in context

Paul is brought before the governor Felix, and his accusers arrive with a hired orator, Tertullus, to present the case against him. Tertullus opens with polished flattery of Felix, then turns to a sweeping accusation: this man is a plague, an instigator of riots among the Jews everywhere, a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, who even tried to profane the temple. The charges are grave, the language skilled, the picture of Paul entirely damning, and entirely false.

It is worth noticing how easily the innocent Paul is made to sound like a dangerous criminal. A skilled speaker, hired for the purpose, stands up and, with practiced eloquence, paints Paul as a plague on society, a ringleader of sedition, a defiler of the temple. The words are polished, the accusation confident and sweeping, and to anyone hearing only Tertullus, Paul would seem plainly guilty. Yet the picture is a fabrication; Paul had done none of it. Guilt, it turns out, can be manufactured against the innocent by a skilled enough accuser, and the innocent can be made to sound thoroughly guilty. There are two things worth carrying from this. The first is a caution about how we receive accusations. A confident, eloquent, well-presented case against someone is not proof of guilt; the innocent can be, and are, made to sound guilty by persuasive accusers with an agenda. We do well to be slow to accept even a persuasive accusation, remembering that eloquence and confidence are not truth, and that the person in the dock may be the innocent one. The second is a comfort for those who are themselves maligned. Paul could not stop Tertullus from slandering him; he could not control the false picture being painted of him before the governor. What he could do was tell the truth calmly, and entrust his vindication to God. When we are maligned, mischaracterized, made to sound like something we are not, we often cannot control what others say or believe about us. But our security does not rest on controlling our reputation; it rests in the God who knows the truth about us, whatever the accusers say. Paul answered with the truth and left the rest to God; and the God who knows the innocent from the guilty is a surer defender than any reputation we could guard ourselves.

When I hear a confident, well-presented accusation against someone, am I quick to believe it, forgetting that the innocent can be made to sound guilty by a skilled accuser, and when I am myself maligned and cannot control what others say, can I, like Paul, tell the truth calmly and entrust my vindication to the God who knows the truth about me?