Scripture Daily

Context No. 476 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 22:22-30: in context

22They listened to him until he said that; then they lifted up their voice and said, “Rid the earth of this fellow, for he isn’t fit to live!” 23As they cried out, threw off their cloaks, and threw dust into the air, 24the commanding officer commanded him to be brought into the barracks, ordering him to be examined by scourging, that he might know for what crime they shouted against him like that. 25When they had tied him up with straps, Paul asked the centurion who stood by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and not found guilty?” 26When the centurion heard it, he went to the commanding officer and told him, “Watch what you are about to do, for this man is a Roman!” 27The commanding officer came and asked him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” He said, “Yes.” 28The commanding officer answered, “I bought my citizenship for a great price.” Paul said, “But I was born a Roman.” 29Immediately those who were about to examine him departed from him, and the commanding officer also was afraid when he realized that he was a Roman, because he had bound him. 30But on the next day, desiring to know the truth about why he was accused by the Jews, he freed him from the bonds and commanded the chief priests and all the council to come together, and brought Paul down and set him before them.

The scene is violent. Paul has been speaking to a Jerusalem crowd, and the moment he mentions being sent to the Gentiles, they explode, shouting, rid the earth of this fellow, he is not fit to live, tearing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air. The Roman tribune, unable to understand the uproar, decides to get answers the brutal way: he orders Paul stretched out and scourged, a flogging that could cripple or kill. And as they tie him down with the straps, Paul says something quiet and precise to the centurion standing there: is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen, and uncondemned? It stops everything. The centurion warns the tribune, the tribune comes running, and the whole illegal punishment is called off.

What is striking is that this is the same Paul who elsewhere lists the beatings and floggings he has endured for the gospel, who does not run from suffering when suffering is the cost of faithfulness. Yet here he does not passively accept a lawless scourging. He calmly invokes his legal rights as a Roman citizen and stops it. He is no masochist chasing pain to prove his devotion. He suffers when suffering serves the gospel, and he uses every legitimate means to prevent unjust harm when it does not. Faith, in Paul, is not the same thing as passivity. Standing on a just and lawful protection is not a failure of trust in God.

That corrects a lopsided piety I can slip into, the idea that the holy response to every wrong is to absorb it silently, that using the law or asserting a right somehow shows a lack of faith. Paul knew the difference. There is a time to endure injustice for Christ's sake, and there is a time to say, calmly, this is not lawful, and stop it. Do I know the difference in my own life, between the suffering I am called to accept for the sake of something greater and the injustice I am right to resist through legitimate means, or do I confuse simply being passive with being faithful?

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