Acts 22:30 - 23:10

                                                             Acts 22:30 – 23:10

But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them. And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?” Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God's high priest?” And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”  Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?” And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks.

Paul is being held without any real charges being laid against him.  The Roman authority wants to try to get to the bottom of the situation, so he calls in the Jewish leadership to try to find out what all the rioting was about and who was to blame for it.  As he looks at Paul, a Roman citizen, he cannot understand why he evokes so much hatred from the Jews especially sin he was also a Jew.  He hopes that a “sit down” will clear everything up.  He is wrong.  However, as we look at this interaction there are several lessons we can learn from both positive and negative examples of how to deal with conflict.

 

RESPECT OTHERS: Paul begins his defense by respecting his audience by calling them fathers and bothers.  When Paul claims to have a clear conscience, the high priest orders him to be slapped.  Paul responds by calling him a name for ordering him to be slapped unlawfully.  That prompts everyone to criticize him for speaking ill of the high priest.  Paul defends himself by stating that he didn’t know he was the high priest and quotes Scripture to demonstrate his knowledge of the Law.  However, this kind of mutual disrespect didn’t exactly get this meeting off to a blazing start.  The high priest did not respect Paul and Paul reacted by calling him a name.  No matter how we might be mistreated, it is always important to keep our composure and to avoid doing or saying thigs we will have to apologize for later.  Someone else’s bad treatment of us should not become an excuse to treat others as they have treated us.

 

REMAIN CALM: Paul is a discerning person and could obviously see that the group was not there to hear or know the truth.  No matter what he said it would be twisted to simply condemn him.  He remains calm in this situation and observes that the group is made up of two rival sects of Judaism.  He knows the differences in their belief systems, so he decides that the best way to proceed is to get them to begin fighting with one another as opposed to focusing on him.  He does this by defending the doctrine of the Pharisees which makes the Sadducees start arguing against Paul and the Pharisees defending him.  They don’t remain calm, but Paul does and clearly demonstrates to the Romans that his accusers are not on the same page.  In stressful situations when others are attacking us, it is important to remain calm and try to avoid direct confrontation with unreasonable people.

 

RESTORE ORDER: When chaos breaks out, the Roman soldiers take charge once again and remove Paul from the midst of the group to leave them fighting amongst themselves.  Good decisions are never made in a context of chaos.  Paul’s captors become his protectors once again.  The confrontation didn’t shed much light on why there was such unrest, but it demonstrated that Paul’s accusers were not blameless in the situation but confirmed that Paul was certainly a polarizing figure.  If chaos breaks out in the midst of a decision-making process, it is best to break up the meeting, allow for people to cool off, and then revisit the subject at a latter date. 

 

APPLICATION: Respect others in word and deed no matter how they might be mistreating you.  Be discerning about the intentions and reasonableness of others in times of confrontation.  Strive to remain calm in the face of conflict and seek to take the focus away from yourself.  Treat others with kindness and try to defuse an explosive situation.