Paul’s Clear Conscience

The charges Paul faced as he stood before Felix, the Roman governor of Judea, involved inciting riots and defiling the Jewish temple (Acts 24:1–9). In other words, the Apostle was accused of being anti-Roman and anti-Jew. Yet the charges were ultimately baseless. Paul showed the utmost respect toward Felix and other Roman officials; he had not gone around inciting Jews to riot against the Roman authorities, and he was not against the Jews. In fact, Paul followed Jesus because one rightly worships the God of the Jews only by recognizing Christ as the promised Jewish Messiah (vv. 10–15).

Paul, after establishing the basic facts about his attitudes toward the Romans and to Judaism, moved to specifically refute the charge that he had profaned the Jerusalem temple by bringing gentiles into the areas of the temple off-limits to non-Jews (see 21:27–29). Before beginning that part of his answer, however, Paul stated that he took “pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man” (24:16). By this, Paul confessed his integrity, that his defense was consistent with his whole manner of life. The Apostle was innocent of being against lawful secular authorities and of violating the true religion of his forefathers not only in the specific case being raised against him. Instead, he consistently lived in such a way that he submitted to lawful governing bodies and affirmed the truths revealed in Scripture and handed down to him by his religious teachers.

Addressing the claims that Paul had defied the Jerusalem temple by bringing gentiles into temple precincts off-limits to them, Paul explained that he had come to Jerusalem “to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings.” While he was doing so, some Jews from Asia misunderstood and leveled accusations against him that they refused to make in person before Felix (vv. 17–21). Paul’s statement that the Asian Jews should make their charges in person undermined the truth of their accusations—if they stood behind their claims, they would have the courage to make them before the court. His statement that he was in Jerusalem to give alms to “his nation” and present offerings further demonstrated his conviction that to be true to his Jewish heritage required him to be a Christian. After all, the nation that he had come to visit in Jerusalem consisted of the Jews who followed Christ (21:17–26; see Rom. 15:25). Paul could not be guilty of violating the true faith, for he served Jesus. Ironically, it was his accusers who rejected the faith, not the Apostle.