An Exchange Of Views And Convictions
AN EXCHANGE OF VIEWS AND CONVICTIONS
ACTS 26:19-32
If only our friends, family and neighbors would believe in Christ too!
When the facts are examined—Paul concluded—there is nothing anti-Jewish in the message he brought; rather, it complements and brings to fulfillment the Old Testament hope of a Messiah, humiliated yet vindicated and the author of God’s blessings to all people, both the Jewish people and the Gentile races (26:22-23).
Festus was plainly out of his depth. Much study, the Preacher remarked, is a weariness of the flesh (Ecclesiastes 12:12); the Roman governor pronounced it a danger to sanity (26:24). Paul repelled that charge, insisting that his Christian knowledge and experience were based on the opposite of “madness”—viz. soberness, the possession of a right mind (see 2 Corinthians 5:13 for the contrast). There is nothing irrational in Christianity in the sense of claims which are contrary to reason (cf. 26:8), although there is much that is above human reason, and may be known only by faith.
The interchange of conversation between Paul and Agrippa (26:26-29) is full of interest. The Christian preacher confidently appeals to what is public knowledge—thereby incidentally dispelling the latter-day idea that Christianity is wrapped in the mists of obscurity and legend, and presses home the appeal (26:27). Agrippa eases himself off the horns of such a dilemma with a facetious retort: “In short, you are trying to persuade me to play the Christian.” Paul picks up the king’s words: “The short and the long of it is—I wish that you and all who hear me today could become (as opposed to ‘play a part’) as I am—but not as a prisoner!”
Notes 26:19: the vision is that mentioned in 22:17f. which (as implied in 26:16-18) assured him of his call to be a missionary to the Gentiles. 26:22: Paul appeals, as elsewhere (Romans 3:21), to the united witness of the two major sections of the Jewish Scriptures. 26:23: cf. Luke 24:25ff.,44. His resurrection is spoken of as a “first instalment” (1 Corinthians 15:20), guaranteeing that of all his people (2 Timothy 1:10). 26:24: Festus speaks angrily with a loud voice; Paul’s reply is restrained. 26:28: the best parallel is 1 Kings 21:7: “Is it like this that you play a king’s part in Israel?”
To ponder Four characters are here: Bernice, Herod Agrippa, Festus and Paul. How do they come out of this exchange of views and convictions?