MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THE FACTS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.”

The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”

“Yes, I am,” he answered.

Then the commander said, “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.”

"But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.

Those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.

Acts 22:23-29

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The anger within the gathered crowd outside the Roman barracks in Jerusalem had reignited and they demanded that Paul be put to death after he finished his testimony by saying the Lord had ordered him to abandon bring the Gospel to the Jews and instead take it to the Gentiles. The people were “shouting and throwing off their cloaks” while “flinging dust into the air”.

Because of these actions and the danger present, the Roman commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks where he was to be “flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him”.

And so the guards stretched Paul out to flog him but we find Paul posing the following question to the centurion, the Roman official supervising the flogging:

“Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

The inquiry startled the centurion and caught him off guard. He immediately went back to the commander for guidance, informing him of Paul being a Roman citizen. You see, it was a violation of Roman law to bind up and thrash a Roman citizen.

And so the Roman commander goes to Paul himself and asks:

“Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”

He had assumed that Paul was a Jew and although Paul was raised up in the Jewish ways and was a student of Mosaic law under the tutelage of Gamaliel, he had been born into Roman citizenry. The Roman commander failed to take the time to get his facts straight and in turn, nearly made a terrible mistake that would have brought consequences.

Yes, Paul had been born into Roman ancestry and this was in stark contrast to how the Roman commander had gained his citizenship for he confesses to Paul that he “had to pay a lot of money” in order to become a Roman. Through his words, it’s obvious that people could buy their way into becoming a Roman citizen in those days.

So what happened to Paul?

We read where those who were appointed to interrogate him immediately departed as the commander stood alarmed over the fact that he hadn’t taken the time to really know about Paul’s background and as a result, ended up putting a Roman citizen in chains.

What actions would he take next?

We’ll see in tomorrow’s message but before I close, it’s important to receive the message the Lord is trying to convey to us today. For too often, we are like the Roman commander. We jump to conclusions and assume without getting all our facts straight and as a result, we get things wrong in ways that can have dire outcomes.

The call here is to be cautious before making uninformed decisions, to make sure we get our facts straight before we ponder what actions we should take.

Had the Roman commander done this, he would have never placed Paul in bondage and ordered him punished. But he didn’t and was left with a mess of his own making to clean up. As mentioned, we’ll see how he does it in our next devotion.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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