September 04, 2023 | Be On Mission
Paul the Roman Citizen Avoids Flogging
Scripture: Acts 22:22-30(NIV)
22 The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”
23 As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 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. 25 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?”
26 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.”
27 The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”
“Yes, I am,” he answered.
28 Then the commander said, “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.”
“But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.
29 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.
30 The commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews. So the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.
Devotional
At the conclusion of yesterday’s reading, Paul stated that the Lord had told him, “Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.” This angered the Jewish crowd who shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!” To get to the bottom of all this commotion, the Roman commander gave an order, and Paul was stretched out to be flogged.
When they did this, they undoubtedly saw the scars and wounds of Paul’s numerous persecutions and sufferings he had endured over the previous decade. About a year before today’s reading took place, Paul penned his second epistle to the Christians in Corinth. In that letter he wrote how he had been thrown in prison repeatedly, received thirty-nine lashes five times, was beaten with rods three times, was pelted with stones, and much more (2 Corinthians 11:22-29).
When Paul finally arrived in Jerusalem, an angry mob beat him (Acts 21:30-32). Now, as he was stretched out with his torso exposed in preparation to be flogged yet one more time, he must have been a sight to behold.
But the torture and interrogation team backed off when Paul said that he was a Roman citizen. This afforded him rights and privileges that non-citizens didn’t have. The Roman commander brought Paul to the Jewish religious establishment. He figured that somebody had to know why Paul’s presence had caused so much commotion.
Why do you think that Paul had so much determination to keep spreading the Gospel despite so much resistance? What kept him from giving up? How much grit do you have when it comes to living your faith and spreading the gospel?
Poem
The Rights Of Citizenship
I’m a citizen of heaven
Bought with great cost
Once a slave to all the evils
Estranged and lost
I was dirty, beaten, broken
Without one hope
I ate slop while knelt at pigsty
It’s how I coped
In the misery recalling
I came to self
I remembered where my home was
I sought God’s help
I returned, longing for Eden
My place of birth
I ran back to my Creator
With ash and earth
There I found my Father running
On the straight road
There he wrapped his arms around me
Lifted my load
Now a citizen of heaven
Grace rights adorn
My face is oiled in gladness
No longer mourn
