Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Acts 24-25
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 7
Key Verse
Acts 25:1 — “Now when Festus was come into the province, after three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem.”
Devotional Thought
Paul stands in the governor’s hall at Caesarea, and the machinery of empire grinds around him. Tertullus, a hired orator, flatters Felix with talk of “great quietness” and “worthy deeds” before sliding the knife in: Paul is “a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition,” a “ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.” The charges are polished and false. Paul answers plainly—twelve days in Jerusalem, no disputing in the temple, no tumult in the city—and then he confesses the one thing that is true: “after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers.” In mid-January, when the year still feels young and resolutions have begun to fray, Paul’s steady conscience is worth sitting with. He had “always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” That is not a boast of sinlessness but of integrity—nothing hidden, nothing owed, nothing nursed.
Watch Felix. He hears Paul reason “of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,” and he trembles—then sends him away. “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” Luke tells us why the season never came: Felix hoped for a bribe, and after two years he left Paul bound to curry favor with the Jews. Conviction without repentance hardens into delay, and delay into a lifetime. Festus, his successor, is no better; he too is “willing to do the Jews a pleasure.” Two governors, two years, one prisoner—and still Paul does not despair. He appeals to Caesar, and the appeal carries him toward Rome and toward the Gospel reaching the empire’s heart.
Psalm 7 sings underneath this scene. David cries, “O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust,” and asks God to judge him “according to mine integrity.” Then he describes his enemies exactly: “Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.” Tertullus dug that pit; Felix and Festus stood at its edge. Paul simply kept committing his cause to the Judge who “trieth the hearts and reins.”
We will not often face a Roman tribunal, but we will face false accusation, unfair treatment, and the temptation to answer deceit with deceit. This Wednesday in January, take Paul’s posture: a clear conscience, a plain defense, and a trust that leaves vengeance with God. And take Felix’s warning seriously. When the Spirit convicts, do not wait for a more convenient season. There is no such season on the calendar. Today is the day He has given.
Reflection
- Felix trembled at Paul’s reasoning but postponed obedience for “a convenient season” that never arrived—what conviction are you currently deferring, and what would it look like to respond today rather than later?
- Paul could say he had “always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” If you examined your conscience honestly this morning, what offense—toward God or toward another person—needs to be made right?
Prayer
O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust. Thou art the Judge who trieth the hearts and reins, and nothing is hidden from thine eyes. Search us this day and know our hearts; expose the offenses we have excused and the convictions we have postponed. Give us the courage of Paul before the judgment seats of this world—a clear conscience, a truthful tongue, and a quiet confidence that thou wilt defend the upright in heart. When we are wrongly accused, keep us from repaying evil for evil. And when thy Spirit convicts us, do not let us wait for a more convenient season. Arise, O Lord, judge the people, and establish the just; we will praise thee according to thy righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the Lord most high. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 7:1 — “O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:”