Paul the Roman Citizen

 Meditations on The Acts of the Apostles

April 23, 2021

Paul the Roman Citizen

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?”

Acts 22:25

Read: Acts 22:23-30       

Paul didn’t wait as long to declare his Roman citizenship as he did in Philippi. Roman citizenship was the centerpiece of Roman culture that made the Roman Empire the pinnacle of civilization in Europe and the Middle East. Even so, the blame-the-victim mentality of the Roman commander reveals the Roman culture was corrupt at its core: “. . . 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.” (v.24)

Even though the commander granted Paul privileges of citizenship, “the next day he released him” (v.30), he nevertheless maintained his blame-the-victim posture by ordering Paul to stand before the assembled Sanhedrin.

My Takeaway: It is not just the ancient civilizations who blamed the victims. A friend of ours died from COVID-19 last year. We shared the news with family members, and both initially responded, “Wasn’t she very over-weight?” All people suffer from original sin, or as the reformed tradition puts it, total depravity. Daily, our prayer should begin with the words of Saint Paul, “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2021 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.