The commander replied, "I had to pay a large sum for this citizenship." "But I was born a citizen," said Paul.

At this Paul said to him, "You whitewashed wall, God will strike you! You sit there to judge me by the Law, do you? And you break the Law by ordering me to be struck!"

When he said this, a quarrel broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; the meeting was divided.

Thus a loud clamour broke out. Some of the scribes who belonged to the Pharisaic party got up and contended, "We find nothing wrong about this man. What if some spirit or angel has spoken to him?"

There were more than forty of them in this plot.

Now you and the Sanhedrin must inform the commander that you propose to investigate this case in detail, so that he may have Paul brought down to you. We will be all ready to kill him on the way down."

Paul summoned one of the officers and said, "Take this young man to the commander, for he has some news to give him."

So the officer took him to the commander, saying, "The prisoner Paul has summoned me to ask if I would bring this young man to you, as he has something to tell you."

Now do not let them persuade you. More than forty of them are lying in ambush for him, and they have taken a solemn oath neither to eat nor to drink till they have murdered him. They are all ready at this moment, awaiting your consent."

Then the commander dismissed the youth, bidding him "Tell nobody that you have informed me of this."

This man had been seized by the Jews and was on the point of being murdered by them, when I came on them with the troops and rescued him, as I had ascertained that he was a Roman citizen.

So Paul was summoned, and then Tertullus proceeded to accuse him. "Your excellency," he said to Felix, "as it is owing to you that we enjoy unbroken peace, and as it is owing to your wise care that the state of this nation has been improved in every way and everywhere,

we acknowledge all this with profound gratitude.

The fact is, we have found this man is a perfect pest; he stirs up sedition among the Jews all over the world and he is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect.

Then at a nod from the governor Paul made his reply. "As I know you have administered justice in this nation for a number of years," he said, "I feel encouraged to make my defence,

Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You have our permission to speak upon your own behalf." At this Paul stretched out his hand and began his defence.

a promise which our twelve tribes hope to gain by serving God earnestly both night and day. And I am actually impeached by Jews for this hope, O king!

I was travelling to Damascus on this business, with authority and a commission from the high priests,

Upon this, O king Agrippa, I did not disobey the heavenly vision;

This is why the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to assassinate me.

To this day I have had the help of God in standing, as I now do, to testify alike to low and high, never uttering a single syllable beyond what the prophets and Moses predicted was to take place.

When he brought this forward in his defence, Festus called out, "Paul, you are quite mad! Your great learning is driving you insane."

Why, the king is well aware of this! To the king I can speak without the slightest hesitation. I do not believe any of it has escaped his notice, for this was not done in a corner.

"At this rate," Agrippa remarked, "it won't be long before you believe you have made a Christian of me!"

They retired to discuss the affair, and agreed that "this man has done nothing to deserve death or imprisonment."

By this time it was far on in the season and sailing had become dangerous (for the autumn Fast was past), so Paul warned them thus:

"Men," said he, "I see this voyage is going to be attended with hardship and serious loss not only to the cargo and the ship but also to our own lives."

When they had gone without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, "Men, you should have listened to me and spared yourselves this hardship and loss by refusing to set sail from Crete.

while the rest were to manage with planks or pieces of wreckage. In this way it turned out that the whole company got safe to land.

When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to each other, "This man must be a murderer! He has escaped the sea, but Justice will not let him live."

When this had happened, the rest of the sick folk in the island also came and got cured;

where we came across some of the brotherhood, who invited us to stay a week with them. In this way we reached Rome.

This is my reason for asking to see you and have a word with you. I am wearing this chain because I share Israel's hope."

We think it only right to let you tell your own story; but as regards this sect, we are well aware that there are objections to it on all hands."

As they could not agree among themselves, they were turning to go away, when Paul added this one word: "It was an apt word that the holy Spirit spoke by the prophet Isaiah to your fathers,

when he said, Go and tell this people, 'You will hear and hear but never understand, you will see and see but never perceive.'

For the heart at this people is obtuse, their ears are heavy at hearing, their eyes they have closed, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they understand with their heart and turn again, and I cure them.

Be sure of this, then, that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen to it."

Much in every way. This to begin with ??Jews were entrusted with the scriptures of God.

whom God put forward as the means of propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to demonstrate the justice of God in view of the fact that sins previously committed during the time of God's forbearance had been passed over;

Then 'by this faith' we 'cancel the Law'? Not for one moment! We uphold the Law.

This, that if 'Abraham was justified on the score of what he did,' he has something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God.

For what does scripture say? Abraham believed God and this was counted to him as righteousness.

He only got circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which belonged to his faith as an uncircumcised man. The object of this was to make him the father of all who believe as uncircumcised persons and thus have righteousness counted to them,

Through him we have got access to this grace where we have our standing, and triumph in the hope of God's glory.

But God proves his love for us by this, that Christ died for us when we were still sinners.

Now what are we to infer from this? That we are to 'remain on in sin, so that there may be all the more grace'?

(I use this human analogy to bring the truth home to your weak nature.) As you once dedicated your members to the service of vice and lawlessness, so now dedicate them to the service of righteousness that means consecration.

Then did what was meant for my good prove fatal to me? Never! It was sin; sin resulted in death for me by making use of this good thing. This was how sin was to be revealed in its true nature; it was to use the command to become sinful in the extreme.

So this is my experience of the Law: I want to do what is right, but wrong is all I can manage;

Miserable wretch that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

God will! Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord! [Move second part of this vers to follow vs 23] (Thus, left to myself, I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.)

it is this Spirit testifying along with our own spirit that we are children of God;

To this day, we know, the entire creation sighs and throbs with pain;

We were saved with this hope in view. Now when an object of hope is seen, there is no further need to hope. Who ever hopes for what he sees already?

Now what follows from all this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

No, in all this we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For when God said, I will come about this time and Sara shall have a son, that was a word of promise.

Why, scripture says to Pharaoh, It was for this that I raised you up, to display my power in you, and to spread news of my name over all the earth.

But who are you, my man, to speak back to God? Is something a man has moulded to ask him who has moulded it, "Why did you make me like this?"

No, what it does say is this: ??The word is close to you, in your very mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach).

Now what are we to infer from this? That Israel has failed to secure the object of its quest; the elect have secured it, and the rest have been rendered insensible to it ??8 as it is written, God has given them a spirit of torpor, eyes that see not, ears that hear not ??down to this very day.

I tell you this, you Gentiles, that as an apostle to the Gentiles I lay great stress on my office,

To prevent you from being self-conceited, brothers, I would like you to understand this secret: it is only a partial insensibility that has come over Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in.

This done, all Israel will be saved ??as it is written, The deliverer will come from Sion, he will banish all godlessness from Jacob:

this is my covenant with them, when I take their sins away.

Instead of being moulded to this world, have your mind renewed, and so be transformed in nature, able to make out what the will of God is, namely, what is good and acceptable to him and perfect.

if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in this way you will make him feel a burning sense of shame.

Pay them all their respective dues, tribute to one, taxes to another, respect to this man, honour to that.

And then you know what this Crisis means, you know it is high time to waken up; for Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

Then again, this man rates one day above another, while that man rates all days alike. Well, everyone must be convinced in his own mind;

it was for this that Christ died and rose and came to life, to be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

This is why I have been so often prevented from visiting you.

Such was their decision; and yet this is a debt they owe to these people, for if the Gentiles have shared their spiritual blessings, they owe them a debt of aid in material blessings.

Well, once I finish this business by putting the proceeds of the collection safely in their hands, I will start for Spain and take you on the way.

Faithful is the God who called you to this fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sage, scribe, critic of this world, where are they all? Has not God stultified the wisdom of the world?

This is the God to whom you owe your being in Christ Jesus, whom God has made our 'Wisdom,' that is, our righteousness and consecration and redemption;

We do discuss 'wisdom' with those who are mature; only it is not the wisdom of this world or of the dethroned Powers who rule this world,

None of the Powers of this world understands it (if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory).

And this is what we discuss, using language taught by no human wisdom but by the Spirit. We interpret what is spiritual in spiritual language.

In virtue of my commission from God, I laid the foundation of the house like an expert master-builder. It remains for another to build on this foundation. Whoever he is, let him be careful how he builds.

Let no one deceive himself about this; whoever of you imagines he is wise with this world's wisdom must become a 'fool,' if he is really to be wise.

For God ranks this world's wisdom as 'sheer folly.' It is written, He seizes the wise in their craftiness,

This is how you are to look upon us, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's secret truths.

Now in this matter of stewards your first requirement is that they must be trustworthy.

It matters very little to me that you or any human court should cross-question me on this point. I do not even cross-question myself;

To this very hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and knocked about, we are waifs,

when defamed, we try to conciliate. To this hour we are treated as the scum of the earth, the very refuse of the world!

I do not write this to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as beloved children of mine.

To ensure this, I am sending you Timotheus, my beloved and trustworthy son in the Lord; he will remind you of those methods in Christ Jesus which I teach everywhere in every church.

For my part, present with you in spirit though absent in body, I have already, as in your presence, passed sentence on such an offender as this,

I did not mean you were literally to avoid contact with the immoral in this world, with the lustful and the thievish, or with idolaters; in that case you would have to leave the world altogether.

I say this to put you to shame. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could decide a dispute between members of the brotherhood,

To the unmarried and to widows I would say this: it is an excellent thing if like me they remain as they are.

Well, what I think is this: that, considering the imminent distress in these days, it would be an excellent plan for you to remain just as you are.

I am saying this in your own interests. Not that I want to restrict your freedom. It is only to secure decorum and concentration upon a life of devotion to the Lord.

But remember, it is not everyone who has this 'knowledge.' Some who have hitherto been accustomed to idols eat the food as food which has been really offered to an idol, and so their weaker conscience is contaminated.

He is ruined, this weak man, ruined by your 'enlightened mind,' this brother for whose sake Christ died!

By sinning against the brotherhood in this way and wounding their weaker consciences, you are sinning against Christ.