Paul: Foot-In-Mouth Disease

Acts 23:1-5 (NLT)

¹ Gazing intently at the high council,^" Paul began: “Brothers, I have always lived before God with a clear conscience!” ² Instantly Ananias the high priest commanded those close to Paul to slap him on the mouth. ³ But Paul said to him, “God will slap you, you corrupt hypocrite! What kind of judge are you to break the law yourself by ordering me struck like that?”

⁴ Those standing near Paul said to him, “Do you dare to insult God’s high priest?”

⁵ “I’m sorry, brothers. I didn’t realize he was the high priest,” Paul replied, “for the Scriptures say, ‘You must not speak evil of any of your rulers.’”

Okay, this is not going to be anything especially revelatory or some deep spiritual insight. I just want to point out that we all say things we shouldn't say, and that there is a right way and a wrong way to deal with it.

For instance, have you ever been in a situation where you are arguing with someone and you are trying to be an adult, but the other person is just making you more and more angry? What happens? Well, if you're like me, you snap and say something you shouldn't which just nulls and voids any logical argument you were trying to make.

I am the oldest of four kids, so when we were growing up--needless to say--we all got into fights from time to time. My younger siblings would inevitably be mad and screaming and I would be trying to keep my cool to win the debate. However, little kids don't really listen when you are trying to kill them with logic, so what could I do? Inevitably, I would hit them. All of a sudden all my credibility was out the window, and whatever point I was trying to make was instantly clouded by the moment I crossed the line with violence--even though up to that point, I was clearly the most mature.

This is a weird connection to make, but I see something strangely similar with Paul and the Sanhedrin. The high priest goes so far as to slap Paul in the face--a very condescending gesture--and what does Paul do? He snaps. He calls the priest a "corrupt hypocrite." The King James translates this as "whited wall." Matthew 23:27 gives us some insight into what exactly this insult means:

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity."

So, no matter how immature it was for the high priest to slap Paul in the face, Paul was the one on trial and the one who was supposed to be standing up for "the Way" (the N.T. term for what we call "Christianity"). I just think it's funny that Paul was expected to be the bigger person, even though Ananias was the high priest. True, Paul didn't actually know that he was insulting the high priest, but once he found out, he immediately apologized.

Anyways, what I get from this story is that, look . . . we all say things that are mean in a moment of anger and we lose our credibility from time to time, but look at Paul's example. He screwed up, but then he realized what he'd said and apologized--even though he'd just been slapped in the mouth, which is arguably a greater insult. As Christians, we need to realize that we need to be more mature than other people, so even if we screw up, we can still apologize--even if we're the ones who have suffered the greater wrong.

I wanted to leave it there, but I started thinking of another point. Why was it okay for Christ to say these things to the Pharisees in Matthew, but not okay for Paul to say what he did before the council? I mean, honestly, both Paul and Christ had valid reasons to be calling people hypocrites. I think it has to do with the differences of their situations. I mean, I'm sure the Pharisees were offended with Christ's words too, but the difference with Paul was that he was on trial at that point, and maybe should have guarded his mouth. Notice the difference with how Christ acted when He finally was on trial, and I think you'll see the brilliance in Christ's meekness.

Anyways, we might not be able to act perfectly in every situation like Christ, but at least we have the option of apologizing like Paul did.

(The picture came from: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.breadwig.com/uploads/sketches/000656-apostle-paul-cartoon-comic.breadwig.com.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.breadwig.com/2008/02/16/paul/&usg=__X07P319XthnCLPNx2JQhiFXUYbc=&h=700&w=250&sz=55&hl=en&start=0&sig2=HF9HHy3UynxEu7DwEl7xJA&zoom=1&tbnid=tOLvSrUo_igRqM:&tbnh=151&tbnw=54&ei=4F6_TNPqFMLsOYKcnB4&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dapostle%2Bpaul%2Bcartoon%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D426%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=119&vpy=-57&dur=6869&hovh=376&hovw=134&tx=88&ty=170&oei=lV6_TKjrK4O0lQf548jkBw&esq=3&page=1&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0)