After he stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. When he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him that they could not prove. Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.”
Imagine being able to say, as Paul does in the above passage, “I have not committed any offense.” He has not committed an offense agains the Law, against the Temple rules, or against Caesar. We might think that Paul forgot one of his own truths he wrote (or, would write, depending on the date of the book of Romans):
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Paul, in the above case, is not speaking in a spiritual sense. He is standing before the Roman authorities, falsely accused of breaking one of the man-made laws of the rule of men. He has NOT committed any offense against them. Paul certainly is the first to claim he is a sinner:
1 Timothy 1:15 (ESV)
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
But, in the case of man to man offense, Paul is innocent. That is how we should live our lives. We should live in such a way we can say that we do not cause offense to man. Of course, that comes because we cause no offense before God. As we walk pure with God we can walk in power toward men. One chapter back, as Paul made his defense before a different Roman leader, he stated:
Acts 24:14-16 (ESV)
But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.
We are to live our lives in such a way that we strive to live at peace with God and man. In the conclusion of the book of Hebrews the writer sums up the book with this statement:
Hebrews 12:12-14 (ESV)
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
We are to strive to live our lives in such a manner that if the world would bring us to judgment we can say with Paul, “I have not committed any offense.”
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