Acts 24:26 He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: why he sent for him the oftener… Felix proved utterly ignoble. His reasons for leaving a man prisoner whom he knew to be altogether innocent, are base. "Willing to do the Jews a pleasure." "Hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul." Felix is stamped as (1) a time-server, and (2) as a corrupt judge. Felix, well knowing how the Christians aided one another in distress, and possibly having some information of the funds with which St. Paul had been recently entrusted, and ignorant of those principles which make it impossible for a true Christian to tamper by bribes with the course of the law, might naturally suppose that he had here a good prospect of enriching himself. Nothing so quickly and so utterly debases a man as the cherished spirit of covetousness. This, however, is a somewhat unusual form and expression of the many-sided evil. Olshausen says, "The sword of God's Word pierced deep into the heart of Felix, but for this very reason he suddenly broke off the conference. But his moral baseness betrayed itself strikingly in this, that he could still hold fast his prisoner for the mere purpose of obtaining money for his release, yea, that at his departure from the province, he left him in prison, out of complaisance to the Jews." Illustrate (1) that Felix knew the right; (2) but that, nevertheless, he did the wrong; and (3) that the love of money in part explains his choosing the wrong. The following incident may be helpful in the illustration of this third point: - "A case was tried before a young cadi at Smyrna, the merits of which were these. A poor man claimed a house which a rich man usurped. The former held his deeds and documents to prove his right; but the latter had provided a number of witnesses to invalidate his title. In order to support their evidence effectually, he presented the cadi with a bag containing five hundred ducats. When the day arrived for hearing the cause, the poor man told his story, and produced his writings, but could not support his case by witnesses; the other rested the whole case on his witnesses, and on his adversary's defect in law, who could produce none; he urged the cadi, therefore, to give sentence in his favor. After the most pressing solicitations, the judge calmly drew out from under his sofa the bag of ducats which the rich man had given him as a bribe, saying to him very gravely, 'You have been much mistaken in the suit, for if the poor man could produce no witnesses in confirmation of his right, I myself can produce at least five hundred.' He then threw away the bag with reproach and indignation, and decreed the house to the poor plaintiff." - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him. |
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