Conclusion of Paul and King Felix.

Taken from:

Discipline and Other Sermons 

(1881 edition)

 by Charles Kingsley

Conclusion:

But it is written Paul reasoned with Felix about judgement to come. We must not too hastily suppose this means he told Felix he was in danger of hell. For that is an argument which Paul never uses anywhere in his writings or speeches, as far as we know them. He never tries, as too many do now, to frighten sinners into repentance by telling them of hell; and therefore we have no right to fancy he did so by Felix.

He told him of judgement to come; and we can guess from his writings what he would have said. That there was a living God who judged the earth always by his Son Jesus Christ, and that he was coming then immediately to punish all the horrible wickedness which was then going on in those parts of the world which Paul knew. Paul always speaks of the terrible judgments of God as about to come in his own days, and we know that they did come.

We know, God forbid a preacher should tell you one-tenth of what he ought to know - that Paul's times were the most horribly wicked the world had ever seen; that the few heathens who had consciences left felt that some terrible punishment must come if the world went on as it was going. And we know that the punishment did come; and that for about twenty years, towards the end of which Paul was beheaded, the great Roman Empire was verily a hell on earth.

If Felix lived ten years more he saw the judgement in a way which could not be mistaken. But did judgement to come overtake him in his life? We do not altogether know. We know that he committed such atrocities, that the Roman Emperor Nero was forced to recall him; that the chief Jews of Caesarea sent to Rome, and there laid such accusations against him that he was in danger of death; that his brother Pallas, who was then in boundless power, saved him from destruction. That shortly afterwards Pallas himself was disgraced, stripped of his offices, and a few years later poisoned by Nero. It is probable enough that when he fell Felix fell with him; but we know nothing of it certainly.

But at least he saw with his own eyes that there was such a thing as judgment to come, not merely thousands of years hence at the last day, but there and then in his own lifetime. he saw the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men. he saw the wicked murdering and destroying each other till the land was full of blood. He saw the Empress-mother Agrippina, who had bee the paramour of his brother Pallas, murdered by her own son, the Emperor Nero; and so judgment came on her. He saw his own brother first ruined and then poisoned; and so judgment came on him.

He saw many a man whom he knew well, and who had been mixed up with him and his brother in their intrigues, put to death himself; and so judgment came on them. And last of all he saw (unless he had died beforehand) the fall of Nero himself - who very probably set fire to Rome, and then laid the blame on the Christians...

God grant that Felix did remember Paul's words. God grant that he trembled once more, and to good purpose; and so repented of his sins even at the last. God grant he may find mercy in that Day.

Paul Before King Felix.

Taken from:

Discipline and Other Sermons 

(1881 edition)

 by Charles Kingsley

And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.”  Acts 24:25

This is a well-known text, on which many a sermon has been preached, and with good reason, for it is an important text. It tells us of a man, who, like too many men in all times, trembled when he heard the truth about his wicked life, but did not repent and mend; and a very serious lesson we may draw from his example.

But even a more important fact about the text is that it tells us what were really the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion in those early times, about twenty-five years, seemingly, after our Lord's death; what St. Paul used to preach about; what he considered was the first thing which he had to tell men.

Let us take this latter question first. About what did St. Paul reason before Felix?

About righteousness (which means justice), temperance, and judgement to come.

I beg you to remember these words. If you believe the Bible to be inspired, you are bound to take its words as they stand. And therefore I beg you to remember that St. Paul preached not about unrighteousness, but righteousness; not about intemperance, but temperance; not about hell, but about judgement to come; in a word, not about wrong, but about right.

I hope that does not seem to you a small matter. I hope that none of you are ready to say, "It comes to the same thing in the end." It does not come to the same thing. There is no use rebuking a man for being bad unless you first tell him how he may become better and give him hope for himself, or you will only drive him to recklessness and despair. You must show him the right road before you can complain of him for going on the wrong one.

But if St. Paul had reasoned with Felix about injustice, intemperance and hell, one could not have been surprised. For Felix was a thoroughly bad man, unjust and intemperate, and seemingly fitting himself for hell.

He had begun life as a slave of the emperor in a court which was a mere stink of profligacy and villainy. Then he had got his freedom, and next, the governorship of Judea, probably by his brother Pallas's interest, who had been a slave like him, and had made an enormous fortune by the most detestable wickedness.

When in his governorship, Felix began to show himself as wicked as his brother. The violence, misrule, extortion and cruelty which went on in Judea was notorious. He caused the high-priest at Jerusalem to be murdered out of spite. Drusilla, his wife, he had taken away from a Syrian king, who was her lawful husband. Making money seems to have been his great object; and the great Roman historian of those times sums up his character in a few bitter words thus: "Felix," he says, "exercised the power of a king with the heart of a slave, in all cruelty and lust."

Such was the wicked upstart whom God, for the sins of the Jews, had allowed to rule them in St. Paul's time and before him St. Paul had to plead for his life.  To be continued...