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Paul Retained a Prisoner.
v. 23. And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him.
v. 24. And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.
v. 25. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.
v. 26. 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.
v. 27. But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix' room; and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.
The case of Paul had been continued indefinitely; he was retained in custody only for reasons of expediency and policy on the part of Felix. But the procurator at least had enough humaneness left to make Paul's confinement as light as possible. He gave definite orders to a certain centurion to keep him in custody, thus making the officer responsible for his safekeeping. At the same time, however, he should be given indulgence, should be permitted a certain freedom of movement, and no one of his own people, the members of the local Christian congregation and others, should be hindered from serving him. Any kind of personal service, even in small matters, was allowed, the indulgence extending as far as the centurion might consider safe. Sometime after, Felix with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess, came, probably having just returned to the city after a visit elsewhere, and sent for Paul. It was not a formal hearing, but a private interview, very likely because Drusilla had heard the Christian religion spoken of on so many occasions and wanted to hear this great teacher of that sect tell something about the faith in Christ. This Drusilla was the youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa I, and had been married at the age of fourteen to Azizus, the king of Emesa. Felix became acquainted with her, became enamored of her ravishing beauty, and, with the help of a Jewish sorcerer, named Simon of Cyprus, seduced her from her husband, with whom, according to the account of Josephus, she had led a very unhappy life. So she was now, although married to Felix according to Roman law, yet, according to the Law of God, living with him in an adulterous union. Where the Word of God does not reign, every form of sin and shame is freely indulged in, as the lust of the flesh dictates. Paul willingly complied with the request and, in accordance with the order of the Lord, first exposed the sin and its condemnation. He spoke of righteousness, of the absolute need of purity in the sight of God, of sinlessness before His judgment; he spoke of temperance, of the mastery of self, of the necessity of keeping the lusts and desires of the flesh under proper control; he spoke of the future judgment, when all these matters would be revealed before the eyes of the omniscient God. "He spoke of justice to a judge, of continence to a prefect whose recklessness and licentiousness had made him notorious, and of the future judgment to a man who needed that he should be reminded of his, future account. " The result was that Felix was filled with fear. "As he glanced back over the stained and guilty past, he was afraid. He had been a slave in the vilest of all positions, at the vilest of all epochs, in the vilest of all cities. He had crept with his brother Pallas into the position of a courtier at the most morally degraded of all courts. He had been an officer of those auxiliaries who were the worst of all troops. What secrets of lust and blood lay hidden in his earlier life we do not know; but ample and indisputable testimony, Jewish and pagan, sacred and secular, revivals to us what he had been-how greedy, how savage, how treacherous, how unjust, how steeped in the blood of private murder and public massacre during the eight years which he had now spent in the government, first of Samaria, then of Palestine. There were footsteps behind him; he began to feel as though 'the earth were made of glass. '" And it is doubtful whether Drusilla felt more comfortable than her "husband" during the address of Paul. Felix had enough; he told Paul that he might go for the present; at a convenient season he would call him again. But that convenient season apparently never came. That is a favorite phrase of sinners in high and low places to this day: at some later day, after they have thoroughly enjoyed all the lusts which the world has to offer, then they will change their lives. And in the meantime sin takes possession of their hearts so completely that they cannot shake its fetters off; the convenient moment never comes, and they are lost. How little the heart of Felix had been touched by the earnest words of Paul is shown by the fact that he hoped to be given some bribe money from Paul. It was either that the circumstances of Paul had improved since the probable death of his father, or that the procurator believed the Christians would readily collect enough money for their leading teacher in order to relieve him from the disgrace of imprisonment. With this idea in mind, he sent for Paul frequently and conversed with him, very likely dropping a hint now and then as to a method by which he could soon effect his release. But Paul refused to become a party to a crime, and was deaf to all insinuations and suggestions, open and veiled. In this way two years were soon consumed, when Felix was recalled by Nero, about A. D. 59, his successor being Porcius Festus. And the very last act of Felix was an injustice to Paul, for since he desired to gain favor with the Jews for the event of a return to his position, he left Paul in custody at Caesarea. Wherever there are unscrupulous officials in public or private life, they will be found to be time-servers, always ready to yield favors at the expense of others, and to place their own conduct in the most favorable light. The fact that innocent people may thus be harmed, apparently does not enter into their reckoning. But the government of the exalted Christ goes on in spite of all such miserable subterfuges and tricks.
Summary.Paul defends himself against the charges of the Jews as preferred before Felix through their attorney Tertullus, and his case is continued indefinitely, he being retained in custody even when Felix is recalled.