Acts 23:1-5

1. Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, “Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.” 2. The high priest Ananias commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth. 3. Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to try me according to the Law, and in violation of the Law order me to be struck?” 4. But the bystanders said, “Do you revile God’s high priest?” 5. And Paul said, “I was not aware, brethren, that he was high priest; for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

Is the safe place in your state, church or organization anything like this high council session?

You should know that by this time relations between the Jewish faith leaders and the increasingly Gentile church was repeatedly pursued in court. It was in the synagogues that we saw the nobility on bith sides, namely, the commitment to hear a person before passing judgment. This makes the scene in Acts 23 a gripping and eyeopening story on what believers can expect in the last days if law is going to be the measure of spiritual realities.