Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: August 18

“And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God’s high priest? Then said Paul, I wist not, bretheren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.” ~ Acts 23:4-5

I doubt if there is any monotonous form of suffering more destructive than the suffering that accompanies pride of heart. This “purple stone” verse proves that Paul escaped this form of discomfort. Filled to overflowing with pride in his old life, as Saul of Tarsus, here we see the glorious, almost hilarious freedom from pride available to the love-slave of Jesus Christ.

Standing trial before the Sanhedrin, Paul took his critical abuse in a lovely spirit. He found a way to agree with them and in effect, corrected his own bad form. “Then said Paul, I wist not, bretheren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.” Paul could apologize.

Many people cannot. Pride is the reason. They are simply too aware of themselves to be able to observe themselves as proven wrong in anything. Paul’s attitude of heart as he apologized, is the attitude of his Lord’s heart. He called those who were tormenting him “bretheren.” “I wist not, bretheren …” He was not above them in his own opinion. He knew himself to be “the chiefest of sinners.” He knew nothing among them “save Christ and him crucified.
Therefore, Paul could not be otherwise than humble. He had been made that way by the One who “humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Paul could apologize because he had laid hold of the freedom of this death for his own earthly life:
“I am crucified with Christ … by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”