Acts 25:1-12 | Bondage to Bitternessنموونە

Self-Inflicted Bondage

Acts 25 picks up with Paul still in prison in Caesarea after two years. Governor Festus has replaced Governor Felix. Festus has gone up to Jerusalem from Caesarea and is greeted by the chief priests and Jewish leaders, who initially had Paul unjustly imprisoned while Felix had been governor. Not satisfied that Paul was in prison,

They requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way (Acts 25:3, NIV).

Their plot was foiled the first time. Here they are once more, trying it again!

What leads people to continue to seek revenge after two years? What kind of hate leads someone to continue plotting that long after?

The past two years hadn’t mellowed them out; it had done the opposite. Their unresolved anger towards Paul festered and made them bitter to the point that they were still planning to murder him. They wanted Paul to pay, but they were the ones actually paying the cost: lives marked by bitterness, resentment, and hate.

When we’re wronged, it’s tempting to want that person to pay. If we’re honest with ourselves, we might realize that the debt we think we’re owed is never sufficient or that the scales of justice cannot be balanced. Trying to balance them leads to a self-inflicted bondage God never intended for us.

These religious leaders had distorted their measure of justice and were blind to their own error. Sin does that. And when it does, it enslaves. Paul was behind bars, but wasn’t in bondage. The chief priests and Jewish leaders weren’t imprisoned, but they were in bondage to something worse.

What has you in bondage? What sins are seeking to enslave?

Prayer

Ask God to free you from the bondage of sin. Pray for him to break you out of your self-inflicted prison to live in the freedom of the resurrected Jesus.