Today’s reading is Acts 23:1-24:27.

Sorry I missed yesterday. It was one of those days. From the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed I was in the middle of something. But, as I encourage everyone, instead of getting behind. We’ll just pick up with today’s assignment. Perhaps we can use Saturday to catch back up.

Today, Acts 23:26-30 smacked me down. Claudius is lying. Okay, I’ll be fair, he’s telling half-truths. But, yeah, he’s lying.

Did you catch what he said, “This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen…”

Wait a second, that’s not how it happened. All of that stuff kind of happened, but that is not the way it really happened. Claudius did not happen upon the Jews trying to kill Paul and rescue him because he learned Paul was a Roman. Rather, he went out because of the turmoil. He didn’t intend to rescue Paul, he intended to arrest him. He thought he might be a rebellious instigator. Claudius didn’t actually find out Paul was a Roman citizen until he was about to interrogate him by whips.

So, everything Claudius said happened…kind of. But not in the order he said it and not they way he said it. We call that lying. 

However, I wonder if Claudius knew he was lying or if he, like I do, deceived himself wanting to put himself in the best possible light. How easily we can do this. We’re telling the story of what happened and, convinced that we are the victim, we subconsciously spin the story to make ourselves look like the hero. I’ve done that too many times. 

Of course, the problem is that’s still lying. Whether we are lying to ourselves and then passing it on to others or just flat lying to others, the outcome is the same. We’re lying. We need to practice rigorous honesty. Psalm 15:1 asks who can dwell with the Lord. Psalm 15:2, 4 demonstrate that only the honest person who speaks the truth in his heart (and to others) and then swears to his own hurt but keeps the commitment anyway will dwell with God. These are principles of honesty. If we want to dwell with God, we have to practice a rigorous honesty.

Let’s be honest even if it hurts.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?