Whitewashing

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

WHITEWASHING

Acts 23:1-5

23:1 Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day." 2 At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!" 4 Those who were standing near Paul said, "You dare to insult God's high priest?" 5 Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'"

NIV

It is unlikely that Paul knew that Ananias was actually the high priest as that position was not one of succession as it once was, but now was one of political appointment by the Roman occupiers. It had been many years since Paul would have been among the leadership of the Jewish faith and with his own confession that he did not know, we have to conclude he did not know Ananias was the high priest. But the point here is that Paul, by the very law he was being judged by was violated outside the law. It was Jewish law that a man was considered innocent until all the evidence was heard and then judged accordingly. Having him stuck on the mouth for his words of defense was against the very law he was being accused of breaking. This is why he responded as he did and although after finding out who Ananias was, Paul still did not apologize for his words, but only quoted scripture, which served to show his knowledge of the law. As far as he was concerned they were still a whitewashed wall. That is to say, as we have seen in other scripture the definition of this phrase, they appeared clean or righteous on the outside, but inwardly they were not righteous, other than being self-righteous perhaps. This is where we should take our lesson for the day. Paul said that he felt he had fulfilled his duty to God in all good conscience up to that very day. That is he was a good Jew, a zealot in fact, and now he has been a good Christian. That he lives what he believes, that he is not hypocritical about his faith. We cannot say we trust in God and turn around and trust in the ways of the world. We cannot confess Jesus Christ on the outside and live for self on the inside. We cannot simply look like a good Christian on the outside while being something else on the inside. Living behind a façade simply cannot be tolerated. Paul lived in such a manner so that what people saw is what Paul was. What you see is what you get. That should be how we live our lives. We expect truthfulness in advertising when it comes to the products that we want to buy, but are we truthful in our advertising of who we really are? We simply cannot permit ourselves to whitewash the truth.