Paul, had lost it...Acts 23:1-5

        In Acts 23:1-5,  Paul, he was required to speak on his own behalf. He started by addressing the council in friendly words, calling them men and brethren. Then he immediately sought to justify himself in their eyes. He claimed that his manner of life had left his conscience free of any guilt toward God. In this brief statement he was altogether denying the accusation of his enemies that he was a traitor to God and to the faith..Without giving Paul a chance to say another word, the high priest ordered some men nearby to rebuke him by striking him on the mouth. It was not the first blow that Paul ever received, but it was the first to inflame him as this one did. Here he stood in the highest court of his nation among the spiritual leaders of his people. Here, of all places, he should have been treated with simple justice. And here he stood as an innocent man. Therefore, in this court that prided itself on being a bastion of the law of God, he should have been acquitted of any wrongdoing. Indeed, he should have received something far better than mere acquittal. As God's spokesman to the world of gentiles, he should have received acclaim. After his years of toil for God, his return to the Sanhedrin, where he had once been a promising young member, should have been a joyous homecoming. But it was far from that. Instead, his brethren looked down on him as a despicable criminal. Paul found such treatment hard to accept, (Rom. 9:3), he was wounded to the core.

He responded with anger, but it was anger energized by pure disappointment and grief,we must understand that Paul's last visit to Jerusalem was out of God's will, even the greatest man of God cannot afford to ignore God's direction, he suffered all the rejection and adversity and all the loss of freedom to serve God, he found it impossible to present a good testimony for Christ, because everything he did was in the flesh, not in the Spirit. . He lashed out at the man who ordered the blow and called him a whitewashed wall. He meant that the man was a hypocrite, looked good on the outside, but inside he was full of corruption. Paul pronounced a fearful judgment upon him, saying that God would smite him for his shameful attack upon him.

In this season of COVID-19, you will see the outburst  of anger   and frustration. Everywhere someone is going off, Paul’s lapse into ungodly behavior before the Sanhedrin is full of lessons for us. One is that nobody should think he has enough credit with God or enough good works on his record to risk disregard of God’s will. Another is that when men abuse us, we must restrain the fleshly impulse to fight back. We must show them the face of Christ—a face softened by long-suffering, gentleness, and love. Then Paul went so far as to acknowledge that he himself had disobeyed the law, for the law forbade any member of the nation to speak evil against his rulers. He even quoted the command that he had broken: "Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people" (Exod. 22:28).