Why Exercise Freedom?

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A significant portion of the book of Acts follows the Apostle Paul and his missionary journeys. Clearly, certain patterns repeatedly emerge.

One such pattern is Paul’s use of his rights as a Roman citizen.

You are likely aware that Roman citizenship in the first century was a privileged legal status.

It granted individuals a variety of benefits, including the right to own property, enter contracts, and participate in civic life.

Beyond those privileges, citizenship also provided important legal protections. For example, a Roman citizen could not legally be beaten, flogged, or executed without due process.

Those privileges, particularly the protections, become especially interesting when one considers Paul’s life and ministry.

There were three specific instances in which Paul exercised his rights as a Roman citizen.

Philippi

The first was at Philippi.

Acts 16 records Paul delivering a slave girl from demon possession – an event that angered her owners because they lost a lucrative source of income.

Their anger stirred up a mob that ultimately put pressure on city leaders, which led to Paul and Silas being beaten and put into prison.

The next day, apparently believing Paul and Silas had learned their lesson, the city leaders sent word that they could be released and quietly leave town.

It was then that Paul revealed that he and Silas were Roman citizens, and that they had been unlawfully beaten and imprisoned without a trial.

Furthermore, Paul insisted that if the authorities wanted them released, they would need to come personally and escort them out.

Understanding the seriousness of their mistake, the city officials were afraid (Acts 16:38), and responded immediately. They came personally and released Paul and Silas exactly as Paul had demanded.

Jerusalem

The second instance occurred nearly a decade later, after Paul’s final missionary journey.

Acts 21 reveals that Paul was arrested in Jerusalem after being falsely accused by the Jews of profaning the temple and inciting a riot.

He was seized and beaten by a violent crowd of Jews who meant to kill him (Acts 21:31), and would have, had Roman soldiers not intervened.

Unable to determine the cause for the uproar, the Roman commander ordered Paul to be scourged, or flogged, as a means of interrogation to get Paul to talk.

But as they bound Paul and stretched him out over the whipping post, for the second time Paul exercised his rights, and asked the centurion a simple question:

“Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?” (Acts 22:25)

That simple announcement of his rights caused that rough and tough Roman commander great fear, as he knew he had bound Paul unlawfully (Acts 22:29).

Caesarea

Fast forward two years later, and we read of the third instance.

Because of the arrest at Jerusalem, Paul was forced to stand trial before Governor Felix at Caesarea. Felix knew Paul was innocent, but was too fearful of the Jewish leaders to set him free.

Eventually, Felix was replaced by Festus, and Paul found himself before another governor who recognized his innocence yet lacked the courage to set him free. Instead, Festus suggested moving the proceedings back to Jerusalem.

Paul knew that would have been a foolish move that would have resulted in anything but a fair trial.

So, he exercised his rights as a Roman once more, and requested his case be removed from the lower courts and be brought directly before Caesar.

And in yet another example of the significance of Roman citizenship, Festus had no choice but to grant Paul approval.

An Obvious Lesson?

Those are three clear-cut, undeniable instances in which Paul used the rights afforded to him by the sovereign nation in which he was a citizen.

Based on that precedent, it would be easy to conclude then that the obvious lesson is that Christians should exercise the rights afforded to them by the governments under which they live.

And I would agree with that conclusion.

We should thank God for the freedoms we enjoy and should not feel guilty for lawfully exercising them.

However, if that is the only lesson we glean from observing Paul use his rights, we are missing half the picture.

Because the fact is, we have as many – perhaps even more – instances in which Paul chose not to exercise his rights.

At Philippi, he could have revealed his citizenship when he was first apprehended, before the beating and imprisonment, rather than after.

The same could be said of his near-beating at Jerusalem.

He could have told the soldiers arresting him that he was a Roman long before they chained him and began to stretch him across a whipping post.

As for his trial at Caesarea, as soon as he knew Felix wasn’t going to release him, he could have appealed to Caesar then, rather than sitting in prison for two years.

Paul informs us in 2 Corinthians 11:25 that he was beaten three times with rods – a reference to the same type of Roman beating received in Philippi.

The beating at Philippi accounts for only one of those occasions. That means there were at least two additional instances when Paul suffered a Roman beating that he may have been able to avoid by asserting his citizenship.

But he did not.

So what do we make of all this?

How did Paul decide when to use his rights and when to refrain from using them?

The answer seems clear.

For Paul, the issue was never simply freedom for freedom’s sake.

For Paul, the metric was always: Will this advance the gospel?

That mindset was evident throughout his ministry.

In 1 Corinthians 9:19 Paul wrote, “… though I be free from all [men], yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.”

Just a few verses later, Paul said, “And this I do for the gospel’s sake …” (1 Corinthians 9:23).

Advancing the gospel was Paul’s driving motivation.

If his freedom advanced the gospel, he appealed to his freedom.

If his bonds or enduring suffering advanced the gospel, he embraced that as well.

A Challenging Reminder

As I have reflected on this, I have been quite challenged and convicted. It has forced me to consider why I value my freedom so much.

While there are certainly good and proper reasons to cherish freedom, I must admit that my appreciation for it is often rooted more in personal comfort and convenience than in God's purposes.

I’m convinced that we, in America, enjoy the freedoms we do, unlike anywhere else in the world, for two primary reasons.

One, our support for Israel. (That’s a whole other blog post).

Two, because God in His sovereignty knew this nation would be a hub for worldwide evangelism unrivaled the world over.

Despite our problems and the great need for the gospel here, the United States is still the largest missionary-sending nation in the world.

It would be difficult to ignore how God has used the unique freedoms enjoyed in America to carry the gospel to the nations.

In that sense, our freedoms serve the same ultimate purpose as Paul's Roman citizenship – they are tools to be used for the advancement of the gospel.

So I offer this as a reminder to us all, especially with the celebration of our 250th year of freedom just around the corner.

Let us be thankful for our freedoms, enjoy them, exercise them, and defend them.

But let us first and foremost be mindful of why we have our freedoms, and may we never become so focused on preserving them that we forget their greatest purpose.

May we use our earthly freedoms to lead others to true freedom that can only be found in Jesus Christ.

Earthly freedoms come and go, but freedom in Christ is eternal.

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