In our text from Acts this week, chapter 22 verse 30 to chapter 23 verse 11, we see Paul on trial before the Sanhedrin. He shrewdly resists their efforts to judge him by their perception of Jewish law. They even resort to physical abuse in their attempt to find him guilty of some offense for which they can punish him under Roman law.
In verse 23:1 Paul asserts to the priests and council that “I have lived my life with a clear [literally “good”] conscience before God.” That assertion so infuriates the high priest Ananias that in verse 2 he orders Paul to be struck on the mouth. Paul’s temper flares and he responds, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall!” and questions the legality of the order to strike him.
Paul’s outburst in turn leads to a rebuke from others asking how he dared insult the high priest (verse 4). Paul’s reply to that rebuke in verse 5 seems ingenuous, “I did not realize, brothers, that he was the high priest,” followed by a quote from Exodus 22:28 about not cursing a leader of the people. Yet it is difficult to see how Paul could not have known Ananias was high priest, given that Ananias was leading the proceedings and Paul’s obvious acquaintance with the membership of the council demonstrated in what follows regarding the presence of Pharisees and Sadducees.
So it is better to interpret Paul’s denial that he knew Ananias was high priest as sarcasm. Tongue-in-cheek, Paul is saying that he “did not realize” Ananias was high priest because Ananias was not acting like a high priest, i.e., like someone who loves, upholds and observes the law.
Paul’s declaration of his own good conscience stands in stark contrast to Ananias’ hypocrisy in violating the law for treatment of prisoners while supposedly upholding God’s law. Forgiven in Christ and taking pains to maintain a clear conscience, as Paul says later in chapter 24 verse 16, his honesty is transparent. On the other hand, the high priest is described as “whitewashed,” a thin veneer of false cleanliness and light over a cracked and crumbling interior, much like Jesus picture of hypocrites in Matthew 6.
In these days when charges of Christian hypocrisy seem rampant, it is especially important that followers of Jesus be like Paul in “taking pains” to maintain a good and clear conscience before the tribunals of both private and public opinion. We begin with an honest and open appraisal of our own sins and recognition of our need for forgiveness. Beyond that we must with Paul live into and up to that forgiveness in the new life we receive in Christ.