Find the Good to Commend
by Edwin Crozier
As I see it, Paul does one of the most surprising things ever in Acts 22:3. At the end of the previous chapter, some Jews from Asia stirred up a crowd that seized Paul, dragged him out of the temple, and was about to kill him. Some Roman soldiers saw the disturbance and intervened, saving Paul’s life. The Roman tribune arrested Paul (talk about victim blaming). The crowd was so violent that Paul actually had to be carried by the soldiers to protect him from the crowd. Paul asked the tribune if he could address the crowd. Surprisingly, the tribune granted permission.
Then Paul began: "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day" (Acts 22:3 ESV).
Did you catch the surprising thing? The crowd was full of Paul’s enemies. They were shouting that Paul be killed. He was being falsely accused. He was being threatened. He was arrested without cause. But when he spoke to the people, instead of calling them names, making counter-accusations, or lashing out, he commended their zeal for God. He didn't just commend it; he connected with it. “We’re alike,” he said. “We both are zealous for God.”
Listen, Paul didn’t compromise. Paul stood firm on the truth. If people needed to be called sinners, Paul called them sinners. If folks distorted the truth, he rebuked them to their faces, sometimes in front of other people. But this little tidbit in Acts 22 is often overlooked. Paul didn’t treat his opponents as one-dimensional, monolithic enemies. He didn’t act like those who disagreed with him, even hated him, were simply bad guys who needed to be summarily repudiated for every aspect of their being.
He looked for the good he could commend.
While he knew their accusations were false, he knew they came from a desire to glorify God. So he commented on that.
This seems to me to be missing from a great deal of disagreements across the board today. No matter the disagreement, whether it is relational, political, or spiritual, we quickly castigate the opponents and then filter everything through the opponent lens. They have no good qualities. They’re the enemy. Paul didn’t do that.
These were enemies. They were attacking. But he didn't just want to preach the gospel to them; he also worked hard to find good in them that he could commend.
May we learn to do the same.
