“And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed.”
— Acts 24:25
Context & Key Themes
Acts 24 records Paul’s first formal trial before a Roman governor. Five days after Paul arrives in Caesarea, the high priest Ananias comes down from Jerusalem with elders and a professional orator named Tertullus, hired to present the prosecution’s case. The trial is a study in contrasts. Tertullus opens with elaborate flattery and vague accusations. Paul answers with calm precision. Felix postpones the decision. And then, over the next two years, Felix keeps summoning Paul for private conversations, hoping to hear more about the faith and secretly hoping for a bribe to release him. Paul preaches righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment. Felix trembles. And delays. And keeps delaying until his term as governor ends.
The chapter is about what happens when the gospel meets a man whose conscience is responsive but whose will is captive to the wrong loves. Felix hears the truth. Felix is moved by the truth. Felix never acts on the truth. His example is a warning every reader of scripture should sit with.
The Prosecution
After five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a spokesman, one Tertullus. They laid before the governor their case against Paul.
Tertullus is a professional—a Hellenistic orator hired for his rhetorical skill. His opening statement is a masterpiece of flattery followed by thin substance. Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation, in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude. But to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly.
The flattery is exaggerated. Felix was in fact a ruthless and corrupt governor. The first-century historian Tacitus describes him as a man who exercised the power of a king with the spirit of a slave, and says he indulged in every kind of cruelty and lust. The peace Tertullus credits to Felix was largely Felix’s suppression of rebellions through brutal force. But in a Roman court, flattery was standard procedure. Tertullus is playing his role.
Then the accusations. For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him.
Three charges. Political agitator. Leader of a dangerous sect. Temple desecrator. The first would be a Roman concern—sedition was a capital offense. The second frames Christianity as a heretical Jewish movement. The third, if provable, would give the Sanhedrin grounds to execute Paul under Roman-approved religious law. The Jewish elders confirm the accusations.
Paul’s Defense
When the governor nods to Paul to speak, Paul answers with similar opening courtesy but without flattery. Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense. Just the factual observation that Felix has extensive experience with Jewish affairs. Then Paul gets to the case.
You can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem, and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city. Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me.
Paul’s defense is simple. The timeline does not allow for the accusations. He has been in Jerusalem fewer than two weeks. He has not been observed stirring up any trouble. He has not been caught in any illegal act. The charges are unprovable.
But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
Paul acknowledges the one thing he cannot deny—he is a follower of the Way, the Christian movement his accusers call a sect. But he frames his faith as a continuation of the traditions of Israel. He worships the God of the fathers. He believes the Law and the Prophets. He holds to the resurrection—which his Pharisee accusers also hold, even if the Sadducees among them do not. The Way is not a new religion. It is Judaism in its fulfillment.
I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings. While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple, without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews from Asia—they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation, should they have anything against me. Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them, It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day.
Paul’s defense is airtight. The actual witnesses to the alleged temple defilement—the Jews from Asia who started the riot—are not present to testify. Under Roman law, accusers had to appear in person. The men who could have prosecuted Paul for that specific charge are absent. The charges that remain are essentially theological. And Paul’s position is that the only real issue between him and his accusers is the resurrection.
Felix’s Delay
Felix had a more accurate knowledge of the Way, and he put them off, saying, When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case. Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs.
Luke notes that Felix had a more accurate knowledge of the Way. His wife Drusilla, whom Luke will mention shortly, was Jewish—the youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa I. Through her and through his years of governing Judea, Felix had more exposure to Christianity than the casual Roman official would have had. He knew this was not simply another Jewish faction. He knew the gospel was something distinct.
But knowing the truth does not translate into acting on it. Felix delays. He tells the prosecution he will wait until Lysias the tribune can travel down from Jerusalem with more information. That day never arrives in the narrative. Felix has no intention of actually deciding the case.
Paul is kept in custody but with significant freedom. His friends—Luke among them—are allowed to visit him, care for him, and presumably write letters for him. Paul may have written several of his epistles during this two-year Caesarean imprisonment, though the placement of his letters is debated.
Felix, Drusilla, and the Gospel
After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.
This is one of the most dramatic moments in the book. Felix and Drusilla come to hear Paul speak about faith in Christ Jesus. Paul does not give them a political answer. He gives them the gospel, and he focuses on three particular topics that would have landed with particular force on this couple. Righteousness. Self-control. The coming judgment.
Consider who Felix and Drusilla were. Felix was a freedman—a former slave who had risen to Roman governorship, known for corruption and cruelty. Drusilla was his third wife. She had been married as a teenager to the king of Emesa, but Felix had seduced her away from her husband through the help of a Cypriot magician named Simon. She was the younger sister of the Bernice who will appear in chapter twenty-five. Righteousness meant Felix could no longer pretend his corruption was governance. Self-control meant Drusilla could no longer pretend her marriage was legitimate. The coming judgment meant both of them were accountable to a Judge above Caesar.
Felix was alarmed. The Greek word is stronger than alarmed—it suggests terror, being seized with fear. Paul’s preaching has touched the exact places Felix has been hiding. And Felix’s response is characteristic. Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.
That opportunity, for full repentance, never arrives in the text. Felix will summon Paul many times over the next two years. He will never repent.
Two Years
At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him.
Felix’s motive for the repeated summons is now named. He hoped for a bribe. Paul had just delivered a substantial relief offering to Jerusalem. He was, in the governor’s eyes, a man of resources. Felix keeps calling Paul up because he wants money, and because he is partly fascinated by the gospel. The two motives coexist without contradicting each other in the mind of a man like Felix. He hears the preacher, resists the conviction, and hopes the preacher will eventually buy his own freedom.
Paul never pays. He is innocent and will not purchase a freedom he has not lost legally. Felix waits for a bribe that never comes.
When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.
The two years are up. Felix has been recalled, for reasons the historian Josephus explains—a complaint by the Jewish community in Caesarea over his handling of riots had reached Rome. He will leave office in disgrace. But on the way out, he does one last favor for the Jewish establishment. He leaves Paul in prison for his successor to deal with.
The favor is cruel. Paul has been repeatedly declared innocent of the charges. There is no legal reason to keep him in custody. But keeping him bound placates the Sanhedrin, and Felix wants to leave without that particular headache. So the innocent apostle stays in the cell while the guilty governor sails for Rome.
Reflection
Acts 24 is one of the most theologically and pastorally instructive chapters on the human response to truth. Two men hear Paul preach in this chapter. The first is Tertullus, a professional orator who performs flattery for a governor he probably despises. His speech never touches reality. The second is Felix, a corrupt governor who hears the actual gospel and is alarmed by it but never acts on what he hears.
Felix’s story is a category of its own in scripture. He is not an opponent of the faith. He does not persecute Paul. He is friendly, curious, interested. He summons Paul repeatedly. He listens. He even trembles when Paul preaches righteousness and judgment. And he never converts. The Bible preserves his story as a warning about the person who almost but never does.
The three topics Paul chose for Felix and Drusilla are worth attention. Righteousness. Self-control. The coming judgment. This is Paul’s gospel distilled for a couple whose lives were characterized by unrighteousness, lack of self-control, and denial of accountability. Paul did not give them a sanitized version of the faith. He did not tiptoe around their obvious sins. He preached the gospel directly to the places they most needed to hear it. That is what preaching is supposed to do. It speaks precisely to where the hearer is actually bleeding, not to where the hearer is comfortable.
Felix’s alarm is worth holding. The gospel can move a heart without saving it. Felix felt the weight of what Paul was saying. His conscience registered the truth. And he sent Paul away. The failure was not in the preaching. It was in Felix’s will. He would not surrender what righteousness, self-control, and judgment required him to surrender—his corruption, his adulterous marriage, his posture as Caesar’s representative rather than God’s servant. So he delayed. And the delay became his whole life.
Every reader of this page should ask what we ourselves are delaying. Felix said, Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you. Most of the people who have ever said something like that about the gospel are now dead without having followed through. The opportunity they were waiting for never arrived, because the opportunity was always in the present moment and always being refused. Scripture says, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Felix heard the voice. Felix hardened his heart. The hardening was a daily choice, and it ran out of days.
Paul’s posture through the two years is the other lesson. He did not try to buy his freedom, though he could have afforded it. He did not soften the gospel when preaching to the man who held the keys to his cell. He did not lose patience when Felix kept summoning him for conversations that never produced conversion. He stayed consistent. He was preaching the same gospel in the governor’s residence that he had preached in synagogues and marketplaces across the Mediterranean. His audience changed. His message did not. This is the posture of every faithful believer who finds themselves in protracted circumstances that demand long-term witness. Keep preaching. Do not compromise. Do not despair when the hearer refuses to move. The Lord holds the account, not you.
And notice how the chapter ends. Felix leaves office in disgrace. Paul stays in the cell, legally innocent, ignored for political convenience. The unjust ruler goes home with his record. The faithful servant stays in his chains. This is the way things often look in the short view. But Paul is still in the story. Felix is not. Luke mentions him once more, in passing, and he passes out of scripture entirely. Every Felix eventually passes out of the story. The Pauls, however chained they may look at the moment, are being written into the story the Lord is still telling.
Felix was alarmed. The alarm was real. The failure was not in feeling the alarm but in refusing to let it become repentance. The gospel can still make a man tremble. The question is whether the tremor will become a turning, or whether it will simply pass and the man will go back to his wife, his bribes, and his comfortable cruelty. Paul said what he needed to say. Felix heard what he needed to hear. Only one of them got it right.