Courageous Conviction, Part 2: Rights and Arguments

The call of the Gospel is that followers of Jesus obey Christ and love their neighbors, even to the point of laying down their own lives. Yet, this does not mean that they must be naive and not use the means necessary to protect one's rights and defend the Gospel. Paul is incredibly shrewd after his arrest, by leveraging his Roman citizenship, putting Roman soldiers who beat him up without a trial in a really bad place, and giving Paul greater freedom to proclaim Christ. He also plays the political game well with the Jewish leaders, pitting the two major religious tribes against each other. Paul shows us here that there are times for Christians to stand for their rights, asking those in power to protect freedoms that will provide means to preach Christ and protect human flourishing. And, the central freedom to be defended is the freedom of religion and speech. A free church in a free state creates the best option for human flourishing and for the proclamation of the Gospel.