A Study of Acts: Paul Describes His Persecution of Christians
Acts 26:9-11, 1 Timothy 1:12-16 - Are you relying on dead reckoning or divine reckoning? Look to Paul as a reason for hope in your salvation!
““So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.”
Acts 26:9-11 NASB1995
I found this interesting and detailed painting online showing the stoning of Stephen. You can clearly see Paul in the background guarding the cloaks as Stephen is martyred. Paul, in his apologia to the entourage, is reflecting back in this passage in Acts 26 about his hostility to the name of Jesus of Nazareth and to His believers. The language is intriguing in that Paul thought to himself that he had to do these things. This is where we get in trouble, folks, if we claim to be following the Will of God. When we “think to ourselves” we are opening the door to the enemy to cast fear, doubt, anxiety, skepticism, faithlessness, anger and other scattered “thoughts and emotions” into our feverish brains that get in the way of or replace what we should be focused on. I liked this commentary from Selwyn Lewis (I couldn’t find any information about this man) on Precept Austin:
The place where we can see life as a whole is in the sanctuary of God, or, if you prefer, in the presence of God. There we are reminded of things we have forgotten or ignored. See how the Good News Bible translates Acts 26:9: "I myself thought that I should do everything I could against the cause of Jesus of Nazareth." Here you see the root of Paul's problem: "I myself thought." And is not that the underlying cause of many of our problems too? We say, "I myself thought ..." instead of asking: "What does God think?"
Sometimes sailors will attempt to establish the position of their ships by estimating the distance and direction they have traveled, rather than by astronomical observation. This is called "dead reckoning." It is sometimes necessary in foul weather, but it is fraught with peril. One mariner has said: "Undue trust in the dead reckoning has produced more disastrous shipwrecks of seaworthy ships than all other causes put together."
There are people who attempt the voyage of life by dead reckoning, but there is no need. God has charted the map for us with loving care in the Scriptures, and our plain duty is to study the chart so that we might become better acquainted with His purposes and His ways. For the better we know the Scriptures, the better we will know God. We cannot ignore the facts of history or science—they help—but if our perspective is not drawn from the Scriptures it will lead us astray. We must not rely on dead reckoning but on divine reckoning.
Paul admits that he locked up many saints in prisons by the authority of the chief priests and that he voted for their deaths. This means that he was likely a voting member of the Sanhedrin, representing his Pharisee beliefs. Enduring Word has a startling theory about Paul:
I cast my vote against them: This clearly implies that Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin, having a vote against Christians who were tried before the Sanhedrin (as Stephen was in Acts 7).
If Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin, it also means that at that time he was married, because it was required for all members of the Sanhedrin. Since as a Christian, he was single (1 Corinthians 7:7-9), it may mean that Paul’s wife either died or deserted him when he became a Christian.
I looked at other sources and found question marks as to whether members of the Sanhedrin were required to be married (there are differing answers, of course) or whether Paul was considered a full-fledged member of this council. In light of Paul’s obvious unmarried state after his conversion, I’m not sure what to think, but it is intriguing. Also, if other Christians were put to death by the Sanhedrin, this was in violation of Roman law (the stoning of Stephen was an illegal act).
Paul also admits to punishing Christians in synagogues and also trying to force them to blaspheme and deny Christ. Later in life, the fact that he may have forced some believers to blaspheme was a great sorrow to him, as noted in this passage from 1 Timothy, because he realized, after his conversion, that he was the blasphemer. He also called himself the greatest of sinners:
“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”
1 Timothy 1:12-16 NASB1995
Paul describes his emotional state during this time is described by him as being so furiously enraged by Christians that he even pursued them in foreign cities! He was not just angry; he was so enraged that this persecution became his obsession. Let’s do a word study on furiously and enraged:
Furiously comes from the Greek adverb περισσῶς or perissōs, which has the following Biblical usages:
beyond measure, extraordinary
greatly, exceedingly
Enraged comes from the Greek verb ἐμμαίνομαι or emmaínomai, means to rage against something or (from Precept Austin) act like a maniac.
Paul saw his earlier self as the “worst of the worst” with his sins of blasphemy, persecution and violent aggression, as noted in the 1 Timothy passage. If you are enraged about something temporal (politics, personal conflicts, religious differences) and you are a believer, then the enemy has filled you with this poison. Rage comes from pride, of course; you are reacting out of insolence and ego. It is ok, by the way, to have righteous anger about injustice and the things that grief God’s heart. I like this commentary from John Piper on Paul being the worst sinner:
I think this is what stirred up the sense of the depth of his arrogance. First, he was sinning against his own destiny, because God had set him apart from his mother’s womb to be an apostle (Galatians 1:15). Second, he was sinning against the greatest Bible knowledge of his time. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, he said in Philippians 3:5. That is, he was a great Bible scholar. He was sinning against all that knowledge.
Third, he was sinning against the nearness, the historical nearness of the historical Jesus. Paul was alive when Jesus, the Son of God, was on planet earth. He knew this was not myth. Hundreds of eyewitnesses to the miracles and the words of Jesus existed. Paul was sinning against great evidence. He was sinning against the beautiful love and mercy of martyrs. Paul was there, face to face with Stephen when he was stoned to death. They laid their garments at his feet (Acts 7:58). He heard Stephen say, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. . . . Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:59–60). He saw that beautiful demonstration of Christlike mercy. He was sinning against all that.
So when Paul considered all that he was sinning against, and that his blasphemy and his persecution were in the face of all that truth and beauty, the insolence, the arrogance, the pride of his own heart was so terrible in his eyes that he pronounced himself the foremost.
NONE BEYOND HIS REACH
And if we wonder, “How could he know that no one was worse?” the ultimate answer is, I think, that Jesus revealed this to him. And this seems right, because this very “firstness” in sin was part of the inspired writing with which God intended to encourage others who despaired that they could never be saved because they were that insolent (almost).
So it seems right to say that God would see to it that Paul realized this, felt this about his own arrogant heart. “You, Paul, are the least deserving of my mercy. So I’m going to save you, so that when you write 1 Timothy, no one will ever be able to say, ‘I am too undeserving.’”
John Piper believes that Jesus revealed to Paul that he was the worst sinner (the foremost) so he could reveal this to us. This gives all of us great hope, because Paul was the least deserving of God’s mercy and yet he was saved!
My next devotional examines Acts 26:12-18, Paul describes his conversion on the road to Damascus.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer;
Dear Lord - Please guide me to rely on divine reckoning and not dead reckoning to steer my life. I also am eternally grateful that even the worst sinner, like Paul, was saved, so I am also saved! There is hope for all who come to You! Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Precept Austin was accessed on 2/2/2025 to review commentary for Acts 26:9-11.
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 2/2/2025 to review the lexicon for furiously and enraged.
John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. For more than thirty years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis. He is author of more than fifty books, and his sermons, articles, books, and more are available free of charge at desiringGod.org. By John Piper. © Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org