The Pulpit Commentary on Acts 23:3

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The human judge in the presence of the Divine.

"Sittest thou to judge me," etc.?.

I. The law of man rests on the Law of God.

1. In its aims.

2. In its execution.

II. The blessing of a faithfully kept and righteously administered system of justice, which, notwithstanding all human infirmities, can be maintained.

III. The bar of human law both a prediction and an evidence of the future judgment. Yet the imperfections of earthly justice remind us that God shall make up all inequalities, and show hereafter perfectly that all justice is love.

IV. The corruption of Jewish Law proved the necessity of a better law, the law of Christ, which is not a despotic law, but "peace, and righteousness, and joy in the Holy Ghost;" not smiting our neighbor, but "bearing one another's burdens."—R.

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