Acts 24:10-16

Verse 10: “Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself.” Paul also uses captatio benevolentiae (cf. verses 2-3. Latin, ‘winning of goodwill’). He is glad to answer for himself, standing before a man with experience in judgment regarding the Jewish people.

Verses 11-13: Paul wants Felix to clearly understand the circumstances, which have been both vaguely and falsely represented by Tertullus.

• It had been but twelve days since he went up to Jerusalem to worship
• He was worshipping (cf. 21:26-27), rather than in the temple disputing 
• He was not “raising up the people,” that is, promoting sedition (cf. v. 5)
• He was not doing this in the synagogues or in the city 
• His accusers cannot prove the charges they make

Verses 14-15: He “confesses” that his accusers are correct in one thing. He worships the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in a way that the Jewish religious leaders “call heresy.” Paul is convinced that his doctrine and way of worshipping God is the correct one that believes “all things which are written in the law and in the prophets” – in distinction from the faith and practice of both the Pharisees and Sadducees.  Even in this variation, the Pharisees “allow” the faith of hope toward God (and the Sadducees who reject resurrection nevertheless do not reject the Pharisees as true Jews); that is, that “there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.”

Verse 16: “And herein do I exercise myself” – compare Paul’s statement before the council, “I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” To practice toward God what one believes and to project before men what one believes is to “have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” It does not mean that all men will like it, as the Jews who brought charges against Paul obviously did not!