And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttmost of your matter. (23) And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him. (24) And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. (25) And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. (26) He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the more often, and communed with him. (27) But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix' room: and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.
There is somewhat truly awful in the character of Felix, as here given. He had been governor under the Roman emperor in this province many years. Some writers state thirteen. And from what is here said of him, that he had a more perfect knowledge of that way, that is, the Christian way, than Lysias, the chief captain, who sent Paul to him for judgment, or Tertullus, and the other accusers, it should seem that he had informed himself of some of the leading points of the Gospel. This was the more probable, because the event of the conversion of Cornelius, (Acts 10:1) which took place at Caesarea, he must have heard of; and the Church of Christ formed there in consequence thereof, was now under his own government. See Acts 18:22. Philip the Evangelist, also lived under his government, Acts 21:8. So that it was hardly possible Felix could have been ignorant, either of the doctrines of the Gospel, or of the exemplary lives of the followers of the Lord Jesus, Philippians 4:8-9
It appears from history, that this Drusilla, whom Felix had taken to wife, was married at the time he took her to another man, so that he was living in open adultery. Strange that such characters as Felix and Drusilla, should desire to hear anything of the Lord Jesus Christ! And no doubt the motive was more for curiosity or ridicule than seriousness. But whatever they proposed to themselves from Paul's discourse, the effect on Felix's conscience turned out the very reverse, as his trembling manifested. Reader! it is very blessed at times to behold, as in the instance here shewn, how the guilty minds of sinners are alarmed in the dreadful prospect of that judgment to come! It becomes an additional testimony to the faith. The Lord even now doth not leave himself without witness in the hearts of sinners!
But, Reader, do not fail to observe also, how totally different from grace in the soul is this trembling of a guilty conscience, as in the instance of Felix, unawakened by the Holy Ghost. Had the work been of the Lord, like the Jailor at Philippi, when Felix trembled at the apprehension of a judgment to come, like him, though a governor, he would have sprung from his seat, and fell down before his prisoner, and unawed by all around, he would have cried out in words, to the same effect as his, what must I do to be saved? Acts 16:23-34. We hear nothing al the kind from Felix. He trembled for the hour, and the conscience hardened again! like the thaw made by the sun on the frost which freezes again at night.
And it forms an exact correspondence, to such a character, in what followed in Felix's life. Paul had said in his defense, that he had come up to Jerusalem to bring alms and offerings, (Acts 24:17.) Felix concluded, that from the little time Paul had been at Jerusalem, this money could not be all gone. Under this impression he gave liberty for Paul's friends to visit him. And he sent for Paul the oftener to commune with him, but not it should seem about righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come, but with an hope that the poor prisoner would have help from his friends, and would offer him money that he might loose him. But though this attempt of Felix was carried on for two whole years, during which space he found Paul too poor to get anything from, and too honest to purchase a liberty unjustly kept from him by money; at his departure from his government, so regardless was he of all that was right, and so unfeeling to the sufferings of his prisoner, that to gratify the Jews, he left Paul bound. Thus he closed his last act of government with injustice and cruelty. And how he closed his last act of life, to go before that judgment Paul had made him tremble only in describing, is better conceived than expressed. If the Reader would see what the word of God hath said of all such men, he will find some strong representations of their awful departure in Job 21:7-15; Psalms 49:6-14; Isaiah 14:4-18.