The position which the Jews as God’s professed people occupied before an unbelieving world, caused the apostle intense anguish of spirit. How would those heathen officers look upon their conduct,—claiming to be worshipers of Jehovah, and assuming sacred office, yet giving themselves up to the control of blind, unreasoning passion, seeking to destroy even their brethren who dared to differ from them in religious faith, and turning their most solemn deliberative council into a scene of strife and wild confusion such as Roman senators or magistrates would not stoop to engage in. The cause of his God had been reproached, his national religion brought into disrepute.{LP 224.1}

Det standpunkt som øderne, som Guds bekendende folk havde over for den ikke-troende verden, fik apostlen i store åndspinsler. Hvordan kunne disse hedenske embedsmænd betragte deres optræden, - hævde at være tilbedere af Jehova, påtage sig et helligt embede, og alligevel overgive sig til blind koktrol, ufornuftig lidenskab, prøve at endog udslette deres brødre som dristede sig til at skille sig ud fra dem i religiøs tro, og vende deres mest højtidelige velovervejdede råd til en kampscene og vild forvirring, som at romerske senatorere eller magistranter ikke ville bøje sig for. Guds sag var blevet til skamme, hans religion var bragt i vanry.