That “Convenient Season.”
Few texts of Scripture have been so often misquoted and misconstrued as Acts 24:25. The text reads: “As he ‘[Paul] 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.’” Speakers, in nine instances out of ten, and writers very often, quote Felix as saying, “When I have a more convenient ‘season, I will call for thee.” This scripture is habitually made the basis of appeals against procrastination, as tho Felix would convey the idea that at some “more convenient season,” he would heed the warning given by Paul and accept his doctrine. Felix was not expecting or desiring a more convenient season for that purpose. Altho the power of the Spirit in Paul’s words made him tremble, there is no evidence that he had any thought of yielding, but rather that he was determined not to yield. The next verse shows that he sought convenient seasons, and why he sought them: “He hoped also that money should ‘have been given him of Paul, that he might loose ‘him; wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and ‘communed with him.”