27-28. “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.”
A person who is blind feels after a thing, seeking to find it by touch. What an indictment of the Athenians, so proud of their intellect and philosophical abilities! Paul could not have been more plain: Their wisdom and philosophy was less than worthless in gaining knowledge of the true God. The reality was that they were reduced to feeling—searching for God as those blinded by their minds (see 2 Cor. 4:44In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)). But in this very thing, the grace of God is clearly proclaimed by the Apostle: “Though He be not far from every one of us.”
What a difference it would make in our daily walk and joy as believers if we really, in faith, laid hold of how close our blessed God is—so close that at any moment we are welcome into His presence before “the throne of grace,” so close that His Spirit dwells within each believer and so close that our blessed Jesus will “never leave . . . nor forsake” His own!
29. “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.”
Their own celebrated poets had at least been able to discern that their origins were not from a piece of slime, as evolution would teach today. But though admitting a Superior Being, the Athenian idolaters thought their puny minds could conceive objects of worship from the artistry of man.
How far below the infinite glory, holiness and dignity of the divine were their foolish, man-made attempts to recreate God in gold and silver images!
30. “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.”
There was a time when God in long-suffering grace overlooked such foolish ignorance because He had not yet been revealed in Son (Heb. 1:22Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; (Hebrews 1:2)). Now all that can be known of God by man has been fully and perfectly revealed in and by the Lord Jesus. “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”
Because of this infinite revelation in His eternal, well-beloved Son, God no longer overlooks man’s self-willed, proud and ignorant thoughts. His command has gone forth, not to build temples and idols to the unknown God in order to worship what cannot be seen, but to repent for what man has done to God when He made Himself to be seen in Son.
31. “Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.”
If mankind will not have the Saviour’s love, they will have His judgment. Solemn thought. How long-suffering He is—how much He desires that man would come now, receiving blessing and pardon—full and abundant.
The principle is just the same for believers. God desires to show grace. His loving heart is to bless; judgment is His strange work. But His children may miss the blessings He would give if they do not walk in self-judgment with the eye of faith firmly fixed on Himself, their hearts in communion with His.
32. “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. ”
That one should arise from among the dead was beyond the ability of their vaunted reasoning to understand or accept. What an apt picture of our natural hearts, so deceitful and wicked (Jer. 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)). In that pinnacle of man’s intelligence (the Athenian Areopagus), God’s wonderful truth is mocked by some and discounted by others. What do we do with the precious Word of God—infinitely beyond our reason—when it reveals to our hearts that which our mind is not capable of understanding? Oh! for a spirit of unquestioned submission!
33. “So Paul departed from among them.”
Solemn fact! Paul might spend “a year and six months” with the worldly Corinthians, turning them by the Spirit from darkness to light. But when man’s mind begins to reason and dispute the indisputable truth of God, Paul will not stay. Vital principle! Honest questions concerning the Person and work of Christ require our greatest patience. Mere intellectual reasoning and debating with the truth of God is not to be encouraged or tolerated.
34. “Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.”
At least one of those lofty reasoners submitted to an infinitely superior truth—as well as a dear sister and others. Thank God for the other—“unknown, and yet well-known”—lights for God in a place of intellectual darkness and superstition. May our light shine brightly for Christ in this dark world!
Chapter 18
1. “After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.”
Leaving those few in Athens to bear testimony there, Paul moves on to preach elsewhere. Eternity will reveal the results of those who heard, believed and preached the gospel in the Areopagus and in the streets of Athens. May we, too, be more faithful in proclaiming the gospel where we are.
2. “And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome,) and came unto them.”
How often have we seen in Acts that when the enemy seeks to get rid of any testimony to the truth of God, greater blessing results. Aquila and Priscilla are, through the edict of Claudius, introduced to the Apostle Paul. What happy times they must have enjoyed together as Paul taught them from the Scriptures! How true—“all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:2828And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28))!
Ed.