“”Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ‘People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”
Acts 17:22–28

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MARCH 20, 2025

About 500 years before Paul, Socrates made his way to the Areopagus to be tried for beliefs he had spread throughout Athens. Luke’s account may be structured to parallel Socrates’ trial; however, unlike Socrates, Paul came to reveal the true God and gospel to the Athenians.

Just as Paul reached for the shared language and worldview of the Torah while proclaiming Jesus to be the Jewish Messiah, so now he uses the shared philosophy and rhetorical tools of the Greeks and Romans. And still, Paul’s worldview presumes the true and living God of the Hebrews who revealed Himself throughout history. Therefore, he proclaims to them,

 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”
Acts 24–25

Paul’s quotations of Epimenides and Aratus (v. 28) reveal that human knowledge is true as far as it goes. It reveals that the Divine is stamped on each person—an image they cannot escape—and permeates their conscience. Moreover, creation attests to its maker. The missiologist J.H. Bavink wrote, “you cannot pick up a flower without looking God in the eye.” (An Introduction to the Science of Missions, 254)

So, while Paul does not appeal to these men and women through the history of the Hebrew Scriptures, he does appeal to them by the God who set the stage for history in the first place.
Paul reveals that God is not only the Lord of the Jews, but the Lord of the Epicureans and Stoics too. Likewise, he is the Lord of the Christian, the Muslim, the Taoist, the Hindu, the atheist, the agnostic, the nihilist, the Marxist, the Fascist, the Democrat, and the Republican. The list goes on and on—and includes you.

Questions for reflection and discussion:

  • Think about the religions and ideologies that surround you today. How do you think Paul would go about proclaiming the gospel in our culture?
  • Are you familiar enough with the worldview of your neighbors that you can speak with them effectively?
  • Do you know your neighbors personally, so that you understand what matters to them?

 

Church Reading Plan: Exodus 31; John 10