Daily Thought

Whilst waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him at Athens, Paul did not spend his time admiring the grandeur of the heathen temples. Instead, he saw the spiritual blindness that engulfed the city and ‘his spirit was stirred in him’, v. 16.

Athens was the cultural centre of the world; its citizens spent their time in propounding or listening to the latest philosophy. Sadly, they had not appreciated that ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Ps. 111. 10, and their vaunted knowledge left them spiritually as dark as night. Despite the city being very religious and revering deities of all kinds, Paul discovered an altar ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD’ and he used that inscription as the starting point for his message.

He began by asserting that God is the creator and as such He is transcendently greater than all creation, and cannot be contained in temples made by men. God intended that man should seek after Him, and His handiwork is an eloquent testimony to His existence, and a revelation of His attributes. He has not left Himself without witness in that ‘he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons’, Acts 14. 17, and in that sense He is ‘not far from every one of us’, 17. 27. Alas, sin blinded the minds of those it held in bondage and instead of men worshiping God they produced gods of their own imagination, fashioning them out of gold, silver, or stone.

Until Christ came, God dealt patiently with such ignorance and generally He did not move in judgement on idol worshippers. However, following the full revelation of Himself in Christ, man’s ignorance is no longer excusable. In contrast to the past, God now ‘commands all men everywhere to repent’, v. 30 NKJV, because there is coming a time of judgement and the Judge has already been appointed. Men may have crucified Jesus, but this will not prevent Him being the Judge, because God overturned men’s actions in raising Him from the dead.

How thankful we should be that the goodness of God led us to repentance, turning us from darkness to light! For us the day of judgement holds no terror, for ‘there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus’, Rom. 8. 1.