Paul In Athens; Acts 17:15 – 34 Part 6

Church History: Date: A.D. 49-52

All of the natives of Athenians and strangers who came there for their education, spent their time in little else but to either tell or to hear new thing This is why they were inquisitive concerning Paul's doctrine, not because it was good, but because it was new. They were all for conversation. Paul challenges his pupils to give consideration to reading and meditation (1Timothy 4:13,15), but they despised those old-fashioned ways of getting knowledge, and preferred that of telling and hearing. It is true that good company is of great use to a man, and will polish one that has laid a good foundation in study; but that knowledge will be very flashy and superficial if it is gotten by conversation only. They were affected by novel ideas; they were in favor of telling and hearing some new thing. They were for new schemes and new ideas in philosophy, new forms and plans of government in politics, and, in religion, for new god. They meddled in other people's business, and were inquisitive concerning that, and never minded their own. Tattlers are always busy bodies, (1Timothy 5:13). To tell or hear the news concerning the public affairs in our own or other nations, and concerning our neighbors and friends, is of good use now and then; but to become newsmongers, and to spend our time in nothing else, is to lose that which is very precious for the gain of that which is worth little.7

Paul's sermon at Athens was designed as a sermon to heathens. It was intended for those that worshipped false gods, and new little of the true God. To them the scope of their discussion was quite different from what it was to the Jews. In the former case their business was to lead their listeners by prophecies and miracles to the knowledge of the Redeemer, and faith in him; in the latter it was to lead them by the common works of providence to the knowledge of the Creator, and the worship of him. One discourse of this kind we had previously to the rude idolaters of Lystra that deified the apostles (Acts 14:15); the one recorded here is to the more polite and refined idolaters at Athens, and an admirable discourse it is, and every way suited to his auditory and the design he had upon them.

His intention is to bring them to the knowledge of the only living and true God, as the sole and proper object of their adoration. He is here obliged to lay the foundation, and to instruct them in the first principle of all religion, that there is a God, and that God is but one. When he preached against the gods they worshipped, he had no desire to draw them to atheism, but to the service of the true Deity. Socrates, who had exposed the pagan idolatry, was indicted in this very court, and condemned, not only because he did not regard those to be gods whom the city regarded to be so, but because he introduced new demons; and this was the charge against Paul. Now he tacitly agrees to the former part of the charge, but guards against the latter, by declaring that he does not introduce any new gods, but leads them to the knowledge of one God, the Ancient of days.