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Most of us are suckers for affirmation. After all, we tend to sustain a fairly high view of ourselves, and so it pleases and reaffirms us whenever someone else seems to agree. We like to be around affirming people, whose company we find much more agreeable than those who are either always talking about themselves, making snide or critical comments, or gossiping about others. Something in the human psyche responds positively to affirmation, and that’s not just true of believers in Jesus Christ. B. F. Skinner tried to build a whole psychological theory on his observations of the way people gravitate toward choices, situations, and people who “reward” them. If we can learn to reward people with genuine and sincere affirmation, we may find that such an approach can soften some of their hardness toward what they regard as our strange truth.
This is what Paul did in his opening remarks to the philosophers and men of Athens. Rather than begin at once to regale his audience with his testimony or a torrent of Scriptures, he started where they were, affirming their interest in matters religious. The people of our disenchanted age may not be especially religious, but if, through conversation, careful listening, and developing relationships, we’ve gotten to know them, we can always find something important to them which we can affirm, and which can serve as a bridge to more important matters. Paul commented on specific aspects of the religious propensities of the Athenians, each of which was true, and each of which would have been received with satisfaction. He noted, first, that religion pervaded every aspect of their lives.
For a good witness to that, look at the way Augustine outlines the complex and thorough religious life of the Romans of his day in City of God. These people had gods, rituals, and particular practices for just about anything you can imagine. Roman and Greek religion presented a curious combination of trying to placate deities and manipulate them at one and the same time. So, if you wanted the favor of the gods in every part of your life, you needed to make sure that you were on the good side of whatever god was overseer of that area, so that he or she would grant whatever you wished. You’d keep the god’s image on your mantle, drop a flower or coin at his roadside altar, speak kindly to his priest, and maybe even offer up a prayer from time to time. And this, not to a few gods, but dozens, all day long.
Further, Paul demonstrated working familiarity with Athenian religion, commenting both on the objects of their devotion and the practices they pursued in their religious lives. He didn’t dismiss their pantheon of deities and plethora of devotions; instead, he used these to ingratiate himself with them, in a sincere and loving manner. In the process, he built a bridge for the big truck he was preparing to drive right into their midst. His example is instructive to us: take people seriously, listen carefully, affirm where you can, and look to find a bridge for larger issues of truth and life. This takes patience and sincerity, but if we truly love those who consider our Gospel as strange or foreign, we’ll go the extra mile to find something to affirm, and use that as a way of moving toward more affirming – albeit more demanding – matters still.
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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Strange Truth
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