“Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’” Acts 17:28
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Paul continued to press his point that no god worth his salt could be reduced to an image, housed in a temple or kiosk, or in any way be dependent upon men. That would be a strange way of thinking about the gods we seek to placate and manipulate to our advantage, wouldn’t it? If they’re so puny and helpless, how can they possibly be worthy or our devotion? We can imagine the light going on in a few heads out there in the audience: “Well, I never thought about it like that.” But then, before the Athenians could begin to voice an objection or a defense – “That’s just your opinion!”, for example – Paul plunked down two philosophical trump cards designed to strengthen his line of argument. Quoting from two Greek poets, he bolstered his own view of God, and of the strangeness of the Athenians’ view, by insisting that God is vaster and more powerful than ever to require the services of men.
Paul’s message, indirectly, is this: It’s silly, if you think about it, to consider that we might, by our many different works, earn favor with gods who don’t really need us. And to reinforce that notion in familiar terms, Paul found two allies among the enemy camp, two of their own philosophers, who had said essentially the same thing. The very thinkers the Athenians admired, to whom they looked for wisdom on all matters of life and faith, agreed with Paul. Now if our gods don’t need us, yet they require all these various duties from us, then we are little more than their slaves. We have no freedom but must live our lives in abject fear and groveling, daily devoting ourselves to satisfying the petty demands of fickle deities who may or may not accept our offerings and oblations and grant us the favor we seek. Does that make sense? Is this the way a proud, free people ought to act? The really strange truth, Paul was trying to show, lay in the views of those who dedicate so much of their time and attention fussing about over deities that don’t need them but delight in bullying them around for their own pleasure.
You don’t have to look too hard to find the same to be true of your unbelieving friends. Ask them how they can be so sure that their approach to life is true, and they’ll probably answer, “Well, everybody has to decide such matters for themselves.” But how do they know that? And how can they be sure their views are the right ones, even for them? After all, secular philosophers and scientists continually insist that all truth is tentative and relative. None of us can be sure of anything ultimately, since truth is always susceptible to new discoveries and changing paradigms of thought. As you become familiar with the views of contemporary thinkers, you’ll stumble across such statements from time and time again. Don’t be hesitant to point out to your unbelieving friends that there’s no support on their side for the view that whatever they choose to believe about how to they ought to live is true and reliable. In a disenchanted age, men are left only with their best ideas and strongest hopes, and the testimony of the leading lights of this age is that you can’t take any of that to the bank.
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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