Acts 17:26-27 - You'll Never Be Smart Enough
- Chad Werkhoven
- Jul 8
- 5 min read
You'll never be smart enough to find God on your own. Thankfully, He found you.
Acts 17:16-30 (NIV)
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 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. 23 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.
24 “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. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 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. 27 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. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
Canons of Dordt
Article 4: The Inadequacy of the Light of Nature
There is, to be sure, a certain light of nature remaining in all people after the fall,
by virtue of which they retain some notions about God, natural things, and the difference between what is moral and immoral,
and demonstrate a certain eagerness for virtue and for good outward behavior.
But this light of nature is far from enabling humans to come to a saving knowledge of God and conversion to him—
so far, in fact, that they do not use it rightly even in matters of nature and society.
Instead, in various ways
they completely distort this light, whatever its precise character,
and suppress it in unrighteousness.
In doing so all people render themselves without excuse before God.
Summary
Things hadn't been going well for Paul. In each of the recent cities he's visited, he either ended up in jail or run out of town by a riotous mob, angry that his preaching of the gospel upset their status quo. He'd been separated from his companions, Silas and Timothy, and in today's passage, we find him waiting for them in Athens.
Athens, of course, is that ancient Greek city famous for its philosophy. It's where men like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus were from. But it had been centuries since those men lived and spoke and wrote in Athens, and the city was a mere shell of what it had used to be by the time Paul arrived. Luke, the author of Acts who loves to subtly point out irony, simply notes that this city once known for its brilliant intellect was now full of idols.
Nonetheless, even in Paul's day everybody who lived in Athens spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. When Paul got there, he did what he did in every new city he came to: he began to teach in the local synagogue. Except Luke uses a different word to describe Paul's teaching here in Athens - Paul reasoned... with both the Jews and God fearing Greeks. Interestingly, Luke will go on to use this word often to describe Paul's teaching.
You've likely been told before the lie that in order to fully embrace faith you need to suspend your logic and intellect. Paul faced the same animosity from the self appointed Athenian elites who called him a babbler when they first heard him speak. But then Paul, no intellectual slouch, came in and schooled those gathered in the Areopagus - even quoting their own philosophers back to them to make his point.
Dig Deeper
You probably haven't thought about philosophy much this past week... or month... or even decade. That's ok. Most modern philosophy isn't worth your time. But sometimes it can be quite helpful in making sense of this world in which we live. Plato is a good example. He taught of an eternal, unchanging creator and that man must live morally according to an external, objective standard.
In other words, Plato, who lived hundreds of years before Christ and likely had no knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures, independently reasoned his way to an understanding of reality that's quite consistent with what God has revealed in His Word! As the Canons put it, humanity retains some notions about God, natural things, and the difference between what is moral and immoral. God has revealed Himself in nature so that we would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him.
Although he came amazingly close, Plato never found God. It's not that he wasn't smart; it's just that like everyone else, Plato was infected with Adam's curse. The light of nature that Plato so brilliantly illuminated is far from enabling humans to come to a saving knowledge of God and conversion to him. Plato's students would go on to suppress and distort this light as they marched away from the truths Plato taught.
This is the doctrine of total depravity in a nutshell. It doesn't mean that people are as totally bad and evil as possible; the world has always been full of brilliant thinkers who benefit humanity even as they miss the big picture. Total depravity simply means that unless people's intellects are set free by the Holy Spirit from their slavery to sin, they'll never fully understand the truth, no matter how smart they are.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, in whom we live and move and have our being (don't miss the irony that you're praying words from the ancient philosopher Epimenides that Paul uses to describe our relationship to God!)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will do the hard work necessary to keep your intellect sharp so you can reason with those who are still in the dark;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Luke 8
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