Speak the Truth in Love
“Then Paul stood in front of the Aeropagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see
how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the
city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among
them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you
worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God Who made the world
and everything in it, He Who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in
shrines made by human hands, nor is He served by human hands, as though
He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mortals life and breath and
all things. From one ancestor He made all nations to inhabit the whole earth,
and He allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places
where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope
for Him and find Him- though indeed He is not far from each one of us.
For ‘In Him we live and move and have our being’; a seven some of your own
poets have said,
‘For we too are His offspring.’
Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold,
or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.
While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now He commands
all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will
have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed,
and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.”
(Acts17:22-31).
POINTS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAISE
1) We live at a time not very dissimilar to Paul’s day when there were many
opinions about God. Paul stood and proclaimed the Only True God and
Jesus Christ, the only way of salvation and the answered to mankind’s
problems, quests and yearnings.
2) “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the Only True God and
Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3).
3) Paul proclaimed this message with love and in a way that is tuned in
to his audience and their cultural background starting from where they
are spiritually and what they would already know and acknowledge,
then, he built a bridge to the Truth.
4) He acknowledged the fact that the Athenians were very religious. This
is because the many forms of worship, various concepts and traditions
evolved over time are man’s religion, man’s attempt to reach or discover
God. Here however, Paul is showing them how God has already revealed
Himself in Christ Jesus and there is no good reason for ignorance. He
says, ‘while God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now He
commands people everywhere to repent.’ This is because God has in fact
revealed Himself fully in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ ‘is the reflection of God’s
glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and He sustains all things
by His powerful word. When He had made purification for sins He sat down
at the right hand of the majesty on high,’ (Hebrews 1:3).
HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE LORD JESUS! THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES!