Acts 17:16, commentary and pictures

While waiting alone at Athens for Silas and Timothy, Paul found himself in the leading city of pagan worship, the intellectual and cultural metropolis of heathendom. The city was wholly given to idolatry, crowded with idols, temples, shrines, costly sanctuaries, sculptures of gods and deified heroes, and marble inscriptions and art that entranced the senses while deifying vice. He was not there as a sightseer to gratify curiosity, and because his mind was full of unfading heavenly riches the earthly pomp, beauty, wisdom and philosophy were valueless to him though he saw their seductive power over lovers of art and science. Seeing God dishonored on every side, his spirit was stirred with jealousy for God, grief and holy indignation and zeal, distress over minds with no intelligent understanding of God, and deep pity for its people despite their greatness. That stirring moved him to dispute in the synagogue and marketplace and to proclaim Christ and the resurrection at the Areopagus with logic and eloquence adapted to philosophers, yet few believed, and the small fruit led him at Corinth to lay aside elaborate argument and learning to preach plainly Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The same sight teaches the sorrow, burden and pity God's workers should feel for cities almost wholly given to idolatry, moving them to open-eyed concern, prayer, and practical effort to enter them with mercy rather than neglect them.

Athens and Paul's Stirring

The verse belongs to the record of Paul's work at Berea and Athens, showing him waiting at Athens, left alone while waiting for Silas and Timothy. Athens was the leading city of pagan worship and the metropolis of heathendom, famous for intelligence, education and culture. There he met not ignorant superstition as at Lystra but an intellectually great people.

The city was wholly given to idolatry, where God was not worshiped, and was crowded with idols. On every side were sculpture of gods and deified heroes of history and poetry, magnificent architecture and paintings, costly sanctuaries, temples and shrines, and tablets and inscriptions on marble commemorating victories and renowned men. This made it like a vast gallery of art entrancing the senses with beauty and glory, a place of frivolous art-worshipers. Its human art had done its best to deify vice and make falsehood attractive by glorifying the memory of men whose whole lives were devoted to leading others to deny God. The same obstacle of dominant idolatry was present at Corinth, where the worship of Venus was linked with widespread immorality.

Paul was not sightseeing or gratifying a desire for new and strange scenes. He was not deceived by the city's grandeur, beauty, material wisdom and philosophy, nor by this center of learning. Because his mind was full of the joy and splendor of unfading heavenly riches and his spiritual nature was alive to heavenly things, the earthly pomp, glory, magnificence and costly devices were valueless to him. Yet he realized their seductive power over lovers of art and science.

He was oppressed by solitude and utterly isolated as far as human fellowship went, longing for the sympathy and aid of fellow laborers while waiting. Yet he was not idle. His words and conduct there show confidence and courage in loneliness and adversity and the success of the Christian message even in a pagan city.

Seeing the city wholly given to idolatry, his spirit was stirred with jealousy for God dishonored on every side. It was stirred with grief and holy indignation and zeal for his Master's cause, and with holy zeal to serve Christ. It was stirred with distress and dejection over the apparently insurmountable obstacles to reaching minds that had no intelligent understanding of God and His plans for the fallen race. And his heart was drawn out in deep pity for its citizens notwithstanding their intellectual greatness and culture.

His stirred spirit moved him to seek out his Jewish brethren and dispute with people in the synagogue and marketplace. There he proclaimed the doctrine of Christ and Jesus and the resurrection. His principal work was to confront and deal with paganism in its most subtle, alluring form in order to bring salvation to people who lacked an informed understanding of God.

Preaching Results and Application

Acts 17:16 introduces the public proclamation of faith in Christ in Greece, when the gospel was presented to the philosophers at the Areopagus. The approach was adapted to an idolatrous and philosophical audience, with much time spent on natural religion and with their logic, science, philosophy, eloquence and oratory answered and matched with logic, science, philosophy, eloquence and oratory. Signs and miracles gave clear evidence that the faith proclaimed was divine.

Though the argument silenced the hearers, few accepted the gospel, and the elaborate discussion of theories and arguments produced little fruit. Reviewing the time and labor spent there, the disappointing results led to a change of plan at Corinth, away from elaborate arguments, learning and eloquence toward presenting the gospel in plain, simple terms. The determination became to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and to point people simply to Christ as the Saviour of sinners.

The verse illustrates the sorrow, distress and burden that should be felt for cities and thousands of cities given over to wickedness and almost wholly given to idolatry. Their destruction is impending, and that prospect should move God's people and workers to concern, prayer and care. They are to enter such cities with a message of mercy and proclaim mercy there rather than neglect them, since neglect to do so will call for an answer at the final reckoning.

Looking with open eyes and mind at the necessities of the world affects the soul, and this applies to civilized countries that need present truth and are already ripe for harvest. The eye must not be closed to need, for as Jesus wept over Jerusalem when He drew near and beheld the city, so sight and contemplation set in operation practical effort to save the perishing and place missionary work on its proper basis.

A spirit stirred within by evil compels speech and not silence. It girds on armor and readiness for battle and goes forth in the assigned part of God's work, confident that the cause is the Lord's, that truth will triumph, and that God will not leave His children to perish.

Seeing people wholly given to a wrong system stirs the spirit within with distress at efforts, even among God's people, by professional men to cry down and demerit every medical practice except the one method of allopathy they have learned. That stirring produces refusal to fall into line with that exclusiveness and a call to let drugs fall into disuse and practice upon hygienic principles, because dependence on drug medication is not in God's order.

The same stirring of spirit felt on seeing Athens given over to idolatry applies to hearing the blasphemous claim that a spiritualizer was Jesus and that Jesus would not return bodily. It prompts a defense of Christ's literal, personal second coming.