Today´s reading:
OT: II Kings 9:14-37, II Kings 10:1-31
NT: Acts 17
Ps: Psalm 144
Pr: Proverbs 17:27-28
Today´s notable verse:
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men 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. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
Acts 17:22-23 (NIV)
I love this example of how Paul uses everything available to him in order to reach the lost. As we will read in the coming weeks (I Corinthians 9:19-22), Paul became “all things to all men, so that by all possible means [he] might save some”. To the Jews, Paul spoke in the synagogues on the Sabbath, reasoning from the Scriptures. Yet, to the Gentile men of the Areopagus of Athens, Paul used the altar to an “Unknown God” – and later in the same speech, references to contemporary secular poetry. It is obvious that Paul was well-versed in the “pop culture” of his day – though at the same time, he was not influenced by that culture. While Paul used an altar as a starting point, “he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols” (v.16).
The One Year Bible Blog‘s comments for today.