◄ Acts 17 Devotional Commentary ►
Acts 17:11
Pastors in churches today, often encourage their congregations to: "Be like the Bereans." Paul writes of the Bereans' response to his gospel message: "They received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."
It is noble and wise to diligently search the Scriptures day by day and to carefully examine all that you are being taught by teachers and preachers, read more...
Acts 17:25
It was during his second missionary journey, while staying in the city of Athens, that Paul taught certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers about the gospel of God and His great salvation – which is through faith in the death, burial, and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
On his arrival at Athens, Paul's spirit was provoked within his breast, when he saw that the city had been given over to the worship of idols and false deities. Some of the read more...
Acts 17:28
Paul was opposing two ideologies when he challenged the men of Athens to consider their philosophy. All were atheistic, with some who hotly pursued the pleasures of life through sensual experience, whilst others favoured personal discipline and self-control, desiring to search out the truth. But whether their focus was on pleasure or discipline, all had their roots in pagan thought, and all were dead in their sins. The former enjoyed life without reference to God read more...
Acts 17:30
The Bible tells us that man was made in the image of God. However, down through the centuries and across cultures, we discover that man chooses to make gods for themselves, through the imagination of their own hearts. The biblical worldview is that man was created by God, but since Adam's fall when sin entered into the world and twisted man's thinking, it was man who started to create gods in their own image and to fashion idols of silver and gold, wood, and read more...
Acts 17:31
There is an urgency in the message that Paul delivered to the unbelieving pagans in the Gentile city of Athens, for some followed after the hedonistic philosophies which pursued pleasure rather than knowledge, while others were stoics pantheists who considered that wisdom lay in the total restraint of human emotions. Either way, the teaching that Paul gave in this city was unpalatable to these paganistic idolaters.
One of the read more...