In Him We Live And Move And Have Our Being
Acts 17:16-34
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked withinhim as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagoguewith the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with thosewho happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers alsoconversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Otherssaid, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preachingJesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to theAreopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you arepresenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to knowtherefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners wholived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing somethingnew.
Paul Addresses the Areopagus
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, Iperceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along andobserved the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘Tothe unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven andearth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands,as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breathand everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live onall the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries oftheir dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their waytoward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is likegold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 Thetimes of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhereto repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world inrighteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assuranceto all by raising him from the dead.”
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. Butothers said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from theirmidst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysiusthe Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
(ESV)