Read

1 Peter 2:9-10

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Development

Our identity in the Lord, and from the moment we have known Jesus, changes, and we are no longer what the world said we were, but we are what God says we are.

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To trust without hesitation I must know who I am. If you want to have a firm faith in the Lord despite everything that may come into your life, even the opinions of others and even despite the labels that have been placed on you throughout your life, you have to know who you are in Christ. It doesn't matter what the world says about you, it matters what the Lord says about you, it matters what He says you are.

And the first thing that Peter is telling you in this letter, it should be added that this letter was written to a church in Asia Minor, a church that was going through persecution and many problems, is telling them that they are a "chosen lineage."

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God took away all the labels that the world put on you, and gave you a promise, you are chosen by God.

When Jesus was on earth he used to change their names, for example Peter's name was changed, before his name was Simon, but from the moment he decided to go with Jesus, he told him to call yourself Peter, which means "Rock".

Much further back in history, God changed Jacob's name to Israel, since he wrestled with God and to note this fact he changed it from Abram, which means father, to Abraham, which means "father of multitudes", and then also in the new testament, Saul is later called Paul, it means humble or little man.

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God changed our name, before we were nobody, now we are a chosen lineage.

Perhaps the world and those who surrounded you despise you, but God tells you that you are a chosen lineage.

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Royal Priesthood.

Perhaps there is no royal blood in our veins, but now we are co-heirs with Christ and now our genealogy is linked to Jesus, that is why we are now priests and part of the kingdom of our Lord.

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Holy Nation.

You will read this and tell me, but I can't be a saint, I still have a long way to go, God looks at you as a holy nation and trusts you, more than yourself, and I believe you wishing that you could follow in his footsteps and put your will and your wishes in their hands. Even though we have sinned, we have been cleansed and redeemed, and today we can say that we are a holy nation, that when we make mistakes and are weak we can be strengthened in the one who loved us and called us from darkness to light.

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People acquired by God.

We belong to the Lord, He looks at us from His throne and knows where we are, who we are, and we belong to Him.

All this that Peter prophesied about the church, was not only for that church but also for you and me, we have been chosen and in us is the seal of the Holy Spirit.

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We should not fear the rumors of those who do not have faith, and who blindly walk through life without looking through the eyes of Jesus, rather we should pray for them, and bring the word closer to them through our actions.

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Actions are worth a thousand words.

You can stand in a corner and shout that Christ lives, and perhaps many will look at you as if you are crazy, but you can act as Christ would, and give comfort and love and then with that attitude you will really be winning souls for Jesus.

The Lord sanctified us, gave us a new identity, we are a chosen lineage and co-heirs with Christ, but we have been called to carry the word to the ends of the earth, know your identity in Him, and you will be able to through your testimony and example to reach many for Christ.

We have promises for our life, we have been called as this passage continues to say, we are all this to announce the virtues of the one who changed our lives, and who can do the same with each and every one of those who are walking in need today.

When we knew Christ, we were not a people or anything, we had no hope, we had nothing. Now we are God's people, and God does not call us to stay locked up at home or in temples, selfishly enjoying God's promises, God has not called us to go out and share those promises with the rest of the world.

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Just as someday we have been reached by God's mercy, and He rescued us from a hollow and empty life and perhaps from a lot of pain, others today are in darkness and you are the instrument that God wants to use.

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And it is through your actions.

Do not just limit yourself to pray, do the work, it is not necessary to stand with a sign in the corner of your house, it is necessary that you bring comfort to those who need it and that you have a word of mercy for those who have never been treated with mercy.

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The mission.

You have a call, I have a call, and each one of us has it, in our environment we can be responsible for a soul being rescued for Jesus, keep your testimony because those who look at your life, look at the life of Jesus, because you are a people chosen by God.

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If perhaps you have been ignoring God's call on your life, this is the moment for you to turn around, I have done it too at some point, but we cannot ignore what we are and what we have been created for.

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Reflect and Respond

1. What does it mean to be a royal priesthood?

2. What message should you be sharing?

3. Do you really share the praise God deserves with others or just present an invitation?

 

Read

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

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Development

The love of Jesus is what took hold of us, from the moment we understood that he died for us,  that love governs us, moves us, motivates us, comforts us.

Jesus died for all of us, but so that you can understand a little better the dimension of the work that Jesus did on that cross, we must say (Jesus died for me, Jesus died because of me, Jesus died to save me). That is why we no longer think of anyone according to the world's thought, and despite the fact that before, we thought of Jesus according to the world's criteria, now we no longer think like that.

Therefore, the one who is truly united to Jesus is a new creature, the old things have passed away and they have all become new.

God through his Only Begotten Jesus reconciled us to himself, given that before these we were all sinners, and as we already said, in past classes, God cannot be where sin is and the same in the other way. That is why God, in his eagerness to be with us, sent Jesus to rescue what had been lost (us).

That is to say that, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, without taking into account the sins of men; and we were commissioned to make this message known.

 

So we are the ambassadors of Christ, which is as if God himself pleaded with you through us. So, in the name of Christ, we beg you to accept reconciliation with God. Christ did not commit any sin; but because of us, God made him sin, but not a sinner, to make us the righteousness of God in Christ.

 

I reflect and respond

1. How can you tell if you live for yourself or live for Jesus?

2. What does it mean to be an ambassador for Christ?

3. Would Jesus be pleased with the way you portray him?

4. What does it mean to APPEAL and IMPLORE people?

5. What  attitude should you have about this?

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Read

Acts 17:16-34

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Development

 

The Apostle Paul in Athens

The presence of Paul in Athens and the presentation in the cultural capital of Greece of the Gospel by the apostle to the Gentiles, is clothed with a dramatic and emotional force that has been felt by the readers of The Acts through the centuries.

Later we will consider the impact of the Gospel in the atmosphere of the gross oriental superstition of "Diana of the Ephesians". Here, however, the Apostle Paul, a Jew by birth, a Roman by citizenship, knowledgeable about Greek civilization, finds himself face to face with the representatives in his day of the best of Hellenic thought. With the wisdom of someone who, in the fulfillment of his mission, does everything for everyone, he looks for the possible points of contact between the concepts of the philosophers and the heavenly message, but then he has to write: "Where is the wise man?" ?, where the scribe?, where the disputer of this century? Has not God maddened the wisdom of the world? (1 Corinthians 1:20).

 

No one throughout history has disputed the enormous importance that the Greek capital had in the development of Western civilization, which is what we know, this being a synthesis of Greek culture, the Roman order and the religious concepts that they sprang up in Israel, be it in the sphere of Judaism or in that of Christianity.

The Romans themselves, so proud of their imperial organization and their military power, well understood their inferiority to the Greeks in the field of arts, culture and philosophy, contenting themselves with assimilating and reproducing the brilliant ideas that had sprung up in the small Hellenic peninsula that they had conquered with their weapons

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Let us remember that Greece, in its classical period, was not a homogeneous nation, but rather a linguistic and cultural area, occupied by "city-states", or kingdoms of different constitutions, located on both shores of the Aegean Sea, reaching as far as the heel of the Italian peninsula that was called "Great Greece".

Among these states was Athens, a city that came to prominence in the 5th century BC. both for its courage in repelling the Persian invasion and for the perfection of the development of its arts, letters and philosophy: an unequaled period in the history of civilizations.

Let us also remember that the concept of "democracy" came from Athens, since all free citizens participated through their votes in the government of the city. After the conquests of Philip the Macedonian, and the greatest of his famous son Alexander the Great, Athens lost its political freedom, but maintained its prestige as a metropolis of the Hellenic civilization. The Romans were so impressed by the high values of the city that they not only declared it "free", but it was officially considered an "ally" of Rome and not a subject state.

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Paul's visit takes place in the middle of the first century, when the glory of Athens no longer shone with its former brilliance. Its artists copied the works of the masters of the classical period, and where intellectual heroes such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had spoken words pregnant with profound meaning, destined to influence the thought of the wise throughout the centuries, they found nothing but "schools" of philosophy of much lower carats and the Athenian itch to "look for something new", a phrase that is equivalent to the "latest novelty", be it intellectual, philosophical or cultural.

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Paul contemplates the city (Acts 17:16) but we can assume that he had not planned this visit to Athens, but that his presence there was due to the need to leave Macedonia in order to avoid further disturbances in that region, which would have well been able to impede the development of the nascent churches.

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Paul awaited the arrival of his colleagues Silas and Timothy, thinking perhaps of the opportunities that the cosmopolitan city of Corinth would offer, or of the possibility of continuing the great work in Macedonia.

(1 Thessalonians 2:17-18). But meanwhile he walked through the streets of the famous city, sheltered under the shadow of the Acropolis, a hill adorned with magnificent temples and world famous monuments, and then preserved in good condition, thinking, not so much about the artistic value of what he saw , but in what it represented in terms of idolatry, since almost all the waste of art revolved around the symbols of false divinities, which prevented the gaze of men from reaching the true God.

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We must not suppose that Paul was devoid of aesthetic sense, but above all he was zealous for his God, so that his spirit was "provoked", seeing how the city was full of idols. Like a striking water lily, beautiful Athens opened its petals over the mire of the corruption of multiple idolatrous cults, home to demons, all of them called "abominations" by the prophets of Israel, whose fiery words incessantly came to the memory of the "Hebrew of the Hebrews" who was Paul.

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At the same time, the speech before the Areopagus shows that blind and fanatical anger did not kindle in him, but that he knew how to understand the best of Greek thought and to look for in it some related element that would serve as a starting point to announce to the Athenians the Person and providences of the Creator God.

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Acts 17:17. In the Jewish synagogue (perhaps not very important in Athens) Paul fulfilled his usual mission, announcing Jesus as the Messiah, but the interest of the story centers on his first contacts with the Greeks in the agora, or square of the city, center of social and intellectual life.

There the teachers of more or less solvency used to gather their disciples under beautiful and welcoming porticoes, developing their talks and discussions, while there were never a lack of groups of idlers who dealt with the issues of the day.

It was easy for the apostle, then, to adhere to these groups in order to lead the conversation towards the single theme: God's intervention in the affairs of this world in the Person of Jesus Christ.

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The rival "schools" of Epicureans and Stoics (Acts 17:18)

These two philosophical schools were founded around the year 300 BC. and at the time we are dealing with they almost completely monopolized the thought of Athens and the Greco-Roman world, forgetting the earlier, much higher systems of Plato and Aristotle. The Epicureans did not deny the existence of the gods, and did nothing to reform popular and superstitious religion, but their philosophers held to a materialistic theory of the constitution of the Universe, as composed of indestructible and eternal atoms, which entered into all the manifold forms of matter and life.

They thought that the purpose of man's life was to seek "pleasure", not to satisfy his passions, but to seek a life of selfish tranquility, free as far as possible from all disturbance, pain and fear.

 

The Stoics were pantheists, that is, they thought that the only "god" was the "soul" of the Universe, which gave vitality to everything, but lacked personality and transcendence. The main faculty of man was his "reason", for which he had to seek a life in accordance with nature, becoming independent, sufficient for himself, controlling his emotional life with a strong hand. They insisted on the strict fulfillment of duty to the point that if one were to lose their personal dignity the best thing to do (according to them) was to leave the world by means of suicide.

His teachers did not fail to teach some lofty and beautiful concepts, but the exaltation of the "I", with the consequent human pride, interposed a vast distance between stoicism and the truth of the Gospel.

 

The Apostle Paul may have appealed to some lofty Stoic concept of divinity that was at variance with his pantheistic doctrine, which denied all personality to God.

From the conversations in the agora, Lucas picks up a frankly insulting comment for Paul, and another that shows some desire to better understand his message. "What does this palabrero want to say?" some asked contemptuously. The word translated as "palabrero" was part of the Athenian "slang" of the time, and could mean a vagabond of the squares.

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Note: "Slang" Slang is the specific linguistic variety used by a group of people who share common characteristics due to their social category.

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Here, however, it is likely that we have to understand a "charlatan" who collected remnants of other people's philosophy to elaborate on them later without knowing what he was saying. Others, half listening, heard something about "Jesus", perhaps confusing the name with "iasis" (healing), linked with "anastasis" (resurrection), believing that it was about two new divinities that Paul wanted to introduce.

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Paul before the Areopagus (Acts 17:19-34)

(Acts 17:19-22) The word itself means "the hill of Mars", with reference to the fact that, in its beginnings, this famous Athenian Council met on the height dedicated to the god Mars. In the first century, however, it held its sessions in a more central location. In remote antiquity, the Areopagus had been the supreme council of the city, of an aristocratic type, but its authority had been curtailed during the rise of democracy in Athens.

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The Romans, respectful of the prestige of such a famous institution, had restored the authority of the court in all religious, literary and artistic matters, which is why it became, at the time we are dealing with, the official seat of Hellenism, its members being figures landmarks in the religious and cultured life of the metropolis of civilization.

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Note: The Hellenistic period, Hellenism or Alexandrian period is called a historical stage of Antiquity whose chronological limits are marked by two important political events: the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) and the suicide of the last Hellenistic sovereign, Cleopatra VII of Egypt, and her lover Mark Antony,

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This Council was responsible for issuing "licenses" for lecturers and teachers, while considering whether or not to introduce new forms of religion; it was natural, therefore, that Paul, who, according to the Athenians, presented "new divinities", had to appear before the court to justify his work.

 

The question "Will we be able to know what this new teaching of which you speak is?" it must have been formulated by delegates from the Areopagus who had been sent to investigate the case of the foreign master, involving the invitation (or order) to appear before the Council.

Verse 21 is parenthetical, as Luke describes with some irony the superficial curiosity of Athenians and visitors who spend time in the city, looking for the "latest thing" instead of dealing with the real and deep philosophical questions.

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Above this set of circumstances, we discern the operation of divine Providence that ordered the champion of the Gospel of Christ to give his testimony, not only before military, judicial and governmental authorities, but also before the highest court of Greek culture.

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The general plan of the message

To today's evangelical reader, some of the terms used by Paul on this occasion sound strange, since he would have expected a clearer presentation of the Gospel in the sense of emphasizing the salvation of the soul through the Work of Christ. There are even some who think that it was a "mistake" because Paul wanted to adapt to the conditions of Athens: an attitude that he repudiated, according to these critics, when he arrived in Corinth, saying: "When I came to you to preach the testimony of God, I did not I was with excellence of words or of wisdom. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).

 

This move by Paul was very risky, following purely subjective criteria, accusing the apostles commissioned by Christ of "mistakes", unless the Holy Spirit clearly indicates it. Luke, by the Spirit, composes this summary of the speech at Athens for our teaching and guidance in the face of facts and circumstances that are seldom taken into consideration, so that it is an integral part of God's written revelation, and if its terms are have to cite as "Inspired Word", it is a contradiction to maintain that Paul "was wrong" in all his testimony before the Areopagus. It is easier and safer to see in this incident the way in which the Apostle  took advantage of the circumstances that arose, doing everything for everyone to win some. It takes into account the ideas of the Epicureans and the Stoics (particularly the latter) to point out the need to raise our gaze to the Creator God, who was also that of Providence, in sharp contrast to the puerile concepts of idolatry, with the in order to make everyone understand that a new era had arrived in which God wanted to speak clearly to all men through the Man whom He had appointed as Judge, having invested him with authority through the verifiable fact of the Resurrection from the dead.

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The discourse forms a wonderful introduction to the Gospel for use by men raised in Greek culture, and if they had seized on this principle, Paul would no doubt have moved on to the other aspects of the Message with which we are more familiar. What is up to us is to learn, as a disciple, the great truths that God has revealed to us through his servant.

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The exordium: the altar dedicated to an unknown god (Acts 17:22-23)

In his walks through the city, Pablo had noticed an altar, among so many that were dedicated to specific divinities, that bore the simple inscription: "To the unknown God." According to some extra-biblical evidence, it was an attempt to appease any divinity associated with that place that had not been identified in the legends of the race and that could be offended with disastrous results for the Athenians if nothing were raised. in his honor.

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Paul sees in this attempt to propitiate unknown gods proof that the Athenians were "very religious," using a word that could also be applied to "superstition." History confirms that Greek philosophy was powerless against the popular and superstitious religion of its time and that Athens was indeed "full of idols." The apostle takes advantage of the motto of the altar, with its naive confession of ignorance about the divinities, to present the true God, ignored by the Athenians.

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the creator god

Acts 17:24-25 Plato's writings, among others, might have prepared the minds of Greek thinkers to recognize at least one "Supreme Intelligence," but the fashionable schools in the first century had not followed the pattern laid out by the great philosopher. However, the proclamation of a God who had created the Universe and all things that are in it, being therefore Lord of Heaven and earth, as well as the Author and Origin of the life of all animated creatures, it would not sound nonsense in the ears of the wise men of the Areopagus; moreover, many would be attracted by this clear expression of a pure monotheism, so much more satisfying than the sterile materialism of the Epicureans and the nebulous "universal soul" of the Stoics. We can imagine that more than one Areopagite would agree with what the Jewish preacher proclaimed.

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Paul draws the conclusion that a Sovereign God, Creator and vivifier of all things, "does not dwell in temples made with human hands, nor is he honored by the hands of men, as if he needed something."

It is true that a Temple had been built in Jerusalem, according to plans given to David by divine inspiration, but the spiritual in Israel well understood that it was not "House of God" in the sense that the Almighty needed a dwelling place on earth, but a symbol that God provided in his grace to remember his presence in the midst of his people.

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Thus Solomon himself, the one in charge of building the House, asked before the Lord: "Is it true that God will dwell on earth? Behold, the heavens, the heavens of heavens, cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built? (1 Kings 8:27-28). Still, God could "look" at the house and be attentive to the prayers that were raised regarding the truth it represented. Therefore, the symbolic building that God commanded to be erected in Jerusalem does not diminish in any way the very high concept of the Hebrews about a unique and sovereign God, transcendental and immanent at the same time.

Such a concept came by revelation, since the best philosophical thinking of the Greeks had been singularly ineffective against superstition and idolatry.

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The God of providences, facing his creatures

Acts 17:26-28 When meditating on the concept of one God, Sovereign and Creator, the thinking man inevitably begins to ask: "What will be the relationship that exists between the one God and man?" In this section of his speech, Paul answers the obligatory question stating that God descended the entire human race from a single man, also ordering the epochs of its history and the spheres of habitation of the different sectors of the race. Such an order did not come from a blind destiny, but had a providential purpose so that men "seek God, if somehow, feeling around, they can find him", and Paul adds: "Although certainly he is not far from each one of us".

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They were lofty ideas, for the time, which were to produce a favorable effect on many of the Areopagites, knowledgeable of the teachings of Plato and Aristotle.

Here we glimpse facets of divine revelation that we rarely have the opportunity to meditate on and, at the same time, we are presented with interesting problems of interpretation that later serve to open new horizons of spiritual understanding.

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The unity of the race

Acts 17:26 "And of one blood hath he made all the lineages of men." There is no conflict here between the statements of the Bible and the assertions of anthropologists, since the latter, for biological and psychological reasons, insist on the unity of the race above all the differences, for them rather superficial, that are observed among the white, black, yellow, and brown races. Doctrinally this unity of the race, as descended from a couple, has great importance, since Paul, in another place, confronts the old solidarity of sin of the Adamic race, which resulted in ruin, with the new solidarity in the Last Adam, that removes sin and makes it possible for everyone who wants to make their union with Christ for blessing effective by faith (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49).

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The order of times (Acts 17:26),

Paul had spoken of the succession of the seasons of the year as evidence of God's providential care for man (Acts 14:17); but surely the "order of times" in this speech contains a higher concept referring to the great periods of history. It is true that the activity of Satan, by ordering his "kosmos", engraves a characteristic stamp of evil and rebellion on the course of all civilizations, but it is also true that the Most High has the last word, limiting the processes from evil and making everything go forward at last his total plan of judgment, justice, redemption and restoration, until all is gathered in Christ.

(Daniel 4:25; Titus 1:2-3; Ephesians 1:9-10).

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The limits of the habitation of men (Acts 17:26).

The races have not been distributed over the face of the earth driven by mere coincidences or by the pressure of material needs, but God's providences have intervened in this matter of capital importance for man.

In (Genesis 10; 11) we have in summary the origin of the great movements; The call of Abraham, with the formation of the "people-servant", of Israel, introduces a factor that was to serve as the axis for the distribution of men from that moment on, according to the principle of (Deuteronomy 32:8): (Psalms 16:6); Jacob the rope of his inheritance" or ("the inheritance that touched him"). The "rope" was used to designate the fate of the inheritances, the part that can be called "normative", because, it corresponds to Israel, but the benefits of God's territorial order reach all the families of the earth.

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"Feeling" to find God (Acts 17:27).

God has maintained a relative order in the world, even after the Fall and before establishing his perfect Kingdom, in order to prevent everything from degenerating into pure chaos, which also makes it possible for men to search for him within the defective world. human government but also under divine providences.

The full light only radiates from the face of the Incarnate Word, but there had been a twilight twilight that illuminated the great works of God, revealing his "eternal power and divinity." Nor was the voice of conscience missing, which, together with the operations of God's providence in the world, invited men to seek something "higher" (Romans 1:18; 2:16). Romans chapter 2 indicates the possibility that some, "persevering in doing well, would seek glory, honor and immortality": not because of their works, of course, but because their works showed that their hearts were willing to receive the revelation that God gave them, which would make it possible that they receive more light, as in the case of Cornelius (Acts 10:1,2,34,35). The personal responsibility of each one remains before the one who can only scrutinize the hearts; what Paul does here is to point out the characteristics of the ages before the mission of the Son of God to the world and that came to an end when the coming of the "Man whom God had appointed" was proclaimed. The humble, by the hand of faith, could touch the God who was not far from any of his creatures, but it was a matter of "feeling" in the midst of the uncertain twilight light of God's revelation through his works.

"In him we live" (Acts 17:28). In this verse, Paul first quotes a phrase from Epimenides, a Stoic poet, "in him we live and move and have our being," adding one more quote from another Stoic poet, Erato, from Cilicia, Paul's own land: "For of him we are also lineage". In passing we may note that Paul was well versed in classical literature if he could so use quotations from second-rate poets, so that while he reacted strongly against the evils of idolatry, it was not through the ignorance of a fanatical Jew, but for his understanding of the dire spiritual errors that lurked beneath the smiling face of Hellenism.

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On the other hand, his use of these quotes is strange, since, in their original text, they referred to Zeus, the main god of Greek mythology, so different from the Hebrew concept of the only God, Creator of everything and Source of all life. With everything, and leaving aside the dregs of paganism, the concept of a supreme god was already pointing in the direction of monotheism, standing out the idea of a Being who ultimately directed everything and in whom only men found their life and support. Paul does not hesitate to take advantage of the embryonic and incomplete concept of the Stoic poets in order to elevate it to the level of the revelation of the Person and Work of the only God whom he proclaimed; In any case, the well-known quotes could not but arouse the sympathy of his audience, removing some of the prejudices against the Jewish preacher.

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The apostle, then, underlines the essential relationship of men with their Creator, being he the source and Origin of their being, and Sustainer by his holy energies of all life and movement of the creature, which imposes above all the obligation to seek him and serve him. But these words must be considered in the light of other Biblical passages, and must not serve as a basis for the phrase, almost always mistaken in its intention, that "we are all children of God." We are all God's creatures and have no existence apart from him, but the word "son" rises in the New Testament to a very high plane, signifying an "essential and spiritual community of life": which man enjoyed in his innocence, which was lost in the Fall and can now only be repossessed through faith contact with the Son-Savior. That is why Christ, in the face of the Jews who wanted to kill him, denied them the right to call themselves "children of God", indicating that they did not even become "children of Abraham", since their attitude and intentions obeyed motives completely foreign to both the life of God as to the submission and faith of the patriarch, finding its origin in the rebellion of Satan whose "sons" they had become (John 8:38-44). The New Testament, then, limits the phrase "sons of God" to those who receive Christ by faith, and are then reborn by the will of the Father and the energies of the Spirit of God (John 1:12-13; John 3:3 -8).

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The great crisis of humanity (Acts 17:29-31)

Deity cannot be embodied within the artistic works of men (Acts 17:29). Paul does not lose sight of the practical part of his exposition, and after the elevated concepts of the Deity that he has advanced, he once again emphasizes the serious error of idolatry in trying to represent a unique and spiritual Being, Creator and Sustainer of all things. things, by works of art worked in metals and precious stones, since these, even when they are the work of a Phidias or Apelles, do nothing more than give plasticity to the artist's imagination, which can know nothing of the reality of God.

Idolatry tends to progressively lower the spiritual sensitivity of the worshipers, since they worship the product of the depraved mind of a sinner, and then resemble the object of their worship, initiating the disastrous "downward spiral" described by Paul in (Romans 1:18-32).

In this place Paul does not analyze the process, but strives to raise the gaze of intelligent people to consider the Creator in his spirituality and eternity, saying in effect: "If the race by its nature belongs to God, it is a moral obligation to seek him spiritually." , understanding that the material, however artistic, is completely inadequate to represent the divine" (Acts 17:29)

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The climax of the message (Acts 17:30-31).

The apostle reaches the climax of his address. God "disguised" or "looked over" the sad twilight times of the rise of idolatry, born of the wicked reasonings of fallen man, but had already commissioned Paul and his colleagues to proclaim a crisis of judgment and redemption. in the history of men. The complicated systems of pagan worship, giving rise to the depraved moral and social customs of that time, could not remain intact forever, being oblivious to what the true relationship between God and his creatures demanded, so that God had set a Day of Judgment in which the entire historical process, as well as every human being related to it, had to be examined and judged with absolute justice.

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History did not consist of an endless succession of analogous cycles, without solving the problems related to the life of humanity in time and space, according to the thought of some of its philosophers, but rather it led to a crisis due to the intervention of the moral Arbiter of the Universe, He had designated the Judge, who, already linked with humanity, was the "Man" whose exalted category was evidenced by the fact of having been raised from the dead. In view of this intervention of God in history, it was convenient for men to repent upon hearing the announcement of these new times and the change of era. Such is the summary of the end of the message in the form in which we have it, surely abbreviated.

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The wise faced the concept of judgment (Acts 17:30-31).

The wise men of Athens would have followed the general development of the discourse up to this point with interest, despite certain statements that revealed the weakness of both the Epicurean and Stoic systems, since the philosophical height of everything was evident. But the culminating phase required a decision in the face of the divine message, contained concepts alien to his entire way of thinking and living, and could not help but raise opposition unless the listeners seriously sought the path of light. What was that "repent" thing? The Epicureans sought human tranquility within the material, and although they wanted to curb the passions, it was not because they considered them bad, but only in order to avoid their sequel of disturbances and inconveniences. If the voice of conscience bothered them, their philosophy prevented them from drowning it out.

How inconvenient it would be for them to appreciate sin as an offense against a God of justice! Stoics who gloried in their own courage and fortitude, were they to confess their sins like frightened women? How difficult it is for those rich in human wisdom to enter the Kingdom of Heaven! Dionisio and some others, already aware of the intimate failure of their lives in moral and spiritual matters, glimpsed a ray of hope even in the thought of repentance and judgment; but among the others the laughter of mocking incredulity was already beginning. And what were they to think about a universal Judgment Day for all men? According to Greek legends, the divinities intervened very frequently in the lives of important characters, but playing a role very similar to that of men themselves, differing from mortals only by the superiority of their strength or their beauty, but being dominated by all the vices of earthly society. The Grim Reaper could persecute those who had transgressed certain social and religious norms, but there was nowhere to be found the concept of a Throne of Justice before which men would have to give an account of their deeds in a moral sense.

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The philosophers before the risen Man (Acts 17:31).

And who would be that "Man" established by the Judge, accredited, according to this strange Jewish philosopher, for having risen from the dead? Dionysus and the humble who believed were to hear wonderful things about him, but the others had no interest in a Hebrew Messiah, being repulsed by the idea of "the resurrection from the dead." They would gladly admit the survival of the soul in the nebulous and impersonal sense of their philosophy, but for them the material was something inferior, the prison of the spirit, and they knew nothing of the high concept of the complete personality of man composed of body, soul and spirit, created in the image and likeness of the only God, who wanted to bless her and preserve her for all Eternity.

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The announcement of Judgment Day instead of grace and Redemption surprises us, but it emphasizes the crisis that was to change the times of ignorance into others of responsibility and opportunity. In fact, the apostolic teaching often insisted on the work of judgment that God had entrusted to the hands of his Son, who was also the "Son of Man", constituted as a perfect Judge for being God and Man at the same time (Daniel 7: 13; John 5:27; Matthew 13:41-45; 24-25; Acts 10:42). The work of judgment is the obverse of the medal of the Work of Redemption, since the God of love and grace saves the humble through the work of justice already carried out by the Redeemer, who necessarily has to implant his Kingdom on a firm foundation of righteousness.

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The times of ignorance (Acts 17:30).

The phrase "God overlooked" ("looked over") the times of ignorance is to be understood in its context and in light of other Scriptures. It does not mean, of course, that during those times God had cornered the eternal principles of justice, but that the time had not yet arrived in the divine program to manifest sin in all its ugliness in order to effect cleansing and offer the forgiveness through the Work of the Cross. Each one would be judged according to the principles that we have already meditated, but, as far as the history of the race, God had not intervened directly. We find something analogous in (Galatians 4:3-5) where it deals with the slavery of men, be it under the Law, be it under the "rudiments of the world", until the hour of liberation through Christ: "So also we, when we were children, were in slavery under the rudiments of the world; but when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, to that we might receive adoption as sons." This passage also speaks of sad centuries of silence until the moment determined by God for him to intervene through the Man of his choice, born of a woman, who was also the eternal Son; but, in the case of teachings within the Christian circle, the fact of Redemption was emphasized and not the crisis of judgment.

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The philosophers in front of the gospel (Acts 17:32-34)

The reactions of the majority (Acts 17:32-33)

No doubt in these verses Luke implies that the Gospel was not generally understood by the wise men of Athens, who formed the "intellectual aristocracy" of the Greco-Roman world, but we do not see the withering revulsion that some have drawn from this passage. Some sneered when they heard of the resurrection from the dead, but some also believed, and we may think that the reaction of the majority is represented by the evasive saying: "We will hear you about this again." They had been impressed by the strange and eloquent speech, realizing that Paul was far from being a mere "babbler," and they were interested enough to want to hear more of his doctrines at another Areopagus session. Apparently, the apostle did not want to take advantage of this invitation, but without a doubt the fact of giving it indicates that many perceived something important and exceptional in what Paul had expounded. However, they glimpsed in the message so many factors alien to their way of thinking and that entailed deep dangers for the customs of the homeland, of which they were the official guardians, that few dared to follow the luminous trail that the apostle had indicated, fulfilling what Paul was later to write to the Corinthians regarding the Christian vocation: "There are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble" (1 Corinthians 1:26). It is likely that Paul looked at them in a way that expressed his low esteem for the wisdom of this world and his compassion for the souls blinded by it and "went out of their midst."

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The faith of the few (Acts 17:34)

But there were some "wise men" in the churches and Dionysius, the Areopagite of Athens, was one of them since only men of recognized position and outstanding merits before society entered the Council. The others who adhered to Paul probably belonged to the same educated circles, without being said to be members of the Areopagus. The mention of a woman's name, Damaris, is strange, since Athenian married women did not usually appear in public places and it has been thought that she could belong to the class of "heterae", courtly women, who were sometimes highly educated and exerted great influence. in the social and political circles of the city.

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the true temple

Nothing is said here about the formation of a church in Athens, but, having a group of converts, the "church", according to the simplicity of those times, already existed, since the number was not important and the important thing was the declaration of the Lord: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20).

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I reflect and respond

1. Why was Paul distressed?

2. What are some monuments around your city that should give you anguish?

3. Where did Paul share his faith?

4. Why did Paul begin his message by congratulating the Athenians for being very religious?

5. What does this teach you about sharing with religious people, even of different faiths?

6. How did the people respond to Paul's message?

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Send your answer to the following E-mail:

iglesialaverdaderapalabra@gmail.com

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