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“One historian noted that there were more idols in Athens than in the rest of Greece combined. Pliny stated that during the days of Nero, Athens was adorned with some 30,000 public idols, not counting those in private homes (Robertson, 1930-33, III.278). When one considers the fact that the city’s population in Paul’s day was probably only about 10,000 (Longenecker, 473), that means there were three times as many idols as people” (Jackson, 208).
It was for this reason that Juvenal, a Roman satirist, said that in Athens it was easier to find a god than a man, and Xenophon would say that the city was one great altar, one great offering to the gods. As Paul, then, entered the city and neared the Acropolis, anger was immediately provoked within him because of what he saw—a mass rejection of belief in the true Jehovah God. In other words, the religious perversion of these people is what got him worked up and caused him to immediately begin in trying to instruct them toward righteousness. But what was it that Paul saw in this widespread idolatry that caused his spirit to be stirred?
Paul saw ignorance. After he was ushered by the philosophers of the city to Mar’s hill, his first words were “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you” (Acts 17:2-23). Paul’s use of the adjective “ignorance” to describe their convictions might have triggered a memory of his forefathers. Hosea had written several hundred years earlier concerning those Israelites, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children” (Hosea 4:6). Paul knew the road his brethren had traveled led to destruction because of ignorance and he did not want the same result for these people. Bible ignorance is perhaps the single most dangerous state into which one could enter because it is the absence of knowledge of that saving gospel (Romans 1:16), and it is prevalent today. Are our spirits stirred as was Paul’s?
Paul saw an indictment. Idolatry is sin, a crime against God. It is included among the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:20) and among the sins of the lost (Revelation 21:8). Thus he saw the clear guilt of those to whom he was speaking and it sincerely bothered him. He was not among those whose mindset is “as long as somebody’s actions do not affect me then I do not care” crowd. His innermost desire for all people was their salvation, therefore the Athenians’ guilt did affect him personally. Guilt is just as alive, if not more so, today as it ever has been. Does our heart ache for the indictment of men’s souls as did Paul’s?
Paul saw indifference. Idolatry on such a mass level can be described as nothing more than spiritual indifference. There was an indifference for the various gods, holding all in high esteem. There was an indifference toward knowledgeable work and worship, evidenced by their acceptance of such a concept as an “unknown god.” These peoples’ beliefs seemed to be more of an attempt at pacifism than pure and undefiled religion. Generations had likely grown up accepting custom without ever arriving at conviction. Such is indifference at the very core, and such is a picture of the religious lives of literally billions of people around the world today. How great is our concern in view of Paul’s?
The four few words that describe the countenance and emotions of Paul in Acts 17:16 speak so much of who he was. But even more it gives us something immensely important to consider regarding our reaction to similar sins. His spirit was stirred, but what about ours’?