Gold Nugget 235 - Between These Extremes
Paul stands in Athens, amidst the master-pieces of Greek art and the memorials of Greek wisdom. It is not admiration or aesthetic delight which is awakened in him, but moral indignation.
Christianity is not opposed to art; but Christianity does not approve the worship of sensuous or ideal beauty apart from moral earnestness. In the true relation, religion absorbs art into itself; when art is substituted for religion, there is moral decay. Nor is Christianity hostile to philosophy. On the contrary, there was in Greek philosophy a preparation for Christ. There were germs of truth in the Epicurean and the Stoic schools which Christianity incorporated, while it corrected the one-sidedness of these philosophies.
The Epicurean built his practical system on human weakness, the Stoic on his pride. The gospel will not excuse sin on the ground of weakness, nor found a righteousness on man’s own pride. … Between these extremes, as between those of Sadduceeism and Phariseeism, the gospel ever makes its way.
These academicians of Athens might well be anxious to know what the “ugly little Jew” had to say. Long had the mighty logos or dialectic of Plato and Aristotle and their successors and rivals ruled the world. What could the fanatical Jew have to say? An immortal discourse is the reply to these questions of curiosity. …
The speaker recognizes the reverence of the Athenians. The heathen were prepared for the gospel, all the more from the weariness and failure of the age-long “groping after God.” In the inscription on the altar was the witness of the desire to worship all forms of divinity, whether to them known or unknown. Both Greeks and Romans recognized, above and beyond the definite gods and goddesses of the Pantheon, the indefinable in Deity, the mystery of that Essence, to us and to all, as to them, incomprehensible.
So far we are all on a level with the Athenians. … Many there are whose heart is like the Agora of Athens or a Pantheon; one idol stands beside another. Wrath, pride, lust, avarice, treachery, ambition – these are their gods. And again, science, art, money, the husband, the wife, the goods of this world. And in a neglected corner stands the altar with the inscription, “To the unknown God!”
The Pulpit Commentary, Acts II. p. 72, Acts 17:16-34, (E. Johnson)
Gold Nugget 235
Between These Extremes
