Acts 14:16

Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. WHO IN TIMES PAST SUFFERED ALL NATIONS TO WALK IN THEIR OWN WAYS - that is, interfered not with their own unaided search after truth and happiness, by extending to them the Revelation which He had vouchsafed to the seed of Abraham (see the note at ; and ). And yet, not without guilt on their part was this privation (see the note at ), nor were they left so absolutely to themselves as not to have the means of "feeling after Him," as we are now to hear....

− 16._In times past. _Because the men of Lystra might object that that God was unknown hitherto, Paul and Barnabas prevent them and say, that all men wandered indeed in darkness, and that all mankind was stricken with blindness, but that they deny that any prejudice must be made − (34) according to the perverse ignorance of the world. These were two no small lets for the unbelievers, long antiquity of time, and the consent almost of all nations. Paul and Barnabas remove both in this place, If, say they, men have erred many years, [ages,] and if the world have wandered without reason and judgment, let not, therefore, the truth of God, when it appeareth, be less precious to you. For seeing that it is eternal, and is not changed, it is an unmeet thing that the long prescription of years should be set against it. They prove that there is no more aid or patronage to be found in the number of...

8-18 All things are possible to those that believe. When we have faith, that most precious gift of God, we shall be delivered from the spiritual helplessness in which we were born, and from the dominion of sinful habits since formed; we shall be made able to stand upright and walk cheerfully in the ways of the Lord. When Christ, the Son of God, appeared in the likeness of men, and did many miracles, men were so far from doing sacrifice to him, that they made him a sacrifice to their pride and malice; but Paul and Barnabas, upon their working one miracle, were treated as gods. The same power of the god of this world, which closes the carnal mind against truth, makes errors and mistakes find easy admission. We do not learn that they rent their clothes when the people spake of stoning them; but when they spake of worshipping them; they could not bear it, being more concerned for God's hono...

Verse Acts 14:16. _WHO IN TIMES PAST SUFFERED ALL NATIONS_, c.] The words παντα τα εθνη, which we here translate, _all nations_, should be rendered, _all the Gentiles_, merely to _distinguish_ them from the _Jewish people_: who having a revelation, were not left _to walk in_ _their own ways_ but the _heathens_, who had not a _revelation_, were _suffered_ to form their creed, and mode of worship, according to their own _caprice_....

WHO IN TIMES PAST - Previous to the gospel; in past ages. SUFFERED ALL NATIONS - Permitted all nations; that is, all Gentiles, Acts 17:30. “And the times of this ignorance God winked at.” TO WALK IN THEIR OWN WAYS - To conduct themselves without the restraints and instructions of a written law. They were permitted to follow their own reason and passions, and their own system of religion. God gave them no written laws, and sent to them no messengers. Why he did this we cannot determine. It might have been, among other reasons, to show to the world conclusively: (1) The insufficiency of reason to guide people in the matters of religion. The experiment was made under the most favorable circumstances. The most enlightened nations, the Greeks and R

EXPOSITION ACTS 14:1 _Entered _for _went both, _A.V.; _Jews _for _the Jews, _A.V.; _and _for _and also, _A.V.; Greeks for _the Greeks, _A.V. Observe how in every case Greeks are found attending the synagogue. SO SPAKE, etc. This illustrates the statement in Romans 10:17, that "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." ACTS 14:2 _The Jews that were disobedient _for _the unbelieving Jews, _A.V. and T.R.; _stirred up the souls of the Gentiles, and made them, _etc., for _stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds, _etc., A.V. The Jews that were disobedien

WHO IN TIMES PAST,.... For many hundred years past; even ever since God chose and separated the people of Israel from the rest of the nations, to be a peculiar people to himself: from that time he SUFFERED ALL NATIONS TO WALK IN THEIR OWN WAYS; of ignorance, superstition, and idolatry; which they devised, and chose, and delighted in: not that he gave them any licence to walk in these ways, without being chargeable with sin, or with impunity; but he left them to themselves, to the dim light and law of nature, and gave them no written law, nor any external revelation of his mind and will; nor did he send any prophets or ministers of his unto them, to show them the evil of their ways, and turn them from them, and direct them to the true God, and the right way of worshipping him; but left them to take their own methods, and pursue the imagination of their own hearts: but the apostle suggest...

CHAPTER 14 _ 1. The work in Iconium and the persecution of the Apostles (Acts 14:1)._ 2. In Derbe and Lystra; the Impotent Man healed (Acts 14:7). 3. The Stoning of Paul and further ministries (Acts 14:19). 4. The Return to Antioch (Acts 14:25). Iconium was a Phrygian town, bordering on Lycaonia. Here again the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles. They abode there a long time, and in spite of opposition and persecution they spoke with much boldness the Word of God. Signs and wonders were also done by their hands. When their lives were threatened by the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, they fled to Lystra and Der

LYSTRA. Lystra, 25 miles SW. of Iconium, 10 miles off the trade route, in a secluded glen. Lystra and Derbe were the two cities of the Lycaonian region of Galatia; Roman influence was strong there, and Lystra was a Roman colony. The cure of a lame man in connexion with the preaching leads to serious consequences. The incident reminds us forcibly of Acts 3:2; in both cases the lameness is congenital, and the man leaps. In this case, however, faith plays the part it does in the Gospels; it is awakened apparently by Paul's preaching. Of the language of Lycaonia nothing is now known; _the_ mention of it is like a mist over the whole story. It is not asserted that Paul and Barnabas understood that language; but we know that Greek was currently spoken in the district. The recognition of the missionaries as divine beings (cf....

ON TO ICONIUM (Acts 14:1-7)...