Acts 14:15

Acts 14:15. Saying, Why do ye these things? The argument of Paul's address to the Lystrian idolaters, as far as we are able to gather it from the very brief summary preserved to us here, seems to be as follows: ‘Brothers, you must not look on us as in any way different to you: we are but men. And then, too, those gods whom ye take us to be, they are no gods at all. There is indeed a God whom you and your fathers have neglected, a God who made heaven and earth and sea, who though He has not given to you any direct written revelation concerning Himself, still those blessings, those recurring and ever-recurring life-giving powers of nature, seed-time and harvest-time, rain and sunshine, the thousand gifts of a bountiful Providence which serve to make glad the heart of man, these blessings have spoken in times past with sufficient clearness to awaken the slumbering thoughts of men, and to direct their attention to the adoration of the one true God. In these things you Gentiles at least might have found the traces of an unseen watchful Providence of a God at once beneficent and pure. But in the place of such a God, misreading the teachings of nature, you have set up as the object of your worship, imaginary beings wanton and impure, capricious, and characterized by all the worst and most ungovernable of the passions of men.' (This last thought, unexpressed in this brief abstract of the ‘Acts,' constantly present in Paul's mind, necessarily follows the words of Acts 14:17.)

The thousand gifts of nature above alluded to seem every instant to call men to adore the loving all-Father who cares so tenderly for His children. Such an expression of a grateful heart is found in the beautiful words of the whole of Psalms 104, which commences with, ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul.'

We also are men of like passions with you. In other words, ‘We are men like you, subject like yourselves to suffering and to death.' The gods were regarded as blessed immortals, incapable of suffering and want, dwelling in their own serene atmosphere far removed from men, exempt from all pain and peril.

And preach unto you. Literally, ‘and bring you glad tidings.' The glad tidings they brought were the object of the devoted missionaries' journey. They came into these distant lands not to receive Divine honours, but to tell them of a living God, who loved them with a love passing understanding.

That ye should turn from these vanities. Better rendered, ‘from these vain things.' Probably here the preacher pointed with his hand to the temple of Jupiter before the city gates vain things such as the lifeless idol shrined within; vain things such as Jupiter and Mercury. The whole discourse should be compared with the more elaborate sermon of Paul on the Hill of Ares (Mars) at Athens (Acts 17:23-31), and also with Romans 1:19-32, where the responsibilities of the heathen are dwelt upon at considerable length. The same thoughts run through these three Pauline compositions.