Acts 14:16

14:8-18 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 honour than their own. God's truth needs not the services of man's falsehood. The servants of God might easily obtain undue honours if they would wink at men's errors and vices; but they must dread and detest such respect more than any reproach. When the apostles preached to the Jews, who hated idolatry, they had only to preach the grace of God in Christ; but when they had to do with the Gentiles, they must set right their mistakes in natural religion.

Compare their conduct and declaration with the false opinions of those who think the worship of a God, under any name, or in any manner, is equally acceptable to the Lord Almighty. The most powerful arguments, the most earnest and affectionate addresses, even with miracles, are scarcely enough to keep men from absurdities and abominations; much less can they, without special grace, turn the hearts of sinners to God and to holiness.

There were two main objections which these heathen idolaters might make against the gospel, and the worship of the true God: and they are, first, from the antiquity, secondly, from the universality, of that false worship; both which the apostle here gives a critical answer unto, telling them, that the reason why so many, and for so long a time had followed idols, was from the just judgment of God upon them, as Psalm 81:12 Romans 1:24,28 . Their own ways; ways of our choosing, and not of God’s commanding, are false ways.

Acts 14:16 . Ὃς , who ) An anticipation of an objection that might be made, lest the Lycaonians should suppose that, had these same things been true, they would have heard them from their parents.— παρῳχημέναις , past ) οἴχεσθαι is said of that which perishes and passes away ineffectual. See by all means 2 Esdras 9 :(13) 14–22; with which comp. as to a vain mode of life, 1 Peter 1:18 : and, on the contrary, as to believers, Acts 13:36 , David served the will of God in his generation .— εἴασε , suffered ) A great judgment. With this may be compared Heidanus de Orig. erroris, l. vi., etc.— πάντα , all ) The largeness of the number of those in error does not take away (set aside) the error.— ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν , in their own ways ) of idolatry, which they themselves entered upon (have begun).

16 . who in times past ( by-gone generations ) suffered all nations ( all the heathen ) to walk in their own ways ] God had chosen Israel only for His own people before the coming of Christ, and had given to the rest of the world no revelation of Himself except what they could read in the pages of the book of nature. But that, St Paul says, spake clearly of a careful creator and preserver of the world.

Acts 14:16-18 . Who in the past ages left the Gentiles to themselves (did not guide them by special revelation), although He withal made Himself known, doing good to them, by the blessings of nature —an indulgent description (comp. Acts 17:30 ) of the ungodly character of the heathen, with a gently reproving reference to the revelation of God in nature. Ὅρα πῶς λανθανόντως τὴν κατηγορίαν τίθησι , Chrysostom. Grotius aptly remarks: “Egregiam hic habemus formam orationis, quam imitari debeant, qui apud populos in idololatria educates evangelium praedicant.” Comp. Schneckenburger, die natürl. Theol. d. Paul. in his Beitr . p. 97 ff. ταῖς ὁδοῖς ] local [18] dative: in their ways . Comp. on 2 Corinthians 12:18 ; Judges 1:11 ; Jdt 13:16 ; Sir 35:20 . What is meant is the development of the inward and outward life in a way shaped by themselves, without divine regulation and influence, and also without the intervention of the divine anger. Comp. Romans 3:10 ff; Romans 1:22 ff., where the whole moral abomination and curse of this relation is unveiled, whereas here only alluring gentleness speaks.[19] καίτοιγε οὐκ ἀμάρτ . κ . τ . λ .] An indication that they, nevertheless, might and should have known Him. Comp. Romans 1:20 , καίτοιγε , as in John 4:2 , quamquam quidem , and yet . See also Baeumlein, Partik . p. 245 ff.; and Krüger, Dion. H . p. 267.

Observe the relation of the three participles, of which the second is logically subordinate to the first, and the third to the second: as doer of good, in that He gives you rain, thereby filling, etc. οὐρανόθεν ] not uselessly added. “Coelum sedes Dei,” Bengel. Observe also the individualizing ὑμῖν (see critical remarks). εὐφροσύνης ] joy generally. Arbitrarily, Grotius and Wolf suggest that ( Sir 31:31 ) wine is meant. τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν ] neither stands for the simple ὑμᾶς , nor is it to be taken, with Wolf, of the stomach (Thuc. II. 49. 2); but the heart is filed with food , inasmuch as the sensation of being filled, the pleasant feeling of satisfaction , is in the heart . Comp. Psalm 104:15 ; Jam 5:5 . τοῦ μὴ θύειν αὐτοῖς ] comp. Acts 10:47 . The genitive depends on κατέπαυσαν , according to the construction καταπ . τινά τινος to divert a person from a thing, to hinder him in it (Hom. Od. xxiv. 457; Plat. Polit. p. 294 E; frequently in the LXX.), and μή is the usual particle with verbs of preventing and hindering (Hartung, Partikell. II. p. 167 f.; Baeumlein, l.c. p. 298 ff.). [18] See, generally, on the dativus localis , Becker, Homer. Blätter, p. 208 f. [19] The announcement of the gospel forms the great epoch in the history of salvation, with the emergence of which the times of men’s being left to themselves are fulfilled. See Acts 17:30 ; Romans 3:25 f. Comp. also Hebart, natürl. Theol. d. Ap. Paul. p. 13. For judgment Jesus has come into the world.

(16) Who in times past suffered all nations. —Better, all the heathen; the term used being that which is always employed of the nations outside the covenant of Israel. We have here the first germ of what may be fairly described as St. Paul’s philosophy of history. The times of ignorance had been permitted by God, and those who had lived in them would be equitably dealt with, and judged according to their knowledge. The same thought meets us again in the speech at Athens ( Acts 17:30 ). In Romans 1, 2, 11, we meet with it, in an expanded form, as a more complete vindication of the righteousness of God. The ignorance and the sins of the Gentile world had been allowed to run their course, as the Law had been allowed to do its partial and imperfect work among the Jews, as parts, if one may so speak, of a great divine drama, leading both to feel the need of redemption, and preparing both for its reception. All were included in unbelief that God might have mercy upon all ( Romans 11:32 ).