Acts 17:24-29
The Message
24-29 “The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?
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Acts 17:24-29
English Standard Version
24 (A)The God who made the world and everything in it, being (B)Lord of heaven and earth, (C)does not live in temples made by man,[a] 25 nor is he served by human hands, (D)as though he needed anything, since he himself (E)gives to all mankind (F)life and breath and everything. 26 And (G)he made from one man every nation of mankind to live (H)on all the face of the earth, (I)having determined allotted periods and (J)the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 (K)that they should seek God, (L)and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. (M)Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for
as even some of (O)your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’[c]
29 (P)Being then God's offspring, (Q)we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Acts 17:24 Greek made by hands
- Acts 17:28 Probably from Epimenides of Crete
- Acts 17:28 From Aratus's poem “Phainomena”
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
