The Right Spirit in Giving Alms

The Need of Reflection and Self-control

Self-Control^[b]

Paul in Athens

¹⁶ While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.^{(A) 17} So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and also in the marketplace^[a] every day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸ Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this pretentious babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) ¹⁹ So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰ It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” ²¹ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

²² Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. ²³ For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,^{(B) 25} nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.^{(C) 26} From one ancestor^[b] he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,^{(D) 27} so that they would search for God^[c] and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.^{(E) 28} For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

²⁹ “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.^{(G) 30} While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,^{(H) 31} because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”^(I)

³² When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” ³³ At that point Paul left them. ³⁴ But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

True and False Wisdom

Paul in Corinth

18 After this Paul^[a] left Athens and went to Corinth.^{(A) 2} There he found a Jew named Aquila from Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul^[b] went to see them,^{(B) 3} and, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they worked together—by trade they were tentmakers.^{(C) 4} Every Sabbath he would argue in the synagogue and would try to convince Jews and Greeks.^(D)

⁵ When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with proclaiming the word,^[c] testifying to the Jews that the Messiah^[d] was Jesus.^{(E) 6} When they opposed and reviled him, in protest he shook the dust from his clothes^[e] and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the gentiles.”^{(F) 7} Then he left the synagogue^[f] and went to the house of a man named Titius^[g] Justus, a worshiper of God; his house was next door to the synagogue.^{(G) 8} Crispus, the official of the synagogue, became a believer in the Lord, together with all his household, and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul became believers and were baptized.^{(H) 9} One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent,^{(I) 10} for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people.”^{(J) 11} He stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

¹² But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal. ¹³ They said, “This man is persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to the law.” ¹⁴ Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of crime or serious villainy, I would be justified in accepting the complaint of you Jews,^{(K) 15} but since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves; I do not wish to be a judge of these matters.” ¹⁶ And he dismissed them from the tribunal. ¹⁷ Then all of them^[h] seized Sosthenes, the official of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of these things.^(L)

Paul’s Return to Antioch

¹⁸ After staying there for a considerable time, Paul said farewell to the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had his hair cut, for he was under a vow.^{(M) 19} When they reached Ephesus, he left them there, but first he himself went into the synagogue and had a discussion with the Jews. ²⁰ When they asked him to stay longer, he declined, ²¹ but on taking leave of them he said, “I^[i] will return to you, if God wills.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.^(N)

²² When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem^[j] and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.^{(O) 23} After spending some time there he departed and went from place to place through the region of Galatia^[k] and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.^(P)