Acts 17:27
God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.
God intended
The phrase "God intended" underscores the divine purpose and sovereignty in the creation and ordering of the world. The Greek word used here, "θεός" (theos), refers to the one true God, emphasizing His intentionality and active role in human history. This reflects the biblical theme that God is not a distant or indifferent deity but is intimately involved in the affairs of humanity, orchestrating events so that people might come to know Him.

that they would seek Him
The word "seek" comes from the Greek "ζητέω" (zēteō), which implies a diligent search or quest. This suggests that God desires a relationship with humanity, one that requires effort and intentionality on our part. The act of seeking God is a recurring theme throughout Scripture, indicating that while God is accessible, He also values the earnest pursuit of His presence and truth.

and perhaps reach out for Him
The phrase "reach out for Him" is translated from the Greek "ψηλαφάω" (psēlapháō), which means to grope or feel after. This imagery conveys the idea of humanity's spiritual blindness and the need to actively strive to connect with God. It suggests a hopeful possibility that through this reaching, individuals might overcome their limitations and find the divine.

and find Him
The Greek word "εὑρίσκω" (heuriskō) means to discover or come upon. This implies that God is not hiding but is available to be found by those who earnestly seek Him. The promise of finding God is a central tenet of the Christian faith, affirming that God rewards those who diligently seek Him with the revelation of His presence and truth.

though He is not far from each one of us
This phrase emphasizes the nearness of God to every individual. The Greek word "μακράν" (makran) means far or distant, and its negation here highlights God's omnipresence and accessibility. This is a comforting assurance that God is always within reach, ready to respond to those who call upon Him. It reflects the biblical truth that God is both transcendent and immanent, existing beyond the universe yet intimately involved in the lives of His creation.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Paul the Apostle
The speaker of this verse, Paul is addressing the people of Athens at the Areopagus, sharing the message of the one true God.

2. Athens
A city known for its rich history in philosophy and religion, where Paul delivers his sermon to a diverse audience of thinkers and seekers.

3. Areopagus
A prominent rock outcropping in Athens, serving as a meeting place for the council and a venue for philosophical discussions.

4. The Athenians
The audience of Paul's sermon, consisting of philosophers, scholars, and citizens interested in new teachings and ideas.

5. The Unknown God
Paul uses the Athenians' altar to an "unknown god" as a starting point to introduce them to the God of the Bible.
Teaching Points
God's Accessibility
God is not distant or unreachable; He is near to each of us, inviting us to seek and find Him.

The Universal Call to Seek God
Every person, regardless of background or belief, is called to seek God. This is a universal invitation.

The Role of Creation in Revelation
Creation itself testifies to God's existence and character, encouraging us to reach out to Him.

The Assurance of Finding God
When we genuinely seek God, we have the assurance that we will find Him, as He desires to be known by us.

Engaging with Culture
Like Paul, we can use elements of culture to introduce others to the truth of God, finding common ground to share the Gospel.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding that God is "not far from each one of us" impact your daily walk with Him?

2. In what ways can you actively seek God in your life, and how can you encourage others to do the same?

3. How does the assurance that we will find God when we seek Him with all our heart influence your approach to prayer and study of the Scriptures?

4. What elements of your culture or community can you use as a starting point to share the Gospel, similar to how Paul used the altar to the "unknown god"?

5. How do other scriptures, such as Jeremiah 29:13 and Romans 1:20, reinforce the message of Acts 17:27, and how can these connections deepen your understanding of God's desire for relationship with us?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Genesis 1:27
This verse connects to the idea that humans are created in the image of God, which underpins the notion that we are designed to seek and find Him.

Jeremiah 29:13
This verse echoes the promise that those who seek God with all their heart will find Him, reinforcing the message of Acts 17:27.

Romans 1:20
This passage supports the idea that God's presence and divine nature are evident in creation, making Him accessible to all.

Psalm 145:18
This verse affirms that the Lord is near to all who call on Him in truth, aligning with the assurance that God is not far from us.
Feeling After GodActs 17:27
God the Chief Object of SearchB. M. Palmer, D. D.Acts 17:27
God's Nearness to ManD. Thomas, D. D.Acts 17:27
God's Nearness to Man: Effects of the Consciousness OfW. Arthur, M. A.Acts 17:27
Not Far from Any One of UsE. Johnson, M. A.Acts 17:27
Realising God's NearnessW. Cheever.Acts 17:27
Religious Nature, and Religious CharacterH. Bushnell, D. D.Acts 17:27
The Nearness of GodH. J. Van Dyke D. D.Acts 17:27
The Parable of the Climbing PlantsWashington Gladden, D. D.Acts 17:27
The Search for God and its SatisfactionPrincipal Fairbairn.Acts 17:27
Christian Unconcern ExplainedJ. McFarlane.Acts 17:15-34
Moral Wretchedness of IdolatryD. Moore, M. A.Acts 17:15-34
Paul At AthensExpository OutlinesActs 17:15-34
Paul At AthensSermons by the Monday ClubActs 17:15-34
Paul At AthensDean Vaughan.Acts 17:15-34
Paul At AthensJ. Parker, D. D.Acts 17:15-34
Paul At AthensH. J. Bevis.Acts 17:15-34
Paul At AthensR. A. Bertram.Acts 17:15-34
Paul At AthensBp. Stevens.Acts 17:15-34
Paul At AthensA. Barnes, D. D.Acts 17:15-34
Paul's Estimate of the AtheniansEvangelical PreacherActs 17:15-34
Paul's Moral Survey of AthensD. Thomas, D. D.Acts 17:15-34
The Moral Versus the AestheticW. L. Alexander, D. D.Acts 17:15-34
Paul At AthensE. Johnson Acts 17:16-34
Paul At AthensR.A. Redford Acts 17:16-34
Novelties and How to Regard ThemC. H. Spurgeon.Acts 17:21-31
Novelty AttractiveC. H. Spurgeon.Acts 17:21-31
Paul At AthensD. Merson, B. D.Acts 17:21-31
Paul's Sermon on Mars' HillD. Thomas, D. D.Acts 17:21-31
Paul's Sermon on Mars' HillM. C. Hazard.Acts 17:21-31
Some New ThingA. J. Brown.Acts 17:21-31
God Revealed: His Nature and RelationW. Clarkson Acts 17:22-29
The Gospel's Kindly Encounter with Novel FoesP.C. Barker Acts 17:23-32
People
Athenians, Damaris, Dionysius, Jason, Paul, Silas, Thessalonians, Timotheus, Timothy
Places
Amphipolis, Apollonia, Areopagus, Athens, Berea, Thessalonica
Topics
Although, Discovery, Feel, Grope, Haply, Hope, Indeed, Order, Perhaps, Possible, Reach, Search, Seek, Though, Yes, Yet
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Acts 17:27

     6606   access to God
     8122   friendship, with God
     8160   seeking God
     8710   atheism

Acts 17:16-32

     7757   preaching, effects

Acts 17:17-34

     7535   Greeks

Acts 17:18-29

     8770   idolatry, in NT

Acts 17:22-31

     1440   revelation, creation
     5816   consciousness
     7703   apologetics

Acts 17:23-27

     5441   philosophy

Acts 17:23-30

     8702   agnosticism

Acts 17:23-31

     6183   ignorance, of God

Acts 17:24-27

     8135   knowing God, nature of

Acts 17:24-28

     1040   God, fatherhood
     4060   nature

Acts 17:24-31

     5003   human race, and God

Acts 17:25-28

     1355   providence

Acts 17:26-27

     1403   God, revelation
     5263   communication

Acts 17:26-28

     1325   God, the Creator

Acts 17:26-29

     5724   offspring

Acts 17:27-28

     1110   God, present everywhere
     5050   reason
     8604   prayer, response to God

Library
April 24 Evening
The eyes of all wait upon thee.--PSA. 145:15. He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.--The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.--Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.--Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters,
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 17 Evening
God created man in his own image.--GEN. 1:27. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.--For whom he did foreknow, he also
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

April 7. "In Him we Live and Move" (Acts xvii. 28).
"In Him we live and move" (Acts xvii. 28). The hand of Gehazi, and even the staff of Elisha could not heal the lifeless boy. It needed the living touch of the prophet's own divinely quickened flesh to infuse vitality into the cold clay. Lip to lip, hand to hand, heart to heart, he must touch the child ere life could thrill his pulseless veins. We must come into personal contact with the risen Saviour, and have His very life quicken our mortal flesh before we can know the fulness and reality of His
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Man who is Judge
...He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.'--ACTS xvii. 31. I. The Resurrection of Jesus gives assurance of judgment. (a) Christ's Resurrection is the pledge of ours. The belief in a future life, as entertained by Paul's hearers on Mars Hill, was shadowy and dashed with much unbelief. Disembodied spirits wandered ghostlike and spectral in a shadowy underworld. The belief
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

Thessalonica and Berea
'Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: 2. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath- days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, 3. Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. 4. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

Paul at Athens
'Then Paul stood In the midst of Mars-hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 24. God, that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25. Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The General Resurrection
Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. A n object, great in itself, and which we know to be so, will appear small to us, if we view it from a distance. The stars, for example, in our view, are but as little specks
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

The World Turned Upside Down
We believe that what these Jews said of the Apostles, was just a downright wilful lie. They knew better. The Apostles were not the disturbers of states. It is true, they preached that which would disturb the sinful constitution of a kingdom and which would disturb the evil practices of false priests, but they never meant to set men in an uproar. They did come to set men at arms with sin; they did draw the sword against iniquity; but against men as men, against kings as kings, they had no battle;
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

Colossians 4:14 "Luke, the Beloved Physician. "
[2] THERE are two things in the title of this paper which I shall take for granted, and not dwell on them. One is, that Luke here mentioned is the same Luke who wrote the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, and was the friend and companion of St. Paul. The other is, that Luke really was a physician of the body. On both these points the consent of learned men, who have a right to command our attention, is almost universal. I shall rigidly confine myself to two remarks which appear to grow out
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times

Acts 17:16-17. Athens.
[9] "Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him." --Acts 17:16-17. PERHAPS the reader of this paper lives in a town or city, and sees more of bricks and mortar than of green fields. Perhaps you have some relative or friend living in a town, about whom you naturally feel a deep interest.
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times

He is Lovely in his Offices
Secondly, He is altogether lovely in his offices: let us consider for a moment the suitability, fullness, and comforting nature of them. First, The suitability of the offices of Christ to the miseries of men. We cannot but adore the infinite wisdom of his receiving them. We are, by nature, blind and ignorant, at best but groping in the dim light of nature after God, Acts 17:27. Jesus Christ is a light to lighten the Gentiles, Isa. 49:6. When this great prophet came into the world, then did the day-spring
John Flavel—Christ Altogether Lovely

Immortality of the Soul, and a Future State.
--Inter silvas academi quærere verum. Hor. lib. II. epist. 2. v. 45. To search out truth in academic groves. THE course of my last speculation [3] led me insensibly into a subject upon which I always meditate with great delight, I mean the immortali
Joseph Addison—The Evidences of the Christian Religion, with Additional Discourses

Repentance and Restitution.
"God commandeth all men everywhere to repent."--Acts xvii. 30. Repentance is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. Yet I believe it is one of those truths that many people little understand at the present day. There are more people to-day in the mist and darkness about Repentance, Regeneration, the Atonement, and such-like fundamental truths, than perhaps on any other doctrines. Yet from our earliest years we have heard about them. If I were to ask for a definition of Repentance, a great
Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It

Original Righteousness.
"For in Him we live and move, and have our being: as certain also of your own poets have said. For we are also His offspring." --Acts xvii. 28. It is the peculiar characteristic of the Reformed Confession that more than any other it humbles the sinner and exalts the sinless man. To disparage man is unscriptural. Being a sinner, fallen and no longer a real man, he must be humbled, rebuked, and inwardly broken. But the divinely created man, realizing the divine purpose or restored by omnipotent grace
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Period iii. The Dissolution of the Imperial State Church and the Transition to the Middle Ages: from the Beginning of the Sixth Century to the Latter Part of the Eighth
The third period of the ancient Church under the Christian Empire begins with the accession of Justin I (518-527), and the end of the first schism between Rome and Constantinople (519). The termination of the period is not so clearly marked. By the middle and latter part of the eighth century, however, the imperial Church has ceased to exist in its original conception. The Church in the East has become, in great part, a group of national schismatic churches under Moslem rulers, and only the largest
Joseph Cullen Ayer Jr., Ph.D.—A Source Book for Ancient Church History

St. Justin Martyr (Ad 166)
Although Trajan was no friend to the Gospel, and put St. Ignatius to death, he made a law which must have been a great relief to the Christians. Until then they were liable to be sought out, and any one might inform against them; but Trajan ordered that they should not be sought out, although, if they were discovered, and refused to give up their faith, they were to be punished. The next emperor, too, whose name was Hadrian (AD 117-138) did something to make their condition better; but it was still
J. C. Roberston—Sketches of Church History, from AD 33 to the Reformation

Whether Idolatry is Rightly Reckoned a Species of Superstition?
Objection 1: It would seem that idolatry is not rightly reckoned a species of superstition. Just as heretics are unbelievers, so are idolaters. But heresy is a species of unbelief, as stated above ([3101]Q[11], A[1]). Therefore idolatry is also a species of unbelief and not of superstition. Objection 2: Further, latria pertains to the virtue of religion to which superstition is opposed. But latria, apparently, is univocally applied to idolatry and to that which belongs to the true religion. For just
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Sufficient Reason Can be Assigned for the Ceremonies Pertaining to Holy Things?
Objection 1: It would seem that no sufficient reason can be assigned for the ceremonies of the Old Law that pertain to holy things. For Paul said (Acts 17:24): "God Who made the world and all things therein; He being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made by hands." It was therefore unfitting that in the Old Law a tabernacle or temple should be set up for the worship of God. Objection 2: Further, the state of the Old Law was not changed except by Christ. But the tabernacle denoted
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Woman Should have Been Made from Man?
Objection 1: It would seem that woman should not have been made from man. For sex belongs both to man and animals. But in the other animals the female was not made from the male. Therefore neither should it have been so with man. Objection 2: Further, things of the same species are of the same matter. But male and female are of the same species. Therefore, as man was made of the slime of the earth, so woman should have been made of the same, and not from man. Objection 3: Further, woman was made
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether all Things are Life in God?
Objection 1: It seems that not all things are life in God. For it is said (Acts 17:28), "In Him we live, and move, and be." But not all things in God are movement. Therefore not all things are life in Him. Objection 2: Further, all things are in God as their first model. But things modelled ought to conform to the model. Since, then, not all things have life in themselves, it seems that not all things are life in God. Objection 3: Further, as Augustine says (De Vera Relig. 29), a living substance
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Souls are Conveyed to Heaven or Hell Immediately after Death?
Objection 1: It would seem that no souls are conveyed to heaven or hell immediately after death. For a gloss on Ps. 36:10, "Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be," says that "the saints are delivered at the end of life; yet after this life they will not yet be where the saints will be when it is said to them: Come ye blessed of My Father." Now those saints will be in heaven. Therefore after this life the saints do not go immediately up to heaven. Objection 2: Further, Augustine says (Enchiridion
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

The World, Created by God, Still Cherished and Protected by Him. Each and all of Its Parts Governed by his Providence.
1. Even the wicked, under the guidance of carnal sense, acknowledge that God is the Creator. The godly acknowledge not this only, but that he is a most wise and powerful governor and preserver of all created objects. In so doing, they lean on the Word of God, some passages from which are produced. 2. Refutation of the Epicureans, who oppose fortune and fortuitous causes to Divine Providence, as taught in Scripture. The sun, a bright manifestation of Divine Providence. 3. Figment of the Sophists as
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Links
Acts 17:27 NIV
Acts 17:27 NLT
Acts 17:27 ESV
Acts 17:27 NASB
Acts 17:27 KJV

Acts 17:27 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Acts 17:26
Top of Page
Top of Page