Babble or Truth

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

BABBLE OR TRUTH

Acts 17:18-23

18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." 21(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

NIV

We continue with this narrative regarding the time Paul was in Athens, Greece. It is interesting that as Paul took advantage of every opportunity to discuss, to have a dialog with both the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks in the synagogue, as well as with anyone who would listen in the marketplace, there were some who considered him to be nothing but a babbler. Of course, these were the Epicureans and the Stoics, both holding to being philosophers, men of high learning who may well have considered themselves of high standings in the community. The word babbler which they thought of Paul, in Greek, means one who is a gossip or trifle in talk, which carries the meaning of treating something as inconsequential. Yet at the same time, they wanted to have him explain himself because it was their form of entertainment. It was how their spent much of their time, being thinkers, talking and listening to the latest ideas. At least these educated snobs wanted to dialog about something new to them so they might sit around and philosophy about this new idea. That was far better than in many incidents today, where people of education, those who have degrees in various specialized areas, who are proud and think themselves better than others are closed to new ideas, particularly of a spiritual nature regarding God and specifically Jesus. At one time in the not-so-distant past, when we first were saved, believers were looked at as people from the other side of the tracks, the uneducated poor people, and weak-minded. However, over recent years there have been members of academia who are thinkers and have come to see Jesus as the Son of God. This does bear truth that Christianity is a thinking man's faith. Instead of considering the things of this world as the things of worship, some have opened their minds to the things of God, as these Athenians were willing to dialog about. Open minds are willing to consider new thinking, at least to place enough importance on it, to listen and dialog regarding this new idea about Jesus being the one and only Son of God who was always in the form of God but came to take on the form of man for the purpose of saving them from the penalty of disobedience or the result of a sinful life. Now we have great thinkers who have become apologetics of the faith, in fact, in almost all cases denominationally, degrees of learning are needed to follow the course of ministry. Again, in the not-so-distant past, we have many men who were considered revelation knowledge preachers. These were men who simply, first heard the call of God and responded by preaching from their own experiences from the hand of God upon them. Now, we may have gone too far in the other direction and have become more of a religious community of epicureans and Stoics who simply want to sit around and philosophy about religious matters. At least they do not have some unknown god they worship; however, many believers still may have idols throughout their lives they are unaware of, which might be considered an unknown gods. Let us always be ready to give a word of truth about Jesus to every segment of society without being a babbler.