The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
Paul stands in Athens, a city packed with shrines and even an altar to a god nobody could name. He starts not with Jesus but with the making of the world, and every word of his opening pulls the city's religion apart.
Creation as the Starting Point
Paul's first claim is the one thing no teacher in Athens taught.
William KellyEvery clause, you might say every word, undermined paganism. Yet not one word could rightly offend. This grand but simple truth left no room for the myths of priests and poets. It left no room either for the reasoning of thinkers in pitch darkness. Here is the remarkable fact: not one of the rival leaders of religion or philosophy claimed that their gods — home, foreign, or unknown — had made the world and everything in it.
The two schools listening to him each had their own account of the universe, and neither had room for a Creator.
William KellyNeither the Epicureans nor the Stoics owned creation. The one held the absurd idea that atoms came together by chance. The other imagined a fixed cycle of forming and breaking up, repeating for ever in the universe. That cycle was their god, if they can be said to have had one.
Lord of Heaven and Earth
Paul does not stop at "Maker." The second title presses on the conscience.
William KellyThe God who made all things is not only a Creator. He is Lord of heaven and earth. His authority is constant everywhere. Fallen man writhes under this truth, because it appeals at once to the conscience. As a man, I am His creature, and that tie makes me His servant. Am I doing His will? Am I pleasing Him as the motive of my life? But now I am a fallen man, departed from Him, and I like to do my own will, though I know it is opposed to His. But if He is Lord of heaven and earth, He must call me to account for my wrongdoing.
Scripture gives God this same title elsewhere, and those words shaped Paul's own thinking.
F. A. HughesIn Matthew 11 the Lord Jesus, speaking to His Father, addressed Him as "Lord of heaven and earth." In Acts 7:49 we have the words "Heaven is my throne." The light and power of this had entered Paul's mind, and it found a place in his testimony to the men of Athens.
Not in Temples Made by Man
One line from Paul sets every temple aside. He is not the first to say it.
William KellyGod "does not live in temples made by man." Isaiah implied as much to those who rested on that gift standing among them — a temple soon to fall. Stephen said it in those very words. Paul heard him then with unbelieving ears. Now Paul proclaimed it in faith and love to the Athenians.
The mistake runs deeper than architecture. It starts when people turn from the Creator to things they can make.
William KellyClaiming to be wise, they became fools. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the worship of nature, and then for the worship of humans made into gods. The sheer number of religions proved that men had lost the one true God. No splendid statue or temple could hide the fraud. Each one only advertised it. How can you fence in the everywhere-present Lord of heaven and earth inside man's work?
Where God Does Dwell
If not in buildings, then where? Some writers apply Paul's words to a habit many Christians keep — calling a building "God's house."
H. J. VineTrue believers make up the house of God. They are "living stones" — people who have tasted that the Lord is gracious and have come to Him. The Spirit of God lives in them. Don't tell me that cold, dead stones make up the house of God! "God does not live in temples made by man." True believers are the house of God.
The God Who Stoops
So great a God might seem out of reach. He is not.
William KellyGod made the universe. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and He does not live in temples made by man. Yet He stoops to look on a person who is poor, contrite in spirit, and trembling at His word. His goodness leads the sinner to repentance; and where did His goodness shine as it did in Jesus?
Summary
- Maker — Paul opens with creation. No Athenian god or philosophy ever claimed it. His words pull idolatry apart without insulting anyone.
- Lord — Maker means Ruler. If He rules heaven and earth, then my will is not my own and He must call me to account.
- Unhoused — No building of ours can hold the God who is everywhere. Isaiah and Stephen said this before Paul. Athens' crowd of shrines only proved that men had lost the true God.
- Indwelling — He refuses stone buildings and lives in believers instead. They are the house of God, not any structure.
- Stooping — The God too great for temples bends down to the person who trembles at His word. His goodness, seen in Jesus, leads that person to repentance.