How can American Christians hope to speak the truth into our increasingly secular, culturally diverse modern society? Well, the challenge Paul faced in Ancient Athens was quite similar. After all, up to that point in his ministry, he had always gone to the synagogues, speaking to Jews and Gentiles who already knew a lot about the Old Testament Scriptures. But as he stood in the Areopagus, he addressed an audience that neither knew nor cared about the Bible at all. So, showing how Jesus fulfilled all the ancient prophecies about Him wouldn’t be of the least interest to any of them.

So he began where we need to begin our conversations with non-Christians, not by talking but by listening. Paul had already spent time in Athens, observing the statues of the different gods that people worshipped (17:23), and thus trying to understand what was important to them. And that’s a good place for us to start as well. After all, as more and more people are constructing their own individual belief systems from information they glean online, there is simply no substitute for listening to individual people and finding out what they really think – after all, that’s how you treat people you love, right?

Moreover, when we speak, we must not make the mistake that everything non-believers think is wrong. In verse 28, after all, Paul quotes not from the Old Testament scriptures, but from Epimenides and Aratus, two Greek poets who made no claim to believe in Christ. Paul thus demonstrates that he found at least some truth and value in what his listeners already believed. And because all people are made in the image of God, and thus because all people have received a measure of God’s common grace, there are bits and pieces of truth in every person and every worldview.

But once we’ve listened to our non-believing friends, and once we’ve found some points of contact with the bits of truth that they already believe, we do need to try to straighten out their mixed-up ideas. After all, while Paul acknowledged the statues that filled the city of Athens, he went on to say that it didn’t really make sense to try to capture the essence of any divine being in something merely material (17:29). And because every non-Christian religion was made up by sinful people, they all contain inner inconsistencies. Trying to reveal some of these flaws, perhaps by asking questions about them, is a good way to get people thinking that another system of truth might make more sense.

And that’s where we need to end up – pointing to the truth of Christ. For there’s no other Truth that can really make sense out of the world. There’s no other Way to God that will protect us on the coming Day of Judgment (17:31). And because Jesus rose from the dead (17:31), we can be sure that He is the only source of Life for everyone, regardless of our culture or ethnic group.

Now, all of the pagan philosophers who heard Paul speak didn’t believe him. Some even mocked his ideas (17:32). But a few did in fact believe (17:34), so who knows? Maybe such an understanding, honest, loving approach will help some of our friends come to know Jesus as well. If we love them, shouldn’t we at least give it a try?

Acts 17:22-34 (ESV)

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
29 Being then God’s offspring, 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.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
33 So Paul went out from their midst.
34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.