Acts 17:27Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

God so arranged matters that neither place nor time hinders those who seek Him. This very thing would have greatly served them for good, had they wished it.

I mean that this heaven is everywhere and exists at every time. Therefore he said, "though He is not far from each one of us," but is near to all.

This means that God not only gave us life and breath and everything. What is more important, He opened the way to knowing Him.

He granted that by which we can find and attain Him. But we did not wish to seek Him, though He is near us.

"He is not far," he says, "from each one of us." Thus, he says, He is near to all who are everywhere in the universe.

What can be greater than this? See how he overthrows local gods. Why do I say, "not far"?

He is so near that without Him it is impossible even to live.

Paul shows that, even without finding the Lord by searching, they had encountered Him. And since, while searching for Him, they did not find Him, he also shows that the Lord is as evident as an object viewed in a prominent place.

For it is impossible that heaven should be here and not elsewhere. It is also impossible that it should exist at this time and not at another.

Therefore at every time and in every place the Lord can be found. God so arranged matters that we meet no obstacle in this, either from place or from time.

The fact that heaven is everywhere and established for all times had an especially strong effect on the hearers (Acts 17:24). See the commentary on Acts 17:28.

If this were said with reference to the body, it could be understood as said about this bodily world. For with respect to the body also, we live and move and exist in Him.

Therefore, with respect to the mind, which was created according to His image, these words must be interpreted in a more excellent way. That is, not sensibly, but intelligibly.

For what is there that is not in Him, of whom divine Scripture says: "For all things are from Him, through Him, and in Him" (Rom 11:36)?

Therefore, if all things are in Him, by whom can what lives live, and what moves move, except by Him in whom it is?

Yet not all things remain with Him in the way it was said to Him: "I am always with You" (Ps 72:23).

Nor is He with everything in the way we say: "The Lord be with you."

What do the words mean: "whether they might feel after and find God" (Acts 17:27)? How can one find God by feeling after Him?

Answer. Whoever does not behold every bodily manifested service of the law by sense, but examines each visible symbol by contemplations of the mind, will know the God-perfecting meaning hidden in each symbol.

In this meaning he will find God. For a good purpose, he touches Him with noetic power, as though He were found in the mud of the material prescriptions of the law.

He will find the precious meaning hidden in the flesh of the law, which completely escapes sense.

Likewise, whoever does not define the nature of visible things by sense alone, but wisely seeks by the mind the meaning in each creature, finds God.

And He reveals Himself in this way in the destinies of nations, in order to compel men to seek Him. Will they not perceive Him? Will they not find Him? It is very easy to perceive Him who is not far from each of us, and in whom is the source of our being.

After this the Apostle defines the higher purpose for which the nations dwell on earth in different places. He says that it is not by chance that one nation or another lives at one time or another, in one country or another. All this is appointed and distributed by the Provider, the Lord of heaven and earth. It is so that they should seek God, whether they might feel after Him and find Him. God Himself, indeed, is not far from each of us.

The question is asked: if the Lord is not far from each one of us, why and how must we still seek Him, as though He were absent or departing from us? Compare Mt 9:15.

One must answer this way. We are constantly and unchangeably near to the Lord insofar as we are His creatures, and He is our Creator, who not only gave us being but also preserves it.

On the other hand, we are not yet near to Him, and He is not near to us, insofar as we must still draw near to Him.

We may also move away from Him by knowledge and will, or, briefly, by the free spirit.

It is known that knowledge and will are free. Therefore they can turn away even from close persons, as when a son does not want to know or obey his father.

Meanwhile the inspired preacher continued his speech. Like clear streams from a life-giving spring, it flowed from his lips and gave life to the minds and hearts of his hearers.

It was a profound philosophy, unknown to them until then, yet at the same time simple to understand. With irresistible power it acted upon the heart.

It was a simple speech, yet each word pierced the soul of those who heard it like lightning. Each was clearly impressed upon their faces.

With extraordinary clarity he set forth the exalted understanding of God to which the greatest sages of the ancient world scarcely dared to ascend.

On the basis of well-known popular poets, he showed the whole unreasonableness of worshiping idols made by human hands.

From depicting the common life of humanity, the Apostle turns to the life of each individual person, yet at the same time as a member of all humanity.

He defines the highest goal of man and the goal of humanity in such development. This goal is to seek God, whether they might feel after Him, and so forth.

This seeking itself presupposes the loss of what is sought. Consequently, this expression presupposes man's falling away from God, the fall of man.

This seeking is not only a striving to know God. It is a striving toward inward and living communion with Him.

This is presented as the goal of man who has lost God and has been left by Him to walk in his own ways (Acts 14:16).

The Apostle speaks about the origin of men in order to speak about the fundamental laws of human life. More importantly, he speaks about the goal of human life, the striving toward God, that is, the seeking of Him.

He is so near to all His creatures, and especially to man. On all these great questions of life, the inspired Paul speaks so briefly, clearly, and definitely.

"Look," says Saint John Chrysostom, "how Paul refutes the teaching about matter. It is said: From one blood He made the whole race of men.

This is much better than their teaching, and it overthrows both atoms and uncreated matter. Here he shows that the human soul is indivisible.

He pointed to the cause of all blessings. It is marvelous to create so many from one. It is still more marvelous to possess them all.

Catechism. 15. Can man know God without His special revelation?

Man can know God by the method of examining the things He has created. But this knowledge is imperfect and insufficient.

It can serve only as preparation for faith, or only as a certain aid to knowing God from His revelation.

For "His invisible things, His eternal power and Godhead, have been visible from the creation of the world through consideration of the creatures" (Rom 1:20).

"From one blood He made the whole race of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined the appointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling, that they should seek God, whether they might feel after Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:26-28).