Acts 17:25
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Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Neither is worshipped with--ministered unto, served by men's hands, as though he needed anything--No less familiar as this thought also is to us, even from the earliest times of the Old Testament (Job 35:6, Job 35:8; Psa 16:2-3; Psa 50:12-14; Isa 40:14-18), it would pour a flood of light upon any candid heathen mind that heard it. seeing he--He Himself. giveth to all life, and breath, and all things--The Giver of all cannot surely be dependent for aught upon the receivers of all (Ch1 29:14). This is the culminating point of a pure Theism.
Open source ↗We have here a further account of the travels of Paul, and his services and sufferings for Christ. He was not like a candle upon a table, that gives light only to one room, but like the sun that goes its circuit to give light to many. He was called into Macedonia, a large kingdom, Act 16:9. He began with Philippi, because it was the first city he came to; but he must not confine himself to this. We have him here, I. Preaching and persecuted at Thessalonica, another city of Macedonia (Act 17:1-9). II. Preaching at Berea, where he met with an encouraging auditory, but was driven thence also by persecution (Act 17:10-15). III. Disputing at Athens, the famous university of Greece (Act 17:16-21), and the account he gave of natural religion, for the conviction of those that were addicted to polytheism and idolatry, and to lead them to the Christian religion (Act 17:22-31), together with the success of this sermon (Act 17:32-34).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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This is what God the LORD says— He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:
Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
“Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?”
“Can a man be of use to God? Can even a wise man benefit Him?
The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.
as long as my breath is still within me and the breath of God remains in my nostrils,
I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.”
Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.