A Jewish speaker shared that when talking with a Jewish person about faith in Jesus, it doesn’t

make sense to use the Roman Road approach – noting passages from the book of Romans. To

connect with our Jewish friends, he pointed out that we should use the Jewish Road approach –

noting passages from the Old Testament – passages familiar to them.

In sharing with the Athenians, instead of making his point by quoting Scripture passages –

which were not well-known in this culture-- Paul connected with their intellectual interest by

quoting from the Greek poet, Epimenides, and other “poets” familiar to the people of Athens:

“He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as

also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’” (Acts 17:27-28) 

The three verbs – live, move, have our being – sound a lot alike, but have significant

differences.

1 – In Him we live – we are alive and breathing because of God. In a nanosecond, God could

remove from our environment everything that makes living possible and enjoyable – the air, the

water, the food, the beauty. He not only provides those elements, He created them! And He

created you – a living being!

2 – In Him we move – God gave us the ability to move around, but this may also speak of the

passions that are in us – our emotional nature – the ability to fear, love, hate, be sad, be happy.

You might say God put within us the ability to be moved by what’s going on around us.

3 – In Him we have our being – our essential being, the ability to think, learn, and make

decisions. There is no room for pride in one’s intellect, since even the ability to learn and

process information is from the hand of God.

Paul was hammering out all this to make it clear to the Athenians that God is not a man-made

idol incapable of doing anything. Man is a God-made being – physically, emotionally, mentally.

The ability to act, feel, and think – all have come from Him.

Wouldn’t you love to know what was going through the minds of the Athenians! Do you think

maybe they were thinking: You know, this guy has a point! The gods we’ve been worshipping

can’t do ANYTHING – they can’t talk, write, smile, move from one spot to another. We just dust

them off periodically or put them back on a pedestal if they fall off. This guy has given me

something to ponder.



In our conversations with unbelieving friends, let’s ask God to help us sense where our

unbelieving friends are and start there – and give them something to ponder!

By Judy Shrout