HOW many times have you said to yourself when an unusually large task seemed pressing, "I don't know where to begin"?
Paul told the Athenians where to begin when he stood in the midst of Mars' Hill and looked about at the confusion of religious beliefs in their city. He saw them "wholly given to idolatry" (Acts 17:16), and he spoke out to them clearly: "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."
The remedy for this ignorant devotion to an unknown God, Paul implied, was the understanding of God Almighty as creator of heaven and earth and of man's place in this universe as His offspring. Paul's remedy propounded to the Athenians was not just a moving speech; rather it was a restatement of the teachings of Christ Jesus, who only a few years before Paul's preaching stated with revolutionary authority (Matt. 6:33), "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
