Body
THE UNKNOWN GOD. Just like today, there was no lack of religion in the ancient world. God led the Apostle Paul to Athens, Greece during his second missionary journey. As he walked around the city, he found statues of idols everywhere. One historian of that time, Pliny, the Elder, wrote that there were 30,000 public statues of idols in Athens, plus countless private statues in homes. But the statue that especially caught Paul's attention was the one dedicated to 'the unknown god' (Acts 17:23). The people of Athens feared leaving out any god lest it unleashes its anger toward them. Their real problem was that none of these gods were Jehovah God, who was 'the unknown God.' Their 'gods' were figments of their imagination and therefore had no power or wisdom. Jeremiah wrote about idols: 'Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good' (Jer. 10:5). He then wrote about our Creator, saying, 'But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble, And the nations will not be able to endure His indignation' (Jer. 10:10). Ultimately, anything that becomes more important than God and Jesus Christ is an idol. Probably the most popular idol of our day is 'identity.' People, in a sense, worship their identity in the world - their looks, abilities, social media presence, race or ethnicity, gender, etc. Sadly, none of these idols lead to true joy. True joy is found in Jesus and being identified with Him. Saul of Tarsus took pride in his identity until he met Jesus. Thereafter, his focus was on Christ, not himself. May we, too, find joy in our identity with Him and thus say with Paul, 'I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me' (Gal. 2:20).
