“And he made out of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek God, if haply 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', as certain even of your own poets have said, ‘for we are also his offspring'.”
Furthermore he points out that God has made all mankind of every nation out of one man (Genesis 3:20), so that they may dwell on the face of the earth (Genesis 11:9; Exodus 33:16), and He has determined their times and seasons (Genesis 1:14; Genesis 8:22; Job 14:5; Daniel 2:21), and where they will live, and what land they will inhabit (Deuteronomy 32:8; Job 12:23).
So all nations spring from the one man whom He created, and He controls both what they possess (‘the bounds of their habitation') and the benefits of nature which they receive (‘their appointed seasons', compare Acts 14:17), And all this so that they might (out of gratitude and love because of His wonderful provision) seek Him, and feel after Him and find Him (Job 23:3). So that they might seek Him with all their might (compare Matthew 6:33).
Yet in spite of that He is not far from every one of us (Deuteronomy 4:7; Psalms 145:18; Jeremiah 23:23-24), for it is in Him that we live, and move and have our being (Job 12:10; Daniel 5:23). And this is even evidenced by their own poets, who have said, “For in Him we live and move and have our being” (found in the works of Epimenides as said by Minos concerning his father Zeus) And also “For we are also His offspring”, (said of Zeus by the Cilician poet Aratus, and also found in Cleanthes' Hymn to Zeus)
It will be noted from this that as against the Epicureans he stresses God's vigorous activity in the world, and as against the pantheistic Stoics that God is above, and over against, the world as its Creator. As against those Athenians who claimed to be made from the soil of Athens he states that all men come from the one man. Furthermore he applies ideas which were attributed by Stoic philosophers to Zeus, to the One God of Whom he speaks, the One Who is Lord over all. Yet both Epicureans and Stoics would agree with the idea of the oneness of the world, and the Stoics with the idea that He could be sought after and found (they would see it as by seeking to appreciate the eternal reason). Both would agree that He did not require the help of men's hands.
Thus Paul is seeking to find points of contact with their beliefs, while at the same time transforming their significance so that they would reveal to them the truth about the living God. This would then give the Holy Spirit the opening by which he could seize their hearts through what they did believe, and then lead them into further truth. By the quotations he is declaring that what men have thought about Zeus is really true about the living God Who made the world and all that is in it, the God of Whom he is speaking.
‘Feel after.' That is, feeling after like a blind man groping for understanding (Isaiah 59:10). That is certainly what the Stoics did with ‘reason'. They strove to be in conformity with the eternal reason, although aware that it somewhat eluded them. The Epicureans had simply given up on feeling their way to God at all. Both are now being stirred to take more positive action, and to allow themselves to be awakened from their philosophic drowsiness.
And the words are also emphasising the ‘ignorance' that he will soon refer to. Men ‘feel their way' because they do not know, and the point here is that men are feeling after God because they do not know Him. They are still seeking ‘the Unknown God'. As we have seen the Epicureans would deny feeling after God, but he is seeking to stir the thought in their hearts that perhaps they should be doing so in order to fill the blank in their lives of which they must sometimes be conscious.
‘Though He is not far from each one of us.' This was a direct challenge to the Epicureans. Do not believe that He is far off, he is saying, for He is very near, waiting for them to reach out to Him. The Stoics would agree with him here for they saw the divine reason as pervading all things. What they needed to consider was that He was more personally near in order to act.
‘For ‘in him we live, and move, and have our being', as certain even of your own poets have said, ‘for we are also his offspring'. As we have seen above he is citing here words from their own poets. These words repudiate the remoteness of the divine as believed by the Epicureans, emphasising that God seeks to enter into close relationship with man, and they repudiate the Stoic idea of the divine spark in man by pointing out that really we are in Him not He in us. At the same time he repudiates the idea that man is merely earthly, and therefore tied to idol worship. And he demonstrates that God very much desires to have dealings with us. He surrounds us, and He is here waiting for us, and the source of all we are is in Him. To all he is saying, ‘wake up, and recognise that God is now among you and working within you, and is this day calling you to Himself.' That this is so comes out in his later call for them now to ‘change their minds and hearts' (repent).