God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
God that made the world and all things therein. The most profound philosophers of Greece were unable to conceive any fundamental distinction between God and the universe. Thick darkness, therefore, behoved to rest on all their religious conceptions. To dissipate this, the apostle sets out with a sharp statement of the fact of creation, as the central principle of all true religion.
Seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth - holding in free and absolute subjection all the works of His hands; presiding in august Royalty over them, as well as pervading them all as the Principle of their being. How different this from the blind Force or Fate to which all creatures were regarded as in bondage!
Dwelleth not in temples made with hands. This thought-so familiar to Jewish ears (see 1 Kings 8:27; Isaiah 66:1-2; and Acts 7:48), and so elementary to Christians-would serve only more sharply to define to his pagan audience the spirituality of that living, personal God whom he 'announced' to them.