Paul is in Athens. But Paul had not intended to be in Athens, or at least not then and not for the reasons he found himself there. Why is Paul in Athens? It would be easy to say ‘mission’, but that’s only partially true. Paul is in Athens because he got into trouble in Thessalonica.

Jews jealous of the success Paul was having attacked the house of Jason where Paul was staying. So for his own safety he is sent to Berea. This seems to go well enough until the same people in Thessalonica hear about it and decide that Paul needs to be still further away. Paul is again forced to leave a city for his own safety.

Only this time he has to leave on his own. Silas and Timothy stay in Berea. Some brothers take Paul to the coast and then accompany Paul south to Athens. Once in Athens Paul sends his ‘bodyguards’ back to Berea with the message that Silas and Timothy should join him in Athens. Paul having been harassed and driven out of two cities is now on his own in a third, Athens. You might think this would be a good time to hunker down, keep things quiet, recover and wait for reinforcements?

Not a bit of it.

Paul did what he always did in a new town, and went to the nearest synagogue to tell them about Jesus. Which is why it is not untrue to say that Paul was in Athens for mission. He definitely wasn’t in Greece for a package holiday.

A few years ago I was at a conference in Athens and had the chance to follow in Paul’s footsteps. Paul saw idols, we saw ruined temples. Paul then starts debating in the marketplace and gets into conversation with two different groups of philosophers: the Epicureans and the Stoics. They apparently weren’t all that impressed and called him a ‘babbler’ and ‘a preacher of foreign gods.’ This is perhaps slightly more damning than we might think, Socrates having been executed for introducing ‘new deities’ some 400 years previously. That’s the sort of thing that sticks in the consciousness rather.

Anyway Epicurus (300 BC), famous for one of the earliest statements of the problem of evil, and the school of life he founded were essentially materialist. They attacked superstitions and the idea of divine intervention. Their basic philosophy was that people should lead a quiet life. Don’t give in to excesses, try to live without pain or fear. Live at peace and enjoy the company of good friends and good wine. Which may sound very familiar. No one is championing the Epicurean philosophy these days because they don’t have to. In Western society amongst secular people, and to be fair, a good number of religious ones, it is the default.

The Stoics, on the other hand, are enjoying something of a revival. By contrast they say the path to happiness is found by not allowing ourselves to be controlled by either our desire for happiness or our fear of pain. Emotions are destructive. A person should be judged not by their words but by their deeds. The call is to live a virtuous life and the highest virtue, therefore, is self-control.

Self-control is a virtue on the Christian’s list but only after it is rooted in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness.

Then in an apparently less than voluntary manner (v.19) Paul is taken to the Areopagus. It’s quite something to stand there. Today it’s a rocky outcrop, with no buildings and is, to be honest a bit scruffy, but the view is iconic. Looming large behind you is the acropolis and the Parthenon. It was the city’s ancient citadel and home to the great temples of the Greek gods.

It’s worth noting that the Areopagus was the place where a public council convened to scrutinize the latest ideas but it was also a court. So while Paul is not on trial, as he was later to be, it could still have been an intimidating environment. Although Paul doesn’t seem in the slightest bit inhibited.

In his ‘defence’, Paul notes that they were very religious because he saw all the objects of worship (v.22-23). Then he makes a basic theistic claim, ‘God made the world and everything in it. We all owe our existence to God’ (v.24). Then comes a distinct worldview challenge: God does not live in temples made by human hands (v.25). Instead in Paul’s thought, humans are themselves a temple made by God’s hands (1 Cor 3:17).

And if God made every nation of mankind to live on the earth (v.26) then it is our duty to seek God, and find him (v.27). But that is not as hard as you think because in Him we live and move and have our being (v.28). In respect to our creation we are all God’s children.

Paul again challenges their philosophical premises, God doesn’t reside in the imagination of man but man exists because of the mind of God (v.29). And their ethical one because he commands all people everywhere to repent (v.30). Why is this important? Because there is a day when God will judge the world (and remember Paul is in a quasi-courtroom setting!) and God has chosen His judge – Jesus (v.31). And why has God chosen Jesus, because God raised him from the dead.

They’d heard enough and let Paul go. What can we learn from all this? Two things stood out.

Mission wherever

It’s worth remembering that Athens was Paul’s plan C. Thessalonica had been plan A. Berea was Plan B. Athens wasn’t in his plans at all but there he was. David Livingstone was asked, ‘Where are you prepared to go?’ to which he replied, “I am prepared to go anywhere, so long as it is forward.” He learned that from Paul. He was still on mission, he hadn’t lost his focus just because he was missing his friends and in a city he hadn’t planned to be in.

Provoked by unbelief

Paul saw all the unbelief and it moved him. It moved him enough to engage with the worldview of the city. He was moved enough to get himself hauled up to Areopagus. And Paul’s commitment is to proclaim Christ. The answer to unbelief is Christ, the thing the world needs most is to know Christ. Are we similarly convinced?

Paul didn’t choose Athens, but once there he chose faithfulness. He was surrounded by unbelief, rival worldviews, and intellectual confidence, he neither withdrew nor diluted the message. That challenges me because Stockholm sounds like Athens.

Paul engaged, he reasoned, and he proclaimed Christ. The city did not need better philosophy, and neither does ours. It needed the risen Jesus. Mission it would seem does not wait for ideal circumstances, familiar people, or favourable ground. It does not wait but creates the opportunities wherever God has placed us, convinced that Christ is still the answer the world needs most.