“So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.”
Acts 17:22-23 (NLT)
Paul steps into Athens and he notices what everybody can see: shrines everywhere. They are very religious. But then he sees the altar marked “To an Unknown God,” and he puts his finger right on the heart of the issue. You can worship and still not know the One you are worshipping. That phrase, “worship without knowing,” is the definition of religion. When there is worship without relationship, all we have is religion. And religion will not save us.
The God Paul preaches is not a hidden God. He is the God who made the whole world and everything in it. Because He is the Master, the Lord, the God of Heaven and Earth, then He cannot be contained by a temple that man made. And we cannot do something to meet God’s needs, because the Lord has no needs Himself. He is the One who brings us life and breath. He is the Satisfier of every need.
From one man, Adam, God created every nation in the whole earth, and He decided when they would rise and fall. He determined their times and boundaries, and His purpose was that they would seek God and find Him. And here is the part that gets me: He is not far from any of us. Through God we live. Through God we move. Through God we exist. So since we are God’s offspring, we cannot put Him in a box and act like He is an idol we can craft out of gold, silver, or stone.
I wonder today if any of us have that same gap, offering worship without knowing God. The gap is covered through Jesus, when we believe in our heart and confess Him as Lord and Savior. And we remain in relationship with God by being in His presence: talking to Him through prayer, letting Him talk to us through His Word, and staying in community with other believers. This enables us to love and be loved. Let’s draw closer to God today by giving our whole lives to Him, because the Creator of Heaven and Earth wants to know you personally.