“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry” (Acts 17:16).
During Paul’s second missionary journey, while waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him in Athens, what he saw in that city “stirred” his spirit.
The Greek word translated “stirred,” according to Greek scholar A.T. Robertson, means “to sharpen, to stimulate, to irritate.”
A number of scholars pointed out that this particular Greek word was used in the Septuagint to refer to God’s extreme anger, most often in reference to God’s anger over the idolatry of the Jews.
The emotion Paul experienced in this account should not be dismissed and may well serve as a challenge to us concerning our far too commonplace lack of righteous indignation.
Of Paul in Athens, Campbell Morgan said, “In the midst of the beauty and the glory and the art and the philosophy and the history of Athens, proud and wonderful Athens, this man Paul was in a rage ….”
R.C. Sproul said Paul “… had a visceral reaction. He wasn’t just a little bit peeved or annoyed; his heart was in turmoil.”
The point I’m trying to make is that Paul was outraged.
He was not impressed with the brilliant philosophers or the architecture and beauty of the city as most travelers or tourists would have been, rather; he was downright angry.
But why?
Verse 16 gives the answer plainly: Paul was angered “… when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.”
Paul looked out at this city, this city full of the best the world had to offer, full of capable and brilliant people, yet, he saw it for what it was – nothing more than the devil’s playground, a city under Satan’s control.
He was angry because the great deceiver had deceived them all and had enslaved them in idolatry.
John Phillips said, “To see that great city so completely given over to idolatry filled him with righteous wrath. To see such a victory for the powers of darkness! To see Satan binding men and holding them in such degrading superstition and despair!”
That’s what angered Paul.
Here’s Matthew Henry’s take on why Paul was so angry:
“He was filled with concern for the glory of God, which he saw given to idols, and with compassion to the souls of men, which he saw thus enslaved to Satan, and led captive by him at his will. He beheld these transgressors, and was grieved; and horror took hold of him. He had a holy indignation at the heathen priests, that led the people such an endless trace of idolatry, and at their philosophers, that knew better, and yet never said a word against it, but themselves went down the stream.”
Paul carried an immense burden for the lost.
And when he looked out over this city, that’s all he saw – lost people, enslaved in darkness and sin, and bound for hell.
Such a sight stirred him. It provoked him. It angered him.
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Does anything anger you?
I don’t think I have to guess at what your answer may be, as all of us have things that anger us.
How many of us get angry when a discussion turns to Washington, D.C., our bloated government, and crooked politicians?
How many of us get angry when we deal with a rude cashier or secretary or something of that nature?
How many of us get mad when we are driving down the road and someone pulls out in front of us as though they are in a hurry, only to poke along like they have nowhere to be?
I could give many more examples, but I’m sure if none of those things anger you, you could give me plenty of examples of things that do.
But whether or not anything angers us is not really the best question.
A more appropriate question, a much more revealing question, is what angers us?
It may come as a surprise, but anger is not sinful.
Paul’s righteous indignation at Athens was not a sin.
Certainly, anger can lead to sin, but the emotion itself is not sin, and can in fact be channeled in a productive way.
Paul told the Ephesians believers to “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26).
In other words, it’s ok to be angry; just don’t let it lead to sin.
Solomon, in all his wisdom, said in Proverbs 15:18 “A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but [he that is] slow to anger appeaseth strife.”
He didn’t say a man who doesn’t get angry can calm a situation, but rather, the man who is slow to anger (the one who has it under control) can calm strife.
In another example of one who can control their anger, Solomon said, “[He that is] slow to anger [is] better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city” (Proverbs 16:32).
Jesus, our perfect example, was righteously indignant on occasion.
At least once, possibly twice, He entered the temple complex, flipped over the money changer’s tables, poured out their money, made a scourge, and ran them out.
Certainly, He wasn’t sinful. His was a righteous anger.
As I observe the state of the church today, I think it’s safe to say we need a little more righteous anger among us.
Not an anger that drives us to sin, but an anger that motivates us to action.
Consider abortion. Despite the overturn of Roe v. Wade, thousands of babies die every day at the hands of abortionists – sacrificed to the god of convenience and self.
Consider the sexual deviancy agenda being forced on our children today through mandated curriculums, where, in many cases, the material is so perverse the teachers don’t want the students to take their work home for fear the parents will see what their learning.
What about when our fellow believers are thrown in jail because they have the courage to protest at an abortion clinic?
What about when our business-owning, fellow believers are drug through a decade-plus legal battle because they maintained their Christian convictions in their workplace?
Or what about when our fellow believers who are doctors, nurses, and teachers are fired because they refuse to compromise their religious convictions.
Do those things anger you?
When I tell people of such things, I’m often shocked at the level of apathy in their response.
Where is the stirring? Where is the righteous indignation today?
I’m not implying our anger for other things is not justified. Perhaps it is.
But by comparison, why are we not stirred by those things that should truly stir us?
Why is it that non-eternal, often petty things anger us so greatly, while the pervasive sin and wickedness around us are casually brushed aside?
Why are we not like Paul? Why are we not righteously indignant when we observe a world deceived by satan, people trapped in bondage, and people dying and going to hell?
It should stir us. It should anger us to see that our adversary, just like he was in Athens, is wreaking havoc and stealing souls.
And that stirring, that anger, channeled properly, should drive us to action.
It did with Paul.
His anger motivated him to go into the synagogues and streets of Athens, and ultimately up to Mars Hill in hopes of introducing those people to the unknown God they were ignorantly attempting to worship.
His anger didn’t drive him to sin. His anger originated from a heart of love, and that drove him to preach Jesus to them. It should us as well.
