The Duty of Christian Study

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Christians should study the Scriptures and know them thoroughly.

Christians should also know the beliefs of others in order to understand them and to better situate their preaching of the Gospel.

I. Preliminary Matters- I Cor. 1:18–25.

The natural state finds the cross of Christ to be foolish

The Jews want a sign to verify the message—and are never satisfied with the signs given (see the Gospels)

The Gentiles wanted rhetorically pleasing preaching and found the simplicity and vulgarity of the cross to be foolish

II. Specific Philosophies- 17:18

Philosophy for this period of human history was not a way of thinking, it was a way of life, more of a religion than a way of thinking.

Epicureanism- pleasure and happiness, a low view of the gods and goddesses, aimed at a disciplined life of enjoyment, “bent to pamper the flesh”—Calvin “Epicureanism was an anti-religious philosophy: Epicurus said that fear of the gods and of what happened after death was one of the main causes of human anxiety.” Nick Needham This is very similar to Marxism and Leninism, and now modern thought (it’s even in the Declaration of Independence)

Stoicism- reason and fate, materialists, matter only mattered, viewed God bounded by fate

III. Paul’s Reaction-17:16-17

IV. The Athenians Response- 17:18

V. Why Christians have a duty to study- 17:28

Who lives around us?

What beliefs are prominent?

How can we communicate the Gospel to those around us?