Acts 14:8 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, we see a miraculous healing that Paul performed at Lystra on a cripple who had been lame from birth, much like the healing Peter and John performed in Acts 3:2. That earlier miracle opened the gospel among the Jews, and this one opened it among the Gentiles. Both miracles pointed to the same truth, that all people are helpless in spiritual things until God gives strength. As Scripture says, “while we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

First, notice the sad condition of the cripple (Acts 14:8). He was helpless in his feet, so disabled that he could not place any weight on them at all. Everyone knew he had been that way since his mother’s womb, and that he had never walked or stood. We should thank God for the use of our limbs, and those who lack that gift may remember that their condition is not unique.

Second, notice the hope that was awakened in him for a cure (Acts 14:9). He heard Paul preach, and it is likely that he was deeply moved by what he heard. He believed that these messengers had God’s authority and power with them, so they could heal his lameness. Paul knew this through his spiritual discernment, and perhaps he could also see it in the man’s face. Paul saw that he had faith to be healed. The cripple seems to have desired healing and hoped for it, unlike the man Peter healed, who expected only money. There was not such great faith in Israel as there was among the Gentiles (Matthew 8:10).

Third, notice the cure itself. Paul saw that the man had faith to be healed, and then he healed him by the word of God (Psalm 107:20). God does not disappoint the desires he himself awakens, or the hopes he himself creates. Paul spoke to him with a loud voice, either because he was some distance away or to show that true miracles, done by Christ’s power, are very different from the fake wonders of deceivers, who whisper and mutter (Isaiah 8:19). God says, “I have not spoken in secret” (Isaiah 45:19). Paul spoke loudly so that the people around could notice and be ready for what followed.

It does not seem that this cripple was a beggar, since the text says he sat, not that he sat begging. Still, we can imagine how painful it was to watch others walk while he could not move. Paul’s command must have been welcome to him: “Stand upright on your feet.” In effect, it was as if Paul said, “Try to use the strength God is giving you, and you will find that he helps you.” Some copies add, “I say to you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, stand upright on your feet.” That is certainly implied, and it may well have been spoken directly. Power went with the word, for at once he leaped and walked. He did not only stand, but walked around before them all, showing that he was fully and immediately healed.

In this, Scripture was fulfilled: when the wilderness of the Gentile world blossoms like the rose, “the lame man shall leap like a deer” (Isaiah 35:1, 6). Those who are healed by God from spiritual weakness should show it by holy joy and a holy way of life.

Second, we see the effect this healing had on the crowd. They were amazed. They had never seen or heard anything like it, and they were overcome with wonder. Paul and Barnabas were strangers in their land, exiles and refugees, and everything about them seemed to make them low and ordinary. Yet this one miracle made them seem great and honorable in the eyes of the people, even though Christ’s many miracles did not keep the Jews from despising him.

The people took Paul and Barnabas for gods (Acts 14:11). They shouted in their own language, the speech of Lycaonia, which was a Greek dialect, “The gods have come down to us in human form.” They thought Paul and Barnabas had come down from the sky and were divine beings in human likeness. This fit well with pagan beliefs and the stories their poets told about the gods visiting earth. They were proud enough to think such a visit had come to them.

They even tried to identify which gods these men were (Acts 14:12). They called Barnabas Jupiter, since, if they were going to make him a god, it was easy to place him among the chief gods. He was probably the older man and had a more dignified look. They called Paul Mercury, the messenger of the gods, because Paul was the main speaker and had a greater command of language. He may also have seemed quick and lively in his manner. Since Jupiter was often said to travel with Mercury, they assumed this must be the same pattern here.

Then the priest prepared to offer sacrifice to them (Acts 14:13). The temple of Jupiter stood before the city gate, as if guarding and protecting the city. When the priest heard the people cry out, he acted at once, thinking it was his duty to honor the gods properly. He had often offered costly sacrifices to the statue of Jupiter, but if Jupiter himself was present, then all honors must be paid to him. The people were ready to join in. This shows how easily empty-minded people are swept along by public excitement. If the crowd shouts, “Here is Jupiter,” the priest of Jupiter quickly follows.

How different this was from Christ. When the Son of God came down and appeared in human form, and did many great miracles, people did not offer sacrifice to him. Instead, they made him the target of their pride and hatred. “He was in the world, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” But Paul and Barnabas, after one miracle, are immediately treated like gods. The same power that blinds a worldly mind to truth also helps error spread easily, and in both cases evil gets what it wants.

They brought oxen to sacrifice to them, and garlands to place on the sacrifice. These garlands were made of flowers and ribbons, and they decorated the horns of the oxen.

Paul and Barnabas strongly rejected this unearned honor and worked hard to stop it. Many pagan rulers called themselves gods and liked to receive divine worship, but Christ’s servants refused such honor, even though they were real helpers of humanity. Those rulers only claimed to serve the people, while Paul and Barnabas truly did.

They were deeply angry at this insult to God. When they heard what the crowd was doing, they tore their clothes. They did not do that when the people insulted them or even threatened to stone them, because they could bear personal harm. But when the people tried to worship them, they could not stay calm, since God’s honor mattered more to them than their own.

They also moved quickly to stop the crowd. They did not quietly allow the mistake to continue, as if falsehood could help the gospel. Christ had already given them enough honor by making them apostles. They did not need the dignity of princes or gods, because being called Christ’s ambassadors and God’s servants was greater than being called Jupiter and Mercury.

When they heard what was happening, they rushed into the crowd. Their action showed they did not see themselves as gods or as people who should receive special treatment. They did not stand apart and wait for praise. Instead, they pushed into the crowd, like men in urgent need of stopping a dangerous error.

Then they reasoned with the people, shouting so all could hear, “Men, why are you doing this?” Why would they try to make gods of men? Paul and Barnabas said this was unreasonable for two clear reasons. First, their human nature made such worship impossible. They were only men, with the same feelings and weaknesses as the crowd. They were subject to the same troubles of human life, so they should not be treated as gods.

Second, their own message stood against it. They were preaching that the people must turn from these empty idols to the living God. If they allowed worship of themselves, they would only strengthen the very error they were trying to correct. So they used this moment to show the Gentiles how right and necessary it was to turn to God from idols (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

When Paul and Barnabas preached to Jews, they did not need to argue against idolatry, since Jews already hated it. But when they preached to Gentiles, they had to correct serious mistakes about God. They told them, first, that the gods they and their fathers had worshiped were empty things, and all the ceremonies around them were useless and foolish. Scripture often calls idols “vanities,” because they are nothing useful or real. An idol is a fraud, a false copy that deceives those who trust it.

Second, they said the God they were calling them to serve is the living God. The Gentiles had been worshiping dead images that could do nothing for them, or even trying to honor men who would soon die. But the true God has life in himself, gives life to others, and lives forever.

Third, they said this God is the Maker of the world, the source of all power and being. He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them, including the very things the people treated as gods. So he is above every god they imagined. They should not bow to what they themselves had made, or to false powers they invented in their own minds. They were being called to worship the true Lord of all.

Fourth, Paul and Barnabas reminded them that God had shown great patience with the world. For many generations, he had allowed the nations to walk in their own ways. The idolaters might think their long habit of serving false gods made it acceptable to continue. But their survival was really proof of God’s mercy, not approval of their sin. God had not destroyed them sooner, even though they had not known better.

Yet now the situation had changed. God had sent the gospel and clearly made himself and his will known to all nations, not just to the Jews. If people still clung to idolatry after that light had come, they could not expect him to bear with them as before.

All the nations that had not received divine revelation, that is, all except the Jews, God allowed to follow their own ways. They had little to restrain them except their own consciences and thoughts (Romans 2:15), with no Scriptures and no prophets. In that sense, they were more excusable when they went astray, because they were walking in ignorance. But now that God has sent his revelation into the world for all nations to hear, the situation is different.

We may also understand this as a judgment on the nations, because God gave them up to their own desires and let them walk in their own ways. But the time has now come when the veil spread over all nations should be removed (Isaiah 25:7). So people can no longer excuse themselves by saying they did not know better. They must turn from their empty ways.

God’s patience with us so far should lead us to repentance, not make us assume he will always be patient while we keep provoking him. And what we did in ignorance will not justify doing the same wrong now that we have been better taught.

Even when people were not guided and corrected by God’s written word, they still could and should have known better from God’s works in creation and providence, as in Acts 14:17. The Gentiles did not have the statutes and judgments given to the Jews, no tablets of testimony or tabernacle of testimony. Still, God did not leave himself without witness. Besides the witness within them, the voice of natural conscience, they also had witnesses around them in the gifts of common providence.

Their lack of Scripture did partly excuse them, so God did not destroy them for idolatry as he did the Jewish nation. Yet this did not fully excuse them. They were still very guilty before God. God had given enough signs to show that he alone should be worshiped, and that all their service belonged to him, since all their comforts came from him. So they were guilty of great injustice and ingratitude in turning that honor away from him.

Since God has not left himself without witness, he has not left us without a guide. That means we are left without excuse. Anything that witnesses to God becomes a witness against us if we give to another what belongs to him alone.

The gifts of common providence witness that there is a God, because they are all given with wisdom and purpose. Rain and fruitful seasons cannot come by chance, and none of the idols of the nations can give rain (Jeremiah 14:22). The powers of nature point to a sovereign power in the God of nature, the one from whom they come and on whom they depend. It is not the sky itself that gives rain, but God who gives rain from heaven. He is the Father of the rain (Job 38:28).

The good we receive from these gifts also shows that we should thank not the created things that serve us, but the Creator who makes them useful to us. God “did good” and “did not leave himself without witness.” His kindness is a stronger proof of his right to our worship than even the displays of his greatness, because his goodness is part of his glory. The earth is full of his goodness, and his tender mercies are over all his works, so they praise him (Psalm 145:9-10).

God does us good by preserving the air we breathe, the ground we walk on, and the sunlight we use to see. But the clearest sign of providence in each person’s life is daily food and drink, so the apostle focuses on that. God does us good first by preparing it for us through many causes that depend on him as the first cause. The heavens send rain to the earth, the earth produces grain, wine, and oil, and these in turn sustain us (Hosea 2:21-22). God gives rain from heaven, and if there were no rain, there would be no springs, and we would soon die of thirst. He gives rain for the land too, so that we have not only drink but food. If the heavens become like iron, the earth soon becomes like bronze (Leviticus 26:19). The rain is like the river of God that greatly enriches the earth, and by it God prepares grain for us (Psalm 65:9-13).

The heathen often chose to think of the supreme God through the most frightening part of nature, thunder. That is why they called Jupiter “the thunderer” and pictured him with a thunderbolt in his hand. Scripture also shows that thunder should not be ignored (Psalm 29:3). But here the apostle sets God’s kindness before us, so we may think well of him in everything we face. We should love him and delight in him as one who does good, does good to us, and does good to all, giving rain from heaven and fruitful seasons. If rain is withheld or the seasons fail, we should blame ourselves, because our sin turns away these good gifts and blocks the flow of God’s favor.

God also does us good by giving us the comfort of his gifts. It is he who fills our hearts with food and gladness. He is rich in mercy to all (Romans 10:12), and he gives us richly all things to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17). He is not only a giver, but a generous giver. He gives not only what we need, but also the enjoyment of it (Ecclesiastes 2:24). He fills our hearts with food, meaning he gives us enough for our desire and contentment, not just bare necessity but abundance, choice, and variety.

Even those nations that had lost the knowledge of God and worshiped other gods were still filled by him, in their houses, mouths, and bellies (Job 22:18; Psalm 17:14), with good things. The Gentiles lived without God in the world, yet they still lived on God’s gifts. Christ uses that truth as a reason for doing good even to those who hate us (Matthew 5:44-45). Those people thought their greatest happiness was to have their hearts filled with food, and they wanted nothing more. But these gifts cannot satisfy the soul (Ezekiel 7:19), and anyone who values their own soul should not be satisfied with them either.

Still, the apostles count themselves among those who share in God’s goodness. We must all admit that God fills our hearts with food and gladness, not only food so that we may live, but gladness so that we may live cheerfully. We owe it to him that our lives are not all spent in sorrow. So we should thank God not only for our food, but also for our gladness, for giving us leave to be cheerful, reasons to be cheerful, and hearts that can be cheerful. And if our hearts are filled with food and gladness, they should also be filled with love and thankfulness, and made larger in duty and obedience (Deuteronomy 8:10; Deuteronomy 28:47).

Lastly, here is the result of the apostles’ refusal, as shown in Acts 14:18: “With difficulty they kept the crowd from offering sacrifice to them.” The people were so fixed in their idol worship that it was hard to turn them away from it. It was not enough for the apostles simply to refuse being treated as gods, because that might have looked like nothing more than modest humility. They had to speak strongly against it and show the people how wrong it was.

Even then, they could barely restrain the crowd, and some people were even ready to blame the priest for stopping. This shows how deep pagan idolatry runs. It begins when people give to the tools of blessing the honor that should go on to the One who gives the blessing. Paul and Barnabas healed a lame man, and the people wanted to honor them as gods instead of praising God, who had given them this power. That is a warning to us to be very careful not to give to others, or claim for ourselves, the honor that belongs to God alone.