<p>17:28 <em>For in Him we live and move and have our being- as some even of your own poets have said: For we are also his offspring- </em>Many New Testament quotations of the Old Testament- many of those in the early chapters of Matthew, for example- are picking up words and phrases from one context and applying them to another, often slightly changing them in order to fit the new context. Paul himself did this when he quoted the words of the poet Aratus &ldquo;We are all the offspring of Zeus&rdquo; about our all being the offspring of the one true God. &nbsp;</p><p>Paul quoted from Greek poets, famous for the amount of unbiblical nonsense they churned out, in order to confound those who believed what the poets taught (Tit. 1:12; Acts 17:28). What we are suggesting is epitomized by Paul&rsquo;s response to finding an altar dedicated to the worship of &ldquo;The Unknown God&rdquo;, i.e. any pagan deity which might exist, but which the people of Athens had overlooked. Instead of rebuking them for their folly in believing in this, Paul took them from where they were to understand the one true God, who they did not know (Acts 17:22&ndash;23).</p><p>Paul sought by all means to close the gap which there inevitably is between the preacher and his audience. Thus in Athens and Lystra he mixes quotes from the Greek poets with clear allusions to God&rsquo;s word. His speeches in those places quote from Epimenides and Aratus, allude to the Epicurean belief that God needs nothing from men, refer to the Stoic belief that God is the source of all life&hellip; and also allude to a whole catena of OT passages: Ex. 20:11; Gen. 8:22; Ecc. 9:7; Jer. 5:24; 23:23; Is. 42:5; 55:6; Ps. 50:12; 145:18; 147:8; Dt. 32:8. This was all very skilfully done; surely Paul had sat down and planned what he was going to say. He tries to have as much common ground as possible with his audience whilst at the same time undermining their position. He wasn&rsquo;t baldly telling them their errors and insisting on his own possession of truth; even though this was the case. He didn&rsquo;t remove the essential scandal of the Gospel; instead Paul selected terms with which to present it which enabled his hearers to realize and face the challenges which the scandal of the Gospel presented. And Paul&rsquo;s sensitive approach to the Jews is just the same. <em>If we are out to convert men and women, we will be ever making our message relevant. If we tell the world, both explicitly and implicitly, that we don&rsquo;t want to convert them, then we won&rsquo;t. If we want to convert them, if we earnestly seek to persuade them and vary our language and presentation accordingly, then we will.</em>&nbsp;</p>