Series 1 - Lesson 1 - Annotation 8
Explain the meaning of the statement "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
8. By this statement Paul was endeavoring to make clear to the people of Athens that God is a living presence and power, the cause or originating essence of all life as well as the sustenance of every living creature during its existence in a bodily form. He pointed out to them the statement made by one of the Greek poets (and recorded in our Scriptures), "For we are indeed his offspring" (Acts 17:28), making plain to them that God is not a human being apart from them, nor, as verse 29 says, "like gold, or silver, or stone." Rather God is the everywhere-present intelligence, the all-pervading Spirit substance, the one Mind essence in which are inherent all the qualities (Ideas) of God. It is out of this one substance through the power of Spirit moving on the ideas that beast, bird, fish, and man are created.
Job stated:
"In his hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind" (Job 12:10).
The fish lives in the water and from it obtains everything needful for its existence; the bird, the beast, and the body of man maintain a physical existence in the air by a natural process of breathing air substance. The soul of man lives in omnipresent Spirit substance by means of divine thought action, the Word, Spirit-breathing (inspiration), through which man is inspired by prayer with God ideas. It is the right use of these ideas that enables man to express and manifest himself as a divine being instead of just a human being.
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Preceding Entry: How may one bring his thoughts under his conscious control?
Following Entry: What benefit comes to us from praying to God as "our Father" (Matt. 6:9)?
