29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. (Acts 17:29 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Observe here, 1. How our apostle quotes one of the heathen poets in his divine discourse. This poet was Aratus; what he attributes to Jupiter, St. Paul attributes to the true God; We are his off-spring.
Where note, for the honour of human learning and the lawfulness of making use of it in our sermons, the Holy Ghost is pleased several times in the New Testament to make mention of the heathen poets; of Aratus here, Ac 17:28 of Menander, 1Co 15:33 of Epimenides, Tit 1:12. Truth is God’s wherever it is found; as a mine of gold is the king’s on whose ground soever it is discovered.
Observe, 2. The force of the apostle’s argument: seeing we are God’s off-spring: that is, seeing God is our Creator, we cannot suppose him to be the workmanship of our hands, as an image of gold, silver, or stone is; and consequently how irrational it is for a man to adore an image made by his own hands, for and instead of God.
Learn, That there is a strong propensity and inclination in the heart of man to the sin of idolatry.
2. That the sin of idolatry is not only a very great sin, but a very unreasonable and absurd sin; it is not only sacrilegious but silly for a man to worship his own workmanship, and to fall down upon his knees to the work of his own hands.