Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 17:30

"The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent:" — Acts 17:30 (ASV)

And the times of this ignorance. The long period when people were ignorant of the true God, and when they worshipped stocks and stones. Paul here refers to the times preceding the gospel.

God winked at. uperidwn. Overlooked, connived at; he did not come forth to punish. In Acts 14:16, it is expressed this way: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. The sense is that he passed over those times without punishing them, as if he did not see them.

For wise purposes he allowed them to walk in ignorance and to make the clear demonstration of what people would do, showing how great the necessity was for a revelation to instruct them in the true knowledge of God. We are not to suppose that God regarded idolatry as innocent, or the crimes and vices to which idolatry led as of no importance. Rather, their ignorance was a mitigating circumstance, and he allowed the nations to live without his coming forth in direct judgment against them. (Acts 14:16).

But now commandeth. By the gospel, Luke 24:47.

All men. Not Jews only, who had been favored with peculiar privileges, but all nations. The barrier was broken down, and the call to repentance was sent out into all the earth.

To repent. To exercise sorrow for their sins, and to forsake them. If God commands all people to repent, we may observe:

1. That it is their duty to do it. There is no higher obligation than to obey the command of God.
2. It can be done. God would not command an impossibility.
3. It is binding on all. The rich, the learned, the great, the carefree, are as much bound as the beggar and the slave. There is no distinction made. It pertains to all people, in all lands.
4. It must be done, or the soul will be lost. It is not wise, and it is not safe, to neglect a plain law of God. It will not be well to die reflecting that we have, throughout our lives, neglected and despised his plain commands.
5. We should send the gospel to the nations. God calls on the nations to repent and to be saved. It is the duty of Christians to make known to them the command, and to invite them to the blessings of pardon and heaven.