John Calvin Commentary Acts 14:16

"who in the generations gone by suffered all the nations to walk in their own ways." — Acts 14:16 (ASV)

In times past. Because the men of Lystra might object that God was unknown until now, Paul and Barnabas anticipate this objection and say, that all men indeed wandered in darkness, and that all mankind was stricken with blindness; but they deny that any prejudice should be formed based on the world's perverse ignorance.

These were two significant hindrances for the unbelievers: the great antiquity of time and the consent of almost all nations. Paul and Barnabas address both of these points here. If, they say, people have erred for many years (indeed, ages), and if the world has wandered without reason and judgment, do not, therefore, let the truth of God, when it appears, be less precious to you. For since it is eternal and is not changed, it is an unfitting thing that the long passage of years should be set against it.

They show that no further support or justification can be found in the sheer number of people. There is no reason, they say, why the consensus of the entire world should prevent you from coming to the right way. Blindness has gained the upper hand among all people; but God now (appears and) gives light to you. Therefore, your eyes must be open, and you must not slumber and sleep in darkness, even though all people have been drowned in it until now.

Their ways. If he had only said that people were deceived until that time by God’s permission, we might easily gather from this that all people can do nothing else but err, as long as they are not governed by God. Yet he speaks far more plainly when he calls errors the ways of men. For we are plainly taught by this what the wisdom and understanding of the human mind can do in perceiving and keeping the way of salvation. All peoples (nations), he says, have walked in their own ways; that is, they have wandered in darkness and death. This amounts to saying that there is no spark of true reason in the entire world.

Therefore, there is only one rule of true godliness: that the faithful, casting off all confidence in their own understanding, submit themselves to God. For the ways of men are now as they were in past times; and the examples of all times teach how miserably blind those people are who do not have the word of God to give them light, though they think they surpass others in keenness of insight.

Immediately after the beginning of the world, the greater part fell away into various superstitions and wicked forms of worship. Why did that happen, if not because they chose to follow their own imaginations? When it might have seemed that the world was purged by the flood, it quickly relapsed into the same vices. Therefore, there is nothing more deadly than to rely on our own wisdom.

But Paul and Barnabas do not explain here why the Lord allowed the world to err for so long; and certainly, we must consider the will of God alone the highest law of equity. God always has a good reason for his works; but because it is often hidden from us, it is our duty to marvel reverently at his secret counsel.

We must, indeed, confess that the world deserved such destruction; but no other reason can be given why the Lord had mercy on one age rather than on another, except that it seemed good to him that it should be so. Therefore, Paul calls that time which was appointed by God for preaching the gospel, the time of fullness (Galatians 4:4), so that no other opportune moment might be sought.

And we must remember what was stated in the first chapter: it is not for us to know the times and seasons which the Father hath placed in his own power.

Thus, the objection of the Papists is refuted, who say that God could not have allowed his Church to err for so long. For from where, I ask you, did the Gentiles come but from the ark of Noah, when there was a unique purity of the Church? (Genesis 9:9). Also, the descendants of holy Shem, along with others, degenerated. Indeed, Israel, the Lord’s peculiar people, was also left to stray for a long time. Therefore, it is no surprise if God punished the contempt for his word with the same blindness under the reign of his Son as he did in past times.