Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
Parallel translations
- WEB neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.
- KJV Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
- NKJV Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
- NASB nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
- NLT and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God needs nothing from people; rather, He gives everyone life, breath, and all things.
Overview
Paul overturns the pagan notion that gods depend on human worship and sacrifice. The true God is the self-sufficient giver, not a needy recipient. This humbles human pride and exalts God's grace, for every breath we draw is His gift, and salvation likewise flows from His giving, not our giving to Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Ps 50:8–13I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.
- Gen 2:7Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
- Isa 42:5This is what God the LORD says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:
- Job 33:4The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
- Acts 17:28‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
- Rom 11:35“Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?”
- Job 35:6–7If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? If you multiply your transgressions, what do you do to Him?
- Job 22:2“Can a man be of use to God? Can even a wise man benefit Him?
- Ps 104:27–30All creatures look to You to give them their food in due season.
- Job 12:10The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.
- 1 Tim 6:17Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.
- Ps 16:2I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.”
- Job 27:3as long as my breath is still within me and the breath of God remains in my nostrils,
- Zech 12:1This is the burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, who forms the spirit of man within him:
- Matt 9:13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
- Matt 5:45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
- Acts 14:17Yet He has not left Himself without testimony to His goodness: He gives you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.”
- Amos 5:21–23“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
- Job 34:14If He were to set His heart to it and withdraw His Spirit and breath,
- Jer 7:20–23Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.
- Num 27:16“May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation
- Isa 57:16For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me, with the breath of those I have made.
- Num 16:22But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the whole congregation?”
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Christ at the center
Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.
How Acts 17:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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