Acts 14:15

And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good tidings, that ye should turn from these vain things unto a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is: who in the generations gone by suffered all the nations to walk in their own ways. And yet he left not himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.

This appeal to God as revealed in nature was appropriate for a pagan audience with little or no knowledge of the word of God; and there are a number of very important points in this speech. The fact that God is one, a unity, and that he created everything; also the fact of being, not a dead or inanimate god such as Zeus, but a living God; and likewise the goodness of God as revealed in his providential care of mortals - all these concepts appear in Paul's address here.

It is appropriate to note how many intimations of Paul's writings in his epistles are suggested by the words here. The reference to their "turning from these vain things to the living God" is like 1 Thessalonians 1:9; God's suffering "the nations to walk in their own ways" is like Romans 3:25, etc. The whole passage is so characteristically Pauline that any idea of Luke's putting these words in Paul's mouth is fantasy.