Loving a people and place requires study of it, seeking to know and understand its complexities, past, present, hopes, fears, beliefs and objections. In Acts 17, Paul relentlessly studies the cultural context of Athens. He studies their way of life in an effort to better understand the people to which he’s been called. In seeking to know them, he looks at their behaviors but also beyond them to compassionately investigate their motivations, their deepest longings, and their most pertinent questions. When we participate in this cultural exegesis, we are better equipped to identify both the beauty and the brokenness before us and respond in Gospel-centered and contextualized ways.