Engage Like a Berean
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
Look at what they call noble: they examined the scriptures to see if what Paul and Silas taught were true.
When we hear something new, or something we’ve heard before and we don’t like, a great test is to see how it sits with scripture. Anybody can have an opinion. Most people have several on the same topic that might even contradict their own opinions!
But looking at the scriptures levels the playing field. I once worked at a place where a lot of people would go to all different churches and then come back and complain to me about it on Mondays. I told them the same thing every week, bring a chapter and verse with your complaint and I’ll take you seriously.
What happened? It got those guys digging into their bibles and finding out that the thing that the pastor said wasn’t some crazy idea he pulled out of his ear — it was in the Bible.
As the synagogue in Berea heard these knew things about the Messiah, they stroked their beards and dug out the scrolls of the prophets. They talked to one another and asked for insight. They talked about Paul’s teachings all week long to see if what he said was true.
This is a far cry from shaking our heads over a Culver’s burger and moving on to whatever sports or drama event is going to happen later in the week. (I say that because that was my habit for years.)
When we investigate it, we grow. When we reason and interact with the scriptures, no matter what the teaching is, we’ll grow in Christ as we see if the scriptures point to the teaching or not.
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