In 51 AD Paul, the great Apostle and missionary, was in the middle of his second missionary trip as recorded in Acts 15:36-18:22. He had already revisited the new churches started on his first mission trip of 48 AD. This time Paul and his team made it all the way to the western end of Asia-Minor, the eastern shore of the Aegean Sea, picking up Timothy on the way. Paul wanted to stay in Asia-Minor and go north to the area just south of the Black Sea, but God had other plans. God called Paul to go to Europe (Acts 16:6-10).
Paul and his team traveled by boat to the north shore for the Aegean Sea. They went to the cities of Philippi and Thessalonica, in Greece, teaching and preaching the gospel. He and his group had remarkable success seeing people come to Christ and planting new churches, but the missionary group also experienced much persecution to the point that Paul had to flee Thessalonica and go to Berea.
But something remarkable happened at Berea which causes us to stop and to spend this post assessing.
Acts 17:10–12 (ESV)
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.
Notice what it says about the Bereans, the Jewish Bereans: “Now these Jews were more noble.” We don’t see a statement like this about any other group anywhere in the Bible. The Greek word for “noble” is only used in two other places—Lk 19:12 and I Cor 1:26. This rare use of a word gets our attention. First, let’s look at the term “noble”: “εὐγενής (eugenoús): a willingness to learn and evaluate something fairly—willingness to learn, to be open-minded, to be noble-minded.” 1 They were not just noble, but more so than the Thessalonians. In what way? What did they do so differently from the Thessalonians and others for whom this term was never used?
Their nobleness can be seen as two very connected actions. First, “they received the word with all eagerness.” Compare this to Paul’s time in Thessalonica. There he preached for three weeks, having to reason with them, explain and prove the works of Christ before some of them were persuaded (Acts 17:1-4). These Bereans were “eager” to hear, to learn.
Yet their eagerness went even further, for it was not an eagerness to just hear a new teaching or for some new knowledge. Unlike the Athenians whom Paul would witness to next, the Bereans did not want to hear new and fascinating teachings to fire up their imaginations or to tweak their curiosity (Acts 17:21), but they took what Paul preached, examining it from the “Scriptures daily”! They wanted the Truth! Where was the truth? The Scriptures! So, they had to study; they were compelled to confirm that this “new” teaching was as old as the Scriptures.
Notice what happens next. They came to faith in Jesus! Jews and Greeks, women and men, those of low station and those of high position. The preaching of the Word, the studying of the Word will always have its affect. His word does not return void (Isaiah 55:11).
It should also be noticed they worked at it. They had to study diligently; it was not like they could google what Paul was teaching. They had to examine it. “Examine”: “ἀνακρίνω (anakrínō): to try to learn the nature or truth of something by the process of careful study, evaluation and judgment—to examine carefully, to investigate, to study thoroughly.” 2 They did this on a daily basis.
Where is our nobility? Would God say this of us? Do we hear a sermon, read a blog post, listen to a preacher on the radio or TV, or read a book, then go to the Bible daily until we have evaluated all teaching against the truths of God’s Word?
In the history of the Church, many attacks have come from those outside the Church; yet, the greatest danger the Body of Christ has faced has always been from within. This is especially true today in the American church: the progressive movement, health and wealth gospel, the name-it-and-claim-it preachers, and the ultra-charismatic groups are all undermining biblical doctrines. They are all spuing their false gospel with many in the Church buying it.
Do church people assess these teachings by analyzing them against what Scripture says? For far too many, No! They just say, “it sounds good,” “it makes me happy and encouraged,” and “they teach a loving god not the hateful god of the OT.” They are accepting the god of their own making, reacting against the god they imagine is in the OT, andcomparing him to the god of their fantasies. Notice we are using god with a little “g”, for it is not the true God of the Bible: not the LORD of Host but an idol of their own creation.
They don’t test the teaching against the truth of God’s Word. They test the Bible against false teachings. When the Bible disagrees with them, it is the Bible they ignore They reject the Word rather than the false prophets.
What is the solution? The solution of the Bereans: “examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
How do we accomplish this? First, above all, pray. Pray for the leading of the Holy Spirit (Prov 3:5-6; John 16:13-15). Second, spend every day in the Word. Just reading it. Don’t worry about understanding everything you read. Just read. Over time, increasingly, it will become clearer to you. Third, study the Bible. Take a book of the Bible, get a commentary or two, a good study Bible (one which helps with understanding, not one with just uplifting thoughts) and spend time working through one passage at a time. Unlike the reading above, this is slow. You want to understand what is being taught. Again, you may not get it all at first; but in time, with work, the Holy Spirt will get you there (2 Tim 2:15).
You should not only do this alone but with other believers. Get in a Bible-believing church, with a godly Bible-believing and Bible-teaching pastor, and a good Bible study group. You need the support and encouragement of fellow believers, pastors, and Bible teachers. We are a part of the Body of Christ, not “Lone Ranger” Christians. We need each other and are commanded to love each other (Heb 10 :19-25).
How do you pick a good church and Bible study group? As always, start by praying God will lead you to one and you will be discerning about them. There are some helpful questions to ask: do they acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity? Do they teach it was Jesus’ death and physical resurrection which brought His righteousness to us (I John 2:21-25)? Do they hold to the Bible—all of the Bible—as the sole authority for what is true (2 Tim 3:16)? If any of these questions are answered in the negative, go somewhere else. NOW! If even one answer is no, leave.
This is not the end. You have found a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching Church, have gotten involved in a good Bible study group, and are doing your Bible reading and Bible studying—personally and in the group. You now need to evaluate what is preached and taught each week by examining what the Bible says about it.
I love my church and pastor. They are truly a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching group of people, but my pastor is not perfect. He gets it wrong sometimes. So, I check out what he is saying against the Word. If he is wrong, I stick with the Bible. If I were wrong, I would change my thinking on the issue. I will sometimes go to my pastor to ask about the discrepancy, always being humble and respectful. It can at times be more of a matter of disagreement on interpretation or different emphasis. I may also have misunderstood his intended meaning. In cases when it is not foundational to Christ and His work, we can agree to disagree. Love should always abound.
However, when the issue is foundational to our faith, we must be ready and willing to leave. We may not leave on the first occasion; but if serious enough, or the errors are coming repeatedly, we need to leave this teacher’s influence. This will be hard.
Early in our marriage, Diann and I were in a church which was moving to unbiblical teachings. After talking to one of the pastors and much prayer, we knew we had to leave. It was not easy, as we had met and fallen in love at that church. We had many friends we loved and who loved us, but it was the right thing for us to do. You too can trust God and do what is right. Ignoring falsehood is never the answer.
So, this obscure group from this small town in Ancient Greece is our model: the Bereans. We stand on the truth of sola scriptura: Scripture alone. The Bible is our authority for life and practice of our faith. If anything disagrees with it, we must stand with the Bereans. We must stand on the Word. We must evaluate everything and everyone against the Word of God. The goal is that it may be said of us that we are “Being a Berean”!
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg
Photo Information: https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:V%26A_-Raphael,_St_Paul_Preaching_in_Athens(1515).jpg
- Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 331.
- Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 330.