We Need to Be More Like the Bereans

A classic scenario we’ve often seen is someone lying on a couch in a psychiatrist’s office saying, “Doctor, I hear voices.” These days, we’re all hearing voices: TV and radio talk shows; news commentary sometimes disguised as objective reporting; podcasts; social media; Internet diatribes. 

So many voices, one stating one thing, another saying something totally different. Kind of reminds me of the scene in the book of Acts when a mob in the city of Ephesus tried to disrupt the apostle Paul’s preaching: “The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there” (Acts 19:32). 

 

Living in our world of so many disparate voices can be just as confusing. Many of those most vocal are desperate to persuade us about what to think and how to interpret events all around us – in our communities, the nation, even the world. But the views expressed are so diverse, often diametrically opposed to each other. How are we to discern what’s right – or who’s right?

 

There are no simple answers, unfortunately. Even the spiritual realm can seem just as confounding. As was the case in ancient Ephesus, where “some were shouting one thing; some another,” we’re offered a smorgasbord of ideas and ideologies from which we can pick and choose, if we so desire.

 

Just a cursory comparison of the world’s religions reveals differences that can’t be reconciled. But even within Christianity we’re confronted with teachings that can leave us struggling to discern whose messages represent the truth. From what I’ve observed, some “teachers” apparently are drawing their conclusions from the books of Babylonians and 2 Opinions (which, spoiler alert, are not in the Bible). The question again arises, who are we to believe?

 

Another passage in the book of Acts offers guidance in how to distinguish between what’s true and what’s not. The apostle Paul, Silas, and those following them were on a mission trip, stopping in Thessalonica and then proceeding to Berea: “As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead” (Acts 17:2-3).

 

What Paul was preaching was the Gospel – literally, “good news” – which was eagerly received by some, but strongly opposed by others because what he was teaching was contrary to their well-established religious beliefs and practices. While some who heard Paul were convinced that what he taught was the truth, others formed a mob and started rioting to oppose him.

 

Then there were those who, similar to many of us today, simply wanted to carefully consider what he had to say and respond according to what they discovered. Among those were Jews in Berea. We’re told, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).

 

Rather than reacting negatively because the apostle’s teachings ran contrary to what they had always been taught or simply accepting his words ‘as gospel’ without any reservations, the Bereans chose the middle ground: They dug into the Scriptures – which at that time consisted only of the Old Testament – and compared what Paul was teaching with scriptural revelation.

 

We’d be wise to follow the example of the Bereans when we hear teachings from various apparently authoritative voices on matters such as theology, doctrine, morality, and their views about God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

 

We’re warned that “the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3). Even though these words were written many centuries ago, they ring true to this day. Sadly, many people ‘want the God they want,’ rather than truly seeking the God who is.

 

Hopefully you’re not among them. If your desire is to know the Lord and grow deeper in your walk and relationship with Him, “searching the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” is a healthy habit. We need to know which of the many voices out there are worth listening to.

 

Even if we belong to a body of believers where the Bible is revered and faithfully taught, it doesn’t hurt to check the Scriptures ourselves to confirm whether what Pastor So-and-So said is, in fact, so.

If indeed, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” as 2 Timothy 3:16 declares, as diligent truth-seekers we can trust the Lord to confirm or correct what we hear.

The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same

When I hear any discussion of social media, I have two distinctly different reactions. I believe social media have contributed significantly to the pervasive negativity and anxiety of our times, as well as a seeming groundswell of narcissism. However, social media serve a significant communications role and introduce us to a wide range of useful information we might not encounter in any other way. The trick is being able to distinguish between what’s useful and what’s unproductive.

 

William Booth
(Wikipedia photo)

Recently I came across one of the former, an intriguing quote by William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, that he made in the early 1900s: “The chief danger of the 20^th century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”

What I find most interesting about this is not just Booth’s specific points, but that this seems equally true in the 21^st century. Increasingly we hear people talking in terms of the God they want, rather than the God who is. Rather than regarding the Bible as the authoritative Word of God, many feel they have the license to treat biblical teachings as suggestions to be interpreted, redefined and applied according to their preferences and the prevailing winds of culture.

 

Times do change, no doubt. Styles of fashion, social customs, even vocabulary. Technology has become a major factor in our ever-shifting approach to everyday living. And yet, as we read in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Times may change, but our Creator God is unchanging. The same is true of His Word.

 

Even in biblical times there were those eager to distort and manipulate the Scriptures to accomplish their purposes. We see the apostle Paul warning two of his proteges, Timothy and Titus, to avoid the seduction of false teaching.

 

He cautioned Timothy, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:1). Do such stern words have a familiar ring for today?

 

I’ve previously referred to Paul’s prophetic words that, “the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine…they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear…” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

 

For this reason, he later exhorted young pastor Tim to, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). I like how another translation phrases it: “rightly dividing the word of truth.” It evokes the image of a farmer plowing a field in straight furrows, rather than frequently glancing behind him and creating an uneven path.

 

The apostle expressed similar concerns to Titus, who was ministering to believers in Crete. Paul wrote of the qualifications for spiritual leadership, including faithfulness to godly teaching: “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it” (Titus 1:9).

 

About the dangers of listening to false teachers, Paul declared, “They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach – and that for the sake of dishonest gain” (Titus 1:11). To counter this, he offered Titus this challenge: “You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1). 

 

Two thousand years later we find ourselves in similar circumstances. On TV, radio and from many pulpits, messages are given that seem straight out of the books of 1 and 2 Opinions. (They’re not in the Bible.) Seeking to be “woke,” or perhaps thinking that by diluting the message of the Gospel they can make Jesus more palatable, they’re promoting exactly what Booth warned against: a religion lacking the presence and power of the Holy Spirit; a Christ-less Christianity; forgiveness that requires no repentance; a salvation absent of becoming a new creation in Christ; a godless government, and no fear of eternal punishment for rejecting God’s gift of redemption.

 

We must never forget that we receive salvation and eternal life on God’s terms, not ours. As Jesus admonished, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). To state it another way, ‘Don’t follow the crowd. Follow Jesus.’