The New Bereans

Part Two – A Noble Application

This nobility attributed to the Berean’s, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is a double pronged assertion of truth from scripture.  We find in the book of proverbs the origin behind the Berean nobility.  “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.” Proverbs 25:2.  Solomon never knew his proverb would find a fulfillment in a group of people in Berea, hundreds of years post his demise.  The Holy Spirit did.  How thankful I am that scripture proves its consistency, and its worthiness of our pursuit.

Worth noting in this historical narrative is how many believed in Berea, as opposed to some who believed in Thessalonica.  I feel the Spirit placed this statement in Acts seventeen for a reason.  Wherever the word of God is being poured over, and studied, in order to prove that which is truthful in teaching, we will find an atmosphere conducive to salvation.  The student of God’s word is typically a catalyst for the movements of the Holy Spirit.  It is within this field that we find those Bereans acting as mighty spades, churning the soil, all the while oxygenating, and fertilizing the ground in order to create an environment where the seeds of truth can be broadcast to fruition.

We are told by the Apostle John that we are to “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.₁” Satan wants to sow tares among the wheat, I believe he does so in order to inhibit movements of God, and to prohibit true Christian growth. There are few ideas more dangerous than ideas mostly true, and partially subversive, and if a message is partially subversive, it is truly entirely subversive.  Christians who do not throw out water tainted with sewage do no one any good by drinking the contaminated water themselves.  How much worse is it when a Christian drinks raw theological sewage from a fire hose as it were? ­

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”  -Jude 3

What better way to contend for the faith than to be Bereans?  A Berean is not going to be easily swayed by every wind of doctrine, every smattering of satanic sewage.  Instead they will foster an atmosphere of salvation.

_{1. 1John 4:1}