Noble Bereans
Noble character
We read in Acts 17:11, “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” This statement raises the question, “According to the Bible, what makes a noble character?”
The two features of noble character in this passage are 1) receiving the message with eagerness and 2) examining the scriptures to verify what Paul was saying. The Bereans did not automatically reject Paul’s message; after all everyone knows that people don’t rise from the dead, and yet this is what Paul claimed (Acts 17:32). And they also did not just naively swallow what Paul was saying hook, line and sinker. They persistently (“every day”) verified it.
We need more noble-minded people today, don’t we? Although we are inundated with media opinions about people and ideas, some of what is reported as fact is really opinion or even is false. We seem all too eager to listen to only what supports our beliefs and opinions (a friend called this our “bubble”) and to deny or even acknowledge the existence of confounding evidence. Internet search engines seem programmed to support this common bias. We are especially prone to this way of thinking in the political world and what ordinary people like you and me believe about politics. The Bible does not consider such a mindset as noble, especially as it pertains to matters of faith.
Hastily rejecting what someone says or writes simply because we have a preconceived notion is condemned by the Bible. “To answer before listening—that is folly and shame” (Proverbs 18:13). “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” (John 7:51).
The Bereans examined the scriptures (this would have been what we call the Old Testament) to see if they supported what Paul was telling them. Ronald Reagan famously said, “Trust but verify,” apparently a variation on a Russian proverb. He was open to trusting his political opponent, but not blindly.
Today, people, including devout Christians, need to “eagerly receive” God’s word (this is noble) and also to verify that it really is God’s word (this, too, is noble). “Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where it is silent, we are silent” according to Thomas Campbell (1763-1854).
Let us, like the Bereans receive the word of God eagerly—and also verify that it really is God’s word.
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